#kaladin edgedancer au

[thatboreddrake]

So, do y'all remember a while back I made a post about a Stormlight AU where Kaladin becomes an Edgedancer instead of a Windrunner? So that idea was bouncing around in my head, and @catcas22 and I wanted to put down some bullet points of how this would actually change the story:

Kaladin goes off to study as a surgeon in Kharbranth before Amaram comes recruiting

Roshone drafts Tien, but Lirin elects not to send word to Kaladin, as he fears that Kaladin would quit his training and return if he knew

Kaladin gains a reputation as one of the more promising surgeons in Kharbranth

Eventually, one of his patients gets transferred to Taravingian's secret Diagram project (so they can drain their blood for a Death Rattle)

Kaladin, naturally, wants to stay with them and make sure they recover

He's told to "forget about them and move on to the next patient"

He can't accept that, so he starts digging into where the patients are being transferred to (with the help of an unusually talkative spren)

He is interrupted from his investigations by a request to help heal an important foreign dignitary from a strange form of poison

His path intersects with Jasnah and Shallan while he helps Shallan recover from Kabsal's attempted assassination

Over the course of her recovery, Kaladin confides in Jasnah his worries about Taravingian, and enlists the two of them in helping him get to the bottom of it

The three of them use Jasnah's Soulcasting to break into the underground facility

Kaladin freezes when he realizes what Taravingian has been doing and desperately starts trying to heal the people who are having their blood drawn

Kaladin swears his Second Ideal in attempting to escape Kharbranth with the captives

Kaladin, Jasnah, and Shallan depart for the Shattered Plains with as many of the captives as their ship can carry

Meanwhile, in northern Alethkar:

Tien breaks in battle and tries to run away using Lightweaving (Sanderson has confirmed that Tien was some level of Lightweaver)

Tien is captured, then sold into slavery on the Shattered Plains because Amaram decides he's too much trouble

Without Kaladin there to save him, Amaram is killed by nascent Skybreaker Helaran

Helaran gets word that the Surgebinder in Amaram's army is still at large, and heads for the Shattered Plains

Now, on the Shattered Plains:

Tien ends up in the Bridge Crews on Bridge Four (because you gotta have Bridge Four)

While returning from the greatshell hunt, Bridge Four is sent to help the Kholins return to camp

Adolin strikes up a conversation with Tien, as he reminds him of Renarin in a way

Moash arrives on the bridge crews and decides he's going to organize the crews so that they can have a chance at escaping slavery

Adolin notices that an oddly intelligent windspren with a mischievous streak has begun following him around

His conversation with Tien and the rest of Bridge Four has him realize just how bad the situation is under Sadeas for the bridgemen

While considering what to do, he discovers that Tien died on one of the bridge runs

At the urging of his windspren friend, Adolin defies Dalinar's wishes and takes up dueling again, seeking to gain a chance to challenge Sadeas for the freedom of the Bridge Crews

Dalinar is furious and strips Adolin of Plate and Blade, effectively benching him for the rest of the book

When Dalinar leaves for the Tower with Sadeas, he leaves Adolin behind

Adolin refuses to stand by and takes his personal guards to follow after Dalinar, recruiting an off-duty Bridge Four to help him get there

Moash agrees, as he figures that eluding one lighteyes would be far easier than escaping the whole army

Adolin encounters Sadeas's forces on their way back and orders a double-time march to try and save the Kholinar forces if he can

He arrives at the Tower in time to see the Kholinar forces routed and swears the Second Ideal of the Windrunners in a desperate bid to save his army and his father

Moash rethinks his plan after seeing a lighteyes leap, essentially unarmed, across a canyon to try and save his men

Bridge Four establishes an escape route, but the Kholinar forces are decimated by the Parshendi

Adolin fails to find his father, who has been captured and brought back to Narak by Eshonai

Suddenly finding himself to be highprince of Kholinar, Adolin surrenders his Shardblade, which has begun to scream whenever he touches it, in exchange for the bridge crews's freedom

And that's everything that changes for the Way of Kings! I'll go more into Words of Radiance/Oathbringer later, but that's what I have for now!

[catcas22]

"I will protect even those that I hate, so long as it is right."

Please pretend that mess of fire is shaped somewhat like a Windrunner glyph.

From @thatboreddrake's Edgedancer Kaladin/Adolin Windrunner AU.

[free-the-safehands]

Presumably some healthcare professionals in Kharbranth were not involved in the death rattle thing, like it's a city known for its hospitals and i think just the one kings secret room has the creepy doctors?

Rereading TWoK again -- yes, it's a compulsion but those are my emotional support characters lol -- and it struck me.

Kaladin was supposed to go train Kharbranth if he hadn't joined the army. Where Taravangian's surgeons were murdering people for their death rattles.

What a drastic fucking fork that is.

[nevertheless-moving]

don't mind me, I have been slightly obsessing over your Stormlight aus.... in your au #17 with Kaladin having the honour blade, would he try to use it to heal people... ai give them the blade, teach them to use stormlight rinse and repeat? or would that not be allowed by lighteyes?

Man, I totally had the same idea. Kaladin walking through the infirmaries healing everybody by passing the blade around, lighteyes getting offended over the casual handing over of the mystical object to random people, him doing it anyway, the ardentia freaking out over the miracles, someone trying to steal the blade, Kaladin using his redundant windrunner powers to chase them down ...

