@@Bookborn I jumped out of my seat when they actually mentioned Virtuosity. It took me a couple seconds to realize it was wholly new information. So cool!
The biggest thing I noticed was Hoid referencing Odium (Teravangian) messing with his memories, which to us feels like it just happened. I know there has been a lot of debate whether or not that was Hoids plan or if he was tricked and I think this confirms that Hoid did not expect that and has now implemented safeguards against it happening again.
I've seen people debating whether that was a reference to Rhythm of War or what happened in Tress. I lean towards RoW, but I guess we don't know for sure.
I don’t think it could be Tress, since, if I remember correctly, it wasn’t his memories that were taken, but his sense of self among other things. He remembered what to do, just couldn’t articulate it.
I've seen a lot of people say that the nimi thing is just a sign that Hoid is talking to a Shin person, but I think the worldbuilding of Komashi might actually imply a deeper connection with the Shin. For example, a lot of the Shin's stone shamanism makes sense if you think that they might originally be from Komashi, a place where the stones are literally too hot to walk on. That could easily have changed from a practical tradition into a religious one over time. And the general reverence the Shin have for stone could stem from the fact that on Komashi the spirits seem to dwell in the stone and are summoned by stacking stones.
@bookreviewsfromareadingmac1148 yeah, we do know that. And that's the main counterpoint to this theory. But the cosmere has a long timeline, which gives Sanderson a lot of room to build connections Plus, Sanderson is a very creative storyteller. So I'm not ready to rule out a connection of some kind.
@@bookreviewsfromareadingmac1148 Yes but who says they couldn't have come from somewhere else first? Like Komashi maybe? I mean hell, the Iriali have been all over the place.
I also feel like the machine worked similar to Nightblood. It's an Awakened object that drains Investiture from people to power itself and gives of inky smoke as a byproduct. It's not a perfect 1 to 1 as Nightblood's smoke is corrupted Breaths but it's still Investiture.
Mmm great comparison, despite Warbreaker being my favorite book I somehow didn't connect that Nightblood is also an awakened object with a command gone wrong.
I think in both cases, what we're seeing is entropy: Investiture that has been used and transformed into a state that is not longer useable. It isn't gone, but you can't actually get it to do anything useful. The energy is conserved, but that doesn't mean the energy is still in a form that's actually of any value. I think what Nightblood does is more complete though - his smoke is totally "used up" high entropy investiture, while the shroud is mid-high entropy that can still do a little bit when there is enough of it around, but what it does is sort of annoying rather than helpful.
I could see the connection between both at some point in the book. It shocked me, in fact, when hoid said something like "be careful with the orders that you tell when awakening something" it reminded me of how lack of specifity messed it up once again. First with nightblood and now with this machine (I read the book in Spanish so translations might not be perfect)
Regarding the use of Nimi - I think this is a Shin word of respect (which is why Szeth calls Nightblood sword-nimi). So it might be that Hoid is telling a story to some Shin, or maybe even just Rosharans who are familiar with the Shin word. Or heck, maybe he’s telling the story to Szeth!
Oh ok, so the nimi thing actually just go towards my theory he’s speaking to Roshar! I was trying to figure out the Shin thing and then being from off planet… but I don’t think it’s that deep 🤣
Hoid does point out a few times in the book that the word he uses are not the "true" words but a translation of sort to make it understandable for his audience. So I agree that he's speaking to Roshar.
I thought that Brandon already confirmed that Scadrial was going to be the primary mover in terms of space travel, that era 4 would be future tech and involve that. Also, Iron 7 is the kind of name a Scadrian would give to something, so the waystation is almost certainly of their origin and if the naming scheme is a metal and a number, that implies there are probably many more than 7 of the things.
There’s a line in the book when Hoid is describing Design’s appearance/having a body, and he says something like “she doesn’t have a real body, we know how that turned out” that made me think he was referencing what Ishi is doing with the Spren at the end of RoW. Not sure it gives us much info, but interesting
I always saw the floating plants sneaking past physics as an implication for the spirits acting much like spren who make skyeels fly and chasmfiends etc much lighter than they should be normally. A lot of the cosmere’s magic now that I think about it uses the cognitive realm to skirt by physics. As for how much I enjoyed this book, I absolutely adored it. Frugal Wizard’s guide was a little unbelievably clean in its plots and arcs, whereas I felt that this book took its time to be believably clean in its plots and arcs. Its themes were consistent and well explored and it’s characters were ones I understood and cared about. It’s probably one of my top favourite standalones of Sanderson’s right now though we’ll see if it stays that way as the rereads happen. Finally, another reason that I really enjoyed it was the anime-ness, which might turn some people off but it drew me right in. Your Name influence was clear. I also wondered if it had full metal alchemist influence but it wasn’t mentioned. Either way, this has become now the number one easiest to adapt to anime.
Yeah, I also highly enjoyed the anime influences. I also like your explanation of just the floating plants behaving like other cosmere creatures - that's a simple and elegant answer!