Unfortunately I looked it up and WOB/Szeth internal monologue confirms in universe that honorblades don't confer the same healing abilities as an actual Radiant bond — explicit in the text, they can't heal wounds from shardblades, and a broken jaw took hours and a lot of stormlight to heal, so presumably any other serious injuries are out as well. I imagine he tries it with Hobber first and everyone's pretty disappointed when it doesn't work.

I mean it's helpful in a fight, and he might use it a bit for that purpose, but it's not nearly the same efficiency as Nahel bond or Edgedancer healing. I think Szeth was just in a lot of pain during his fights (which probably wasn't helping his mental state).

In the 17A version where Kaladin's been outed as windrunner but also has a cool sword that does the same thing as what he could already do, but worse, it's sort of a funny excuse during training to not be as good as Kaladin at stuff, because sure that's the reason.

In the 17B version where Kaladin's still hiding his actual radiant status, they pass the discrepancy off (he very publicly healed from shardblade injuries) as him being the actual bonded owner of the blade and everyone else who holds it gets a reduced version of its powerset. (The sword is extremely high magic in a currently low magic setting! No one knows the rules, okay!) If anyone actually asks about fully passing the blade off for real free healing, which probably wouldn't happen very often (why would you ever give away a shardblade) then he would tell them they tried but the blade 'chose him' because sure why not who storming knows what's up with this freaking guy and his freaking sword.

[jamin007]

I feel like Rosharans would LOVE (American) football and would be so good at it

Bondsmiths kinda have the perfect pair of abilities for a football player. Tension to take tackles better and Adhesion to hold onto the ball better. Too bad that they would be more suited to being a coach and are also limited to 3 (or 4 if Ba Ado Mishram is cool like that?)

Windrunners on the other hand would be insane receivers specifically, since they keep Adhesion to hold on better and pair it with huge jumps uninhibited by gravity (assuming straight up flying would be banned). The catches would be insane

Stonewards would be great lineman, both offensive and defensive, but especially offensive lineman. Holding the line and not breaking is like their whole thing

A good Edgerunner/Dustbringer who could balance Abrasion to increase and decrease friction appropriately could be an amazing runningback to slip through defensive lines while not letting the ball slip out. They could also be good quarterbacks and throw the ball with no air resistance

The Adolin (Edgedancer) Quarterback/Kaladin Wide Receiver combo would be legendary (you're welcome highschool AU fic writers)

Healing means injuries aren't really a thing which alleviates the more problematic issues of the sport. They might not even really need padding since holding stormlight makes you more durable, but they have shardplate anyways. Or even just carapace for the Singers (the football spren would grant them sports form)

Anyways, I patiently await the modern age of Rosharan society when they realize they can still do wars and be honorable, but in the controlled environment or professional sports

[jewishdainix]

Anyone wanna hear about my stormlight au where kaladin and tien dont get receuited to the military and kaladin goes to karbaranth where he bonds with a spren and becomes an edgedancer and goes to study under jasnah under the guise of a woman (oops hes genderfluid now) and befriends shallan once she gets there

[cosmereplay]

Uh you got any more of those... Gender.. cosmere fics..?

That nb kaladin and lift fic was so good pls

✨✨DO I!✨✨

An Early Ideal, An Unexpected Truth by TrishHankins

Rated Teen, 17,000 words, Oathbringer, CW suicidal thoughts

Transfem Elhokar, nonbinary transfemme Adolin

This fic follows an alternate canon and it has a thoughtful and loving portrayal of Elhokar's transition to Kari that doesn't shy away from difficult topics. And it has a happy ending!

***

Perceptions of Self by Wandering_Channeler

Rated General, 1000 words, Oathbringer

Nonbinary Nightblood

Nightblood wants to try to understand pronouns and gender, and asks various people to explain. This one's funny and sweet!

***

Series: [slaps cosmere] this baby can fit so many gender by werealldreaming

(only visible to logged in ao3 users), 4 fics, all rated General.

Transfem Kaladin; nonbinary Vivenna; transmasc Spook; nonbinary Lift.

Short and impactful moments throughout the cosmere, I'm linking to the whole series so you can read them all in one sitting.

***

Unto Themself by freoduweard

Rated General, 1000 words, Oathbringer

Nonbinary Renarin?

A mother has questions and worries about her child, who may face many challenges as they grow.

***

Self-Soulcasting by TrishHankins

Rated Mature, 18,000 words, WoR canon divergence

Transfem Kaladin

Kaladin ends up in Kharbranth to finish her training, and happens upon a young woman who is in training as a scholar. Spats, pins, and friendship (maybe other things too?) ensue. It's a smart and tender fic that takes great care with characterization. Also it has amazing epigraphs from an in world book about gender and transitioning called Self-Soulcasting. So good!

***

An Edgedancer's Tale by Susanoko

Rated Mature for violence, 22,000 words, set in Alethkar without references to canon events, CW well-marked descriptions of self harm/suicide

Transfem OC Radiant

Thalkum is a ranked duelist in the city of Rashir. His overbearing father wants him to compete harder, and something inside Thalkum breaks. Fortunately, he...she discovers good friends and a spren named Willow, who help fill the cracks. This fic is quite dark at times, which makes the moments of celebration shine all the brighter.

***

Urithiru Pride by Wandering_Channeler

Rated General, 1000 words, references RoW

Nonbinary Lift

Just a fun crack fic! Dalinar and Szeth are not invited but just about everyone else is!!

***

I want to learn to love the way you love by taleisinlefay

Rated Explicit, 6000 words, no spoilers iirc, CW oblique references to past sexual abuse

Transmasc OC

Taleisin and Kaladin confess their love and have gender affirming sex. Just very sweet

***

And of course the ones mentioned in the replies to that original post:

A journey of self-discovery by Wandering_Channeler

Rated Teen, 19,000 words, canon divergence around RoW era

Nonbinary Kaladin, nonbinary Lift

Kaladin unexpectedly finds a community, and they help them figure out what's been feeling off.

***

A Strapping Young Man by whoreship

Rated Explicit, 5000 words, modern AU

Transmasc Renarin

Renarin buys sex toys and figures out how to use them in a way that gives him gender euphoria. This fic has such a special place in my heart

[sorchasolas]

1. I was debating whether or not to make him a Windrunner. On one hand, i love Syl SO much and i hate to part her from Kal. On the other hand, Edgedancer(or Willshaper if u rlly wanted Jasnah to be able to mentor Kal on a surge) Kaladin isnt something thats explored as much (he doesnt fit the bill AT ALL but how cool would Elsecaller Kal be) so im still on the fence to what to do abt that

2. Kal would have Shallan’s siblings—i debated genderswapping them to keep the nuance of “youngest differently gendered kid in a family where all the other siblings are the other gender” or smth like that, but i decided against it. In this AU, they wouldnt be relying on Kaladin fully— to them hes just the youngest boy and to them hes going off to chase around Jasnah for some unknown reason

3.Jansah ABSOLUTELY pushed for Shallan to be the heir— Dalinar obviously did not come up with that idea on his own. I think they’d have a relationship still like in canon, but without the undertones of a wardship— Shallan would see Jasnah as a guiding figure, much like a big sister. Jasnah would, in public, make sure to treat Shallan like the heir she is so people don’t loose respect for Shallan, but behind closed doors Shallan would defer to Jasnah at a certain level— honestly like everyone else does.

Roleswap fic but Kaladin is the youngest son in the Davar family, and goes to Jasnah not to steal from her but because he genuinely wants to learn to read and such, but doesn’t want to become an ardent so he can get money to save his family

Adolin is the son of Lirin & Hesina, he joins the army at 15 of his own volition, and accepts the shardplate when given (for plot purposes it’s Maya)

Shallan is the oldest daughter of the Kholin family who, while being a woman, still gets the title of heir due to Renarin abdicating (unfortunately most of the family pushed for it and he did it as soon as he was old enough to understand what he was doing) and thus gets Evi’s shardplate

[transkholins]

[Image description: Three traditional paintings lined with black pen. All three depict characters from The Stormlight Archive in the setting of Pacific Rim. The first is of Kaladin and Syl, standing on a set of metal stairs. They are seen from the waist up and are wearing white armor with blue accents. Syl, a young woman with dark brown skin and kinky hair dyed light blue, is in the forefront. She's grinning and giving the camera a peace sign. Kaladin stands behind her, several steps up. He's a young man with brown skin and curly hair pulled back into a ponytail, and he's smiling and waving at the camera.

The second image is of Adolin and Dalinar, done in a sort of on-site television interview style -- there are lights, cameras, and a roughly rendered crowd of people behind them, with microphones peeking in at the bottom edge. Both of them wear unpainted grey armor. Adolin, a young man with light brown skin and bleached-blonde hair with dark roots showing, is on the left half of the image and is facing the camera. He's smiling, saying something to the camera, with a hand on his chest. Dalinar is on his right, facing away and talking to someone off-screen. He's an older man with a scarred face, brown skin, and greying black hair.

The third image is of Lift and Wyndle. The black lineart on this piece is thicker and less detailed. Their armor is similar to Adolin and Dalinar's, but is a slightly lighter grey. Lift, a kid with brown skin and straight brown hair pulled back into a braid, is looking off to the right, grinning, and giving someone a thumbs up. Wyndle, depicted as a man with dark brown skin and short hair, has a hand on Lift's shoulder. He smiles softly and looks off to the right. To his left, the word "Edgedancer" has been written in all caps. Below it is the Edgedancer symbol. The background has been painted a light brown. End ID.]

keep thinkin abt a pacific rim au...

[thatboreddrake]

Stormlight AU where Tien doesn’t get drafted to fight a pointless war. Kaladin gets to go and study to become a surgeon at Karbranth. Instead of Syl, he ends up attracting the attention of a cultivationspren and becoming a nascent Edgedancer. He becomes catapulted into Plot(TM) when one of his patients gets transferred to Taravingian’s sketchy future sight division.

Idk I just like the idea of a Kaladin who doesn’t have to angst about when to kill and when to save, he can just focus on saving and healing those in need. You cannot tell me that Roshar’s #1 Union organizer wouldn’t swear to “remember those who have been forgotten.” Also Surgeon Kaladin getting to use Regrowth powers would be very fun.

Taravingian: “Why do I hear Eurobeat music?”

Edgedancer Kaladin who has been picking up speed and gliding across half a continent:

[catcas22]

In @thatboreddrake's Kaladin Edgedancer AU, Eshonai survives long enough to compare notes with the surviving Kholins.

Jasnah: You expect me to believe that my father deliberately tried to trigger the Desolation?

Eshonai: Yes, him and a Highmarshal called Amaram.

Jasnah: ...

Jasnah: Seems legit.

... Out of all the suits of armor I've drawn, I think this one is my favorite.

[youngmasterwisdomperson]

Au where Vin is born on Roshar and Kelsier is her honorspren who encourages her to overthrow unjust governmental systems and Idk maybe kill god on the way.

I was rereading Well of Ascension and...

…found a phrase looking very much like Words from a certain order of Knight:

Honestly, one of my favourite parts of rereading all of the cosmere works back to back is seeing these grand themes of Brandon’s that run through all his writing!!

[chaos-is-my-lifeblood]

Modern AU Kaladin

He’d always aspired to the archetype of the Protector, but in modern society there was no room for the honorable battles he admired. Sure, being a doctor like his dad wanted could save people, but there was something missing in such a career. He wanted to inspire, to save peoples’ souls. To be that light for others, as the role of Tien’s protector has been to him on his darkest days.

He was several years short of college age when Syl first appeared to him. She was cheerful, absentminded, yet understood him better than he himself did sometimes. He told her his deepest fears, and still she stayed.

He started going to med school as Lirin suggested. It was fine, but it didn’t have any heart to it. Doctors only worked small cases, since Edgedancers and Truthwatchers were reserved for severe injuries. So he trained on the side, imagining he was a fighter for a grand cause. Syl always seemed brighter when he lived in the moment, when his mind had no thought beyond protect.

When Tien died, he stopped. He knew his depression was bad, but the knowledge that he was not there for Tien crushed him. Those few months of misery were a blur, afterward. Syl told him that his neglect of his goal to protect hurt her, too. He was horrified that he caused harm to another, on top of Tien. He vowed to do better.

He started soul searching, questioning what career could make him feel alive without threatening to crush him with every failure. He remembered those dreams of glorious battles fought in defense of peoples’ lives, of showing that inner light he so desperately wanted. He formed Syl into a spear and moved as he had trained to those earlier years, in a graceful dance. He decided.

As an actor, Kaladin could finally unleash the emotions he felt so strongly. He could ham it up, be as dramatic as he wanted, and it was just another part of his character. He could feel the rush of fighting to protect, without the fear of failure plaguing him. It was wonderful. He fell in love with the freedom he had craved for all his life. There were friends all around him, coworkers and that obnoxious tailor who helped him when he slipped up. And, of course, Syl was there by his side. 

Kaladin smiled.

[kingjasnah]

Wait wait wait tell me more about tortall stormlight au I'm already ;_; about windrunner keladry

oh my god yes ok so OBVIOUSLY windrunner kel, love of my life, her whole thing is protection and her main weapon is a big polearm and also she's 6 ft tall. she's basically kaladin but with emotional intelligence. also.....in this au that no one is going to write her big thing would ofc have to be getting over her fear of heights while also zipping around

i think alanna should be a healing class despite everything about her. i actually....think she'd make a good but interesting edgedancer, especially considering that everyone she fights is like bro how are you so small and so fast....the lady is slippery. on that vein: neal is still healing class but more of a truthwatcher....

jon is tough. elsecaller vibes as a young adult but straight up dalinar bondsmith vibes as king. ah who else do i care deeply about.....windrunner raoul.....i was actually torn between lightweaver or elsecaller thom partly cause i think lightweaver is a very skewed possibility for alanna as well, but thom.... elsecaller. dustbringer roger. wow i feel so bad i can't in depth diagnose any of Kel's classmates but they seem a bit more her squires sometimes considering her anti bullying club. omg omg omg omg skybreaker wyldon

[radiantmists]

rhythm of war part two thoughts

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa  (spoilers through the second interludes under the cut, and at the very bottom some comments based on what i have to assume is a major spoiler for the entire book, or close to it, though i'm warning again beforehand.)

well, last things first: taravangian's working against odium! i'm super excited about this, and very happy about the support for the concept that Taravangian's compassion isn't his curse, it's just the division of his intelligence and compassion that's sthe problem.

so we've been able to talk to the sibling, who is mostly trying to help despite genuinely feeling that what navani is doing is wrong. except now they're locked away, and navani is under the direct scrutiny of rabaniel and messing around with her is going to be risky. that being said, we're on our way to some very interesting revelations about how investiture works on roshar:

the stormfather is purely of honor. the sibling is a mix of honor and cultivation. the nightwatcher is purely cultivation

the sibling should not be able to function on pure stormlight, because it's purely of honor.

lift may not run on stormlight at all-- we already knew she can't pull it from spheres.

adhesion, which is somehow a fake surge and purely of honor, is not totally cancelled by whatever rabaniel did to the sibling. from lift's interlude, neither is regrowth when she uses it, which if i had to pick is the surge i would choose to be purely of cultivation.

as far as we can tell, people can still draw in stormlight with no issue, they just cant use it to power surges.

windrunners, who bond honorspren, are less affected by the fabrial: this applies especially to kaladin and syl, and we know syl is different from other honorspren, older. my money is that she's in some way more fully of honor than the others. lift, who's been hugely modified by cultivation directly, is also immune. the edgedancers as a whole are not immune and apparently are reacting as badly as anyone else.

...syl notes in the last set of interludes that she's different from other honorspren, mentally. is this a byproduct of whatever she did to sneak out of shadesmar, or of her being older? interesting.

To me, this all implies that whatever rabaniel did interferes with how cultivation and honor interact. lift, who seemingly only uses cultivation's investiture, can power the surge that seems most directly associated with cultivation; kaladin, probably closest to honor, can do the surge that seems to be entirely honor. the regular edgedancers aren't immune at all because they run on stormlight; the windrunners are somewhat but not fully immune because they're almost fully of honor, but cultivation likely had some hand in the way honorspren were made after the shattering.

Regrowth really is a very odd surge, compared to the others, which seem to deal with much more fundamental physical forces.

the fused do have access to regrowth while powered by voidlight, though. interesting.

speaking of: did navani's weird sphere contain some kind of... cultivationlight? or maybe it's some kind of combination, and that's why the sphere exploded right around the time of rabiniel's experiments (or the sibling was drawing on it somehow?)

on a more immediate level, the current tower resistance is as follows: navani, under constant monitoring but she has the best chance to figure out how to fix this shit. kaladin, who's a mess, being hunted by the pursuer, and who's about to start getting suicide-baiting nightmares from odium, but he does know how to fight! lift, who's amazing and knows how to sneak around the tower but is being hunted by someone who i assume has to be mraize. and rlain, masquerading as a singer (im so worried about him i hope he's okay).

if this somehow ends with kaladin killing mraize to protect lift before he can give shallan answers, i'm going to fucking SCREAM.

speaking of frustrating things: lirin turn on ur location i just wanna talk. Kaladin was actually rebuilding himself until this whole invasion thing, and i don't understand how lirin can look at a man who's that committed to doing good, sees exactly what it is that drives him to kill, and then calls him a monster.

I loved Kaladin's efforts to deal with mental health care! He's in the unique position ofhaving way more political power than any medical professional, darkeyes, or mentally ill person could ever have hoped to have, and I really want to see him come back to this once the world is burning down a bit less again, especially because it genuinely seemed to be helping him.

navani's plots have sorta been subsumed into this whole plotline, but i enjoyed what we got-- the little episode with the other scholars taking bets on whether she'd use tomor's fabrial was adorable, and i also liked how clear it is that they look to her to make things work.

moving on, uh... shadesmar stuff.

adolin's making some progress at waking maya! she doesn't talk but she shows a clearly unusual ability to learn and make independent decisions. i love it.

...also the thing with notum's horse implies that ryshadium are sentient enough to imagine spren. that's fun, and also terrifying.

adolin offering to stand trial for the crimes of humanity is fascinating, but all i'm thinking about is the episode of avatar where he agrees to stand trial for kyoshi, except in this case we already know that humanity did actually do the thing he's in trouble for. it would be unjust to punish adolin for it, but... i worry.

especially because there are, apparently, new deadeyes. this isn't extraordinarily surprising as syl was two skips away from death (though, im curious, does it work differently if the spren's never been a blade prior to dying? or are there just deadeyes wandering around who aren't tied to blades?) but it is very alarming.

and then there's the other thing: pattern is lying to shallan. i frankly don't think it's as simple as him being a spy for the ghostbloods; we saw even here that he's a terrible liar, and to have concealed this he'd have to have been pretty impressive.

on the other hand there was clearly some shit going on between shallan, her family, and the ghostbloods when she first got pattern. he's admitted that he has more exposure to humans than most spren. it doesn't look great, honestly.

i also appreciate that brandon is acknowledging how fucking weird shallan's timeline is. hopefully we get some answers about this.

adolin and shallan's relationship continues to be adorable; the sequence with the starspren is lovely and i totally get why it's brandon's favorite chapter in this part. between this and part one, he clearly enjoyed how the shadolin came out in this book and i agree. the fact that his romances continue after the marriage, with issues beyond just jealousy, is one of my favorite things about sanderson books.

venli's whole set of pov's this part was about walking up to urithiru. i really do want to like her, but she spends a ton of time just following more dynamic characters around and observing in these first two parts, and if not for the juicy secrets rabaniel's been dropping, it would make me just want to get back to other characters. hopefully that'll change in the next few parts.

i was going to make a comment about how we havent even had flashbacks yet, but i just glanced at the POVs for the next part, so I guess those are coming. I do wonder if these eshonai flashbacks will be info venli knows, or what.

she did kill someone for the first time, and attuned the rhythm of the lost for the dead man. the whole incident disturbs her, and i appreciated that as the rest of our viewpoint characters are extremely accustomed to death. i'm interested in seeing how this affects her going forward.

the epigraphs are so exciting! sazed is writing to hoid again, but this time he's gotten his bearings and spoken to some new shards... ones we haven't heard from before! also he asks hoid to say hi when he's on scadrial, which, fair enough tbh. i dont remember whether hoid shows up much in mistborn era 2 but for some reason i have the feeling he is not going to oblige this request.

the epigraph where sazed mentions he wants someone who can both preserve and kill immediately made me think of kaladin. (i think this is what he ends up trying to do with wax, but shhhh) he and sazed would agree on a lot of things philosophically, i think. (omg au where kaladin ends up working for sazed?? i have no idea how this would work the idea just fascinates me.

...where are the heralds? did dalinar take them with him, or are they in the tower? if the latter, are they also passed out? probably not, since they're not radiants, right? although whatever they are is very investiture-dependent so who knows. vasher's probably alright.

why is odium afraid of nightblood? is he worried it could eat him?

lots of POVs for the next part, but no shadesmar crew, so i guess we'll find out whether adolin gets executed by honorspren later. i do wonder why so many pov's from the battlefront; i guess something more is going to happen along those lines than i'd really expected. crossed fingers for some actual insight into renarin, finally.

in light of said spoiler: holy god i hope that division (between taravangian's intelligence and compassion) doesn't continue, though I have the horrible feeling that it will. This puts sazed's discussion of the intent of a shard combined with the cleverness of its vessel into a terrifying light: a godlike being who is at his smartest when he's a complete sociopath is like, the worst case scenario,  not even taking into account that the odium shard is uniquely suited to make people act on impulses. this is so bad.

but i can't know the full extent of that until i read the context, so let's move on!

[velkynkarma]

We only have 3/10 books of the series so far ... but what do you think about a Stormlight Archive AU for the 5+ headcanons?

Oh my goodness yes if there’s one thing I am absolutely certain about it’s Brandon Sanderson novels always make great Voltron Crossover AU’s. This is  longer than 5 for sure, so I’m putting in a cut because it’s Long and I Can’t Stop Myself.

I hope all 2 people who understand this enjoy it

Highprince Alfor is one of the ten Alethi highprinces leading an assault on the Shattered Plains, alongside several others, including Highprinces Zarkon, Blaytz, and Gyrgan. Trigel is also a leading force behind her own army and the Dalterion princedom, but due to the gendred nature of Alethkar and war and combat being considered a man’s profession, she is basically the power behind the highprince’s throne but uses a male figurehead to do the actual warring.

Highprince Alfor is considered rather...unfashionable and perhaps a little scandalous for an Alethi highprince. 

Although like many of his countrymen he is brash enough to rush into battle sometimes without thinking, or considering overall strategy, he also does not fit the Alethi mold completely. He fights alongside his men despite having a shardblade and shardplate, rather than letting them be cannon fodder before he takes on the weakened enemies for the final kills. 

He’s been witnessed treating darkeyes with respect and camaraderie, even as a brightlord and a highprince. 

And perhaps most scandalous of all, there are rumors that he can read, despite it being a distinctly female skill, and that he finds interests in other female areas of study like sciences. 

As a result he’s something of a joke amongst many of the other highprinces, although he remains good friends with Blaytz, Gyrgan and Trigel. 

He and Zarkon used to be good friends and once worked together to unify a great deal of the land into modern Alethkar, but have grown apart after Alfor found Zarkon growing too bloodthirsty even for an Alethi highprince.

Alfor’s daughter, Brightlady Allura, is much like her father. 

Refusing to conform completely to Alethi practice, she does not hesitate to speak her mind about the foolishness of continuing the battle on the Shattered Plains for more than ten years. The games for the gemhearts are ridiculous in her opinion; they should strike quickly and efficiently as a full military force to actually win the battle. Her thoughts on military strategy are often disregarded, as it is not considered a female practice, although Alfor respects her intelligence when it comes to military combat considerably. 

Allura has of course mastered most feminine arts required of her as a Brightlady, including fashion, arts (though she is somewhat lacking here), sciences (her favorite), scholarship, history, music, language, writing, and logic, and she scribes for her father personally. But there are rumors that, like her father, she scandalously disregards Vorin tradition and actually trains in weapons in her spare time, behind closed doors. And not even lighteyed weapons like swords! She trains with common darkeyed things like spears! Allura maintains perfect poise and composure in public, but even so, by now the rumors surrounding House Altea make more than one person regard them like they have no head. 

When intrigue in the warcamps grows stronger and strange things begin happening, Allura begins to attract the attention of certain...otherworldly, conceptual beings. 

Realistically speaking, Allura’s Voltron powers would suggest she would be either an Edgedancer or a Truthwatcher, since either one has access to the surge of Progression, which grants healing and growth powers. Of those, Truthwatcher would probably match more, as it also grants illusion and sometimes future sight, and its spren appears like a shaft or glimmer of light. 

That said, I also adore the idea of Allura being a Bondsmith because can you just fucking imagine her bonding the Stormfather, forming spiritual connections with others, literally doing what she does in canon by bonding large groups into a cohesive whole for one united purpose, and also fucking refueling everyone with Stormlight/Quintessence when they’re on empty like the badass woman she is.

Like seriously just look at the bondsmith ideals. “I will unite instead of divide. I will bring men together.” “I will take responsibility for what I have done. If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” Allura as bondsmith, yes plz.

I like to reforge a little of a story when I do these AU crossovers but honestly, Kaladin’s story is a near perfect match for what I’d do with Shiro, anyway. 

Shiro originally joins the army so he has opportunity to leave his little farming village. Although most assume his Calling is that of a soldier, which is a perfectly respectable male Calling, what he actually wants to do is explore and see the world beyond his village. Joining the army will let him see other places and earn enough spheres to travel on his own once his enlistment is up. 

Unfortunately he is captured in a border skirmish and through increasing bouts of bad luck, ends up as a slave in House Daibazaal’s army. Bridge FourFivebecauseofthelionsgetit is not a great place to be and most people end up as canon fodder during the battles for the gemhearts.

Despite things looking really, really bad, Shiro is still determined to get out of this situation. Alive. With as many people as possible. Running is no good; the soldiers keep a good eye on the slaves. Nobody gives a damn about them; they’re just bridge slaves destined to be used as bait during the gemheart strikes. But Shiro has a way about him of encouraging people to do their best. He looks out for his fellow bridge crew even if they don’t care much about him in return, at first. People just feel like they can live through something if he’s leading them. They trust him. More and more slaves rally to his call and listen to his orders. They start calling him their Champion. Not everyone makes it every time, but more survive than anticipated. A sense of camaraderie starts to form. And even though it would be really easy to give up and abandon them all, or just stop caring every time somebody dies, Shiro doesn’t let himself.

Because of his actions, Shiro starts attracting honorspren, and eventually bonds to one. Because Shiro needs to fly, damn it, and I can’t see him being a Skybreaker; they’re a little too Law and Order levels of paladin. Shiro is definitely a Windrunner. Just look at those oaths! “I will protect those who cannot protect themselves” is literally what he does in canon against Myzax. “I will protect even those I hate, so long as it is right.” Shiro’s done this too in canon; he’s worked with people who had previously been enemies or protected characters that have clearly irritated him.

Keith is originally an orphan who ended up joining the army mostly so he wouldn’t starve to death. He originally is recruited as a page/runner, but in a particularly bad border skirmish he ends up getting put on the front lines, despite having very little training with spears. 

(He does actually have some weapons training, with swords and knives, but he’s a darkeyes, so nobody is supposed to know that. ‘Don’t tell anyone you know how to do this,’ his mother and father repeatedly told him, while he was still alive. ‘They will wonder what rules you broke and you will get in trouble. Don’t ever trust a lighteyes). 

Keith is positive he’s going to die that day, but Shiro actually saves his life on the battlefield. Afterwards, Shiro looks out for him for the six months or so they’re both in the same army together. It’s the first time anybody has ever cared about Keith at all since his parents died and he grows incredibly loyal to Shiro because of it.

When Shiro is captured Keith is devastated and basically tries to go AWOL. He’s caught and reprimanded repeatedly but keeps trying to run, until he’s eventually stripped of rank and cast into slavery. He’s a rebellious slave even then, constantly trying to run, and not worth the time of most slavers, so he eventually gets shipped out to the Shattered Plains where he won’t be able to escape and will probably die as fodder anyway

This ends up working out well for Keith, as he ends up stuck in Bridge Five where the lowest of the low slaves go, and finds Shiro again. He’s immediately OK with it. Bridge Five is awful but he trusts Shiro and he’ll do whatever is needed to support him. Keith is one of Shiro’s first real supporters on Bridge Five and the one that not-so-subtly encourages/forces others to listen to Shiro as well, or at least tries. Shiro usually tells him to back off a little because a team can’t be forced. But others do see that loyalty and that protection and learn to trust Shiro in part because they observe Keith.

Keith also has a secret he hasn’t even told Shiro, at least not right away: Keith owns a Shardblade. It used to be his mother’s (again, very strange for a woman), but when she disappeared the blade was left behind, bond broken. His father took it up, but made Keith promise to bond it and showed him how, in the event that his father died. Keith did as ordered when his father died, hiding the blade away inside his soul before any lighteyes could take it, but he’s very careful to never, ever reveal that he has one. 

Keith doesn’t trust lighteyes at all and is extremely suspicious of them

He actually is the first to recognize the strange things happening around Shiro may, just maybe, be because of Surgebinding. His mother used to tell stories, whenever she showed him her knife, of the Knights Radiant and the old powers they had. He thought they were just stories, but when Shiro starts unconsciously doing these things, he tells Shiro about the knife and starts trying to help him figure out what’s going on.

Once Shiro’s ideals and his strength with his honorspren gets strong enough that the rest of Bridge Five starts developing Windrunner squires in his presence, Keith struggles to come to terms with the fact that he appears untouched by Shiro’s abilities. An Honorspren is a lot to live up to and Keith is afraid he can’t do it. Especially when, as time passes, every time he summons his shardblade he swears he hears screaming...

I would love it if Keith actually gets a similar storyline to Adolin instead, wherein he actually starts to awaken the spren in his inherited shardblade and bonds with whatever type that is instead. Because the knife feels like an extension of him and a partner. It’s the reason other honorspren wouldn’t try to bond with him, though, and the reason he can’t inherit Shiro’s powers when around him. (This would also be a nod to Keith struggling to live up to Shiro as a leader and forming his own way of doing things in canon)

Lance also inadvertently ends up on Bridge Five

Like many lowborn darkeyes, Lance had romantic dreams of going to battle, defeating a shardbearer, and getting to rise to nobility as he became a lighteyes through the shard bond. He planned to take good care of his family after that and never have to work a farm again. So he joins House Daibazaal’s army, for his region.

This didn’t work out out in practice as it turns out shardbearers are terrifying on the field and nobody in their right mind could ever take one down. Lance is suddenly brought to terms with his own morality and tries to desert. Unfortunately he gets caught and ends up as a slave on the Shattered Plains, shunted into Bridge Five. Where people go to die, basically, so he’s terrified.

That’s when he meets Shiro, who he looks up to almost right away. Because Shiro is just good at taking care of everyone on Bridge Five, and makes him feel like maybe, just maybe, he could live through this and see his family again.

That’s also when he meets Keith who he hates because what is this guy’s deal he’s a jerk. (But they do eventually learn to get along)

Lance is forced to come to grips with his own initial cowardice and he initially hates himself for it. He resolves to be stronger and do better, especially with a role model like Shiro to look up to. Even if they’re in the absolute pit of humanity they don’t have to act like it. They can still do their best. He’s also a little jealous of Keith at first, who never seems to be scared of anything even down here as a bridge slave, which sparks his rivalry with him to start. 

When Shiro starts developing powers and the rest of Bridge Five starts inheriting dregs of them as squires, Lance is also seemingly incapable of getting those powers. It’s actually one of the ways he manages to bond better with Keith, when they both commiserate over being unable to do what Shiro can even though they’re both trying so hard in their own ways.

In actuality Lance is just destined to bond with a different kind of spren, but he has to realize who he really is first and what his Ideals actually are before he can recognize that or be recognized by a spren in turn. 

I kind of like the idea of him being an Edgedancer, but Willshapers are described as having a “love of adventure, novelty, or oddity" and that they are "capricious, frustrating, and unreliable,” which could also match Lance. Although it’s hard to say since we haven’t seen their powers in action yet soooo...maybe it wouldn’t be a good match.

Pidge is another one that has a lot of parallels to Shallan to the point when half the story is going to be the same despite my best efforts, really

Pidge used to be a dutiful daughter and acted as the scribe for her father and brother, who did a lot of exploration and traveling work. However they mysteriously disappear in one of the cities, at the same time a lot of other people start to go missing

Pidge, alarmed but suspicious, starts doing more research and starts finding some frightening details that are curiously relevant between the disappearances and some terrifying lore from old stories.

No one believes her but she is convinced that a lot of weird things happening indicate some seriously dangerous turn of events with some very dark and evil beings. She even begins to suspect the battle at the Shattered Plains might not be what it seems; in fact, it might be a distraction from the real purpose. 

She determines to head for the Shattered Plains. That seems to be the heart of everything, based on her research. One way or another, going there will help her find her brother and father again, and she can warn people there that dangerous things are coming. 

People aren’t willing to believe her (or her newfound friend, Hunk) when she goes there at first, especially because she’s lowborn. However, Brightlady Allura takes a keen interest in what she has to say and gives her a place to stay, and Highprince Alfor takes her seriously. 

While digging into the darker things and researching into some very unsettling information, Pidge attracts the wrong sort of crowd with the Ghostbloods. 

She also attracts a spren of her own, and honestly I can’t see her being anything other than a Lightweaver like Shallan, because c’mon. Illusions? The ability to restructure things into other things? Pidge spends half her time in canon pretending to be somebody else, sneaking around, and messing around with science. This is absolutely up her alley. Lightweaving also commonly gifts an extraordinary memory or aptitude for precise details, which Pidge has displayed in spades.

Hunk has always had an interest in distinctly ‘female’ skills and pursuits, like cooking, sciences, and general academia, while he never shown particular interest in more masculine pursuits, like politics or combat. As such, Hunk eventually choses to join the Ardentia, which traditionally grants its members a genderless position in society and the right to pursue skills traditional to both genders.

Hunk isn’t actually all that religious--he just really wanted to learn cooking (and to be able to try sweet female foods as much as spicy male foods), and to study sciences. He also enjoys reading and writing and just learning in general.

Hunk is originally content just working at the temples and getting to learn cooking and to study to his heart’s content in his spare time. It’s a nice, safe, easy life and he gets to enjoy it. 

Unfortunately once a young woman named Pidge starts entering the temples asking some very dangerous, on-the-edge-of-blasphemy questions about the Unmade and general theological debate, and insinuating some dangerous things about the war in the Shattered Plains, things start to get less comfortable.

Despite everything Hunk can see Pidge has some good points. She’s sharp, good at logic and makes for decent conversation about all sorts of topics. Her arguments aren’t unfounded even if they are uncomfortable. When she points out that this could be dangerous for all of Roshar, including his family and anyone he might ever care about, he grudgingly agrees to help her try to make her case. So he travels to the Shattered Plains with her.

Once on the Shattered Plains he ends up becoming an ardent specifically tied to House Altea, so he’s under their protection, since some of the edge-of-blasphemy questions he asks (or supports Pidge on) get him in a bit of trouble with the order. It’s okay though, everyone else here is so scandalous or unconventional he feels like he fits right in.

The full team does eventually meet up in the middle of a battle and Bridge Five does eventually join House Altea, though I have no idea under what circumstances. It’s honestly hard to top Kaladin’s rescue in The Way of Kings. 

Ask me for AU Headcanons!