Regarding the fabrials, Brandon mentioned the the term fabrial is used by arcanists (and/or Silverlight) for every mechanical device povered by Investiture. So even the malwish bracelets would be called fabrials, while not being powered by stormlight. Then about Design not being a good sword, I think it's because Hoid cannot use swords or even summon Design in the form of a sword. His normal sword in Stormlight Archive was used precisely once and that by Jasnah. Brandon also said that we might see more on Hoid's inability to harm others in some future project. We also get to see another awakened object with immense destructive power. Awakening is proving to be one of the most dangerous magic systems in the cosmere. This machine almost destroyed a planet, Nightblood has already killed one vessel and they were created by mistake. The engineers wanted to make a mechanical joki-hijo and almost destroyed a planet. Shashara only wanted to recreate a shardblade and instead made the most dangerous weapon in the cosmere. Now imagine what level of destruction could you achieve with awakening, if you intended to.
It's not the Awakening that's dangerous... it's the fact that Awakening an inanimate object is like trying to word your Monkey's Paw wish in a way that won't backfire. Good luck.
Also keep in mind Design is not on Roshar, she shouldn't even be able to exist on Komashi. Whatever they did to allow her to leave Roshar likely has consequences
Also, the Fibonacci sequence would exist anywhere there are numbers, it just wouldn’t have that name (since fib is the one who discovered it). And hoid doesn’t call it that, he simply implies we would know the name. So someone in Roshar discovered it and it’s Vev’s Golden Ratio (get it, like vev’s golden keys?)
@@Bookborn It's just one of those things that if you go to meta it starts to get weirder than it's supposed to be. Hoid is translating to a Rosharan audiance - but people on Roshar don't speak English, so there is a further layer of meta-translation for the actual reader. This can lead to situations where the only English translation of something is inherently tied to Earth history in a way that it can't be in the original language. Yet it still needs to make sense to the reader, so we just end up seeing the term the reader would understand even if it doesn't make sense within the framing device. Regardless, the mathematical aspect of these things is universal - so anyone anywhere could have come up with them. And since we know that life in the Cosmere is very similar to in our world (except where it isn't) it's of no surprise that these numbers appear in Cosmere nature too. Questing that level of similarity forces us to also question things like "why does the Cosmere have humans?" and that's just a rabbit hole we need not go down.
@@Lord_zeel A rabbit hole we need not go down... but I can't help wondering if "humans" is also some kind of translation artifact, or our universes will end up canonically connected somehow, just like Yumi and Painter's worlds were much closer than they thought.
Something recently confirmed by Sanderson in a Shardcast interview is that in the late Cosmere, words like Awakened have expanded meaning and don't necessarily mean that Breaths were specifically used. So, an Awakened object is one where Investiture was used in combination with a Command to give it an amount of autonomy, even if Breath wasn't the source of the Investiture. Just something to ponder when thinking about the machine in Yumi or the "tablets" in Tress which use "Awakened circuitry".
I think if is now pretty clear that Hoid did not trick Todium at the end of RoW, and that his memories were stolen without him expecting it. I've always thought Hoid had tricked Todium, but I've changed my mind after his discussion with Design in this book. The fact that he now has protocols to protect his Investiture seems to verify he had no idea what was coming.
I think the "nimi" honorific is just because he's talking to someone from Roshar, and that's the closest word (that a Rosharan would know) to what the locals were using. That *might* imply that Hoid is actually talking to Szeth or another Shin, but I think it might be Sigzil that he's telling the story to.
That's entirely possible. His issue may transfer across the nahel-bond to her, or it could just be him not being able to wield a sword in the usually violent way due to it.
Hoid can insult by witty sarcasm and jokes, but have he ever hurt anyone emotionally, without Allomancy that is? What if he could remove his Intent, somewhat similar to loosing his memories and traits, and use Design as a ShardFlute weapon that could accidentially (or by Design) be used to hurt?
@@keithwinget6521 Let's also remember she is not on Roshar anymore. Technically, she shouldn't even be able to exist on Komashi. Clearly they have found some way around that limitation but such a move likely has consequences.
Regarding the term “Fay”: The Shodel have been described by Brando as ‘fain life’ (they have a variety of species of flora and fauna, with the Shodel being the sapient humanoids of the fain). Fay/fae could just be the fain equivalent of spren/spirits.
I support that, Fay/fey are usually described as whimsical and capricious beings, and since it seems Splinters take on the Intent of their origin Shard (Seons are extremely devoted, spren put much emphasis on promises), I wouldn't be surprised if fay were Whimsy's Splinters. But Coppermind told me we have no confirmation whether spirits on Komashi predate the Splintering of Virtuosity or not, so there is yet room for contradiction.
@@luism9152 Maybe, but I seem to recall it being mentioned that there were no more than 16 at any one time, and that there just happened to be 14 now. Maybe I'm misremembering, though.
@@keithwinget6521 You are correct, great catch! Chapter 24 " 'And how many yoki-hijo are there?' the scholar shouted back. “Six- teen at most! We currently have only fourteen." We know too little about their planet, time to start some fan theories.
@@luism9152 I'll bet those hion lines have something in common with the light colors of Roshar's light investiture scheme, and would register a tone in a similar way. Navani would love to get her hands on some hion!
So as far as timelines, I think we need to look at it from two perspectives. Using the Mistborn scale, the events described probably take place in late era 3 or early era 4. Space travel is a thing, but it's not very common. Hoid and Design steal the ship at the end because then next one isn't due on the planet for 3 years. As for when Hoid is telling the story to someone on Roshar, my guess is that it's late era 4 or early era 5, because at that point tourism to the planet is common.
Ahhh ok so this is an important distinction, isn't it? The timeline of when Yumi's story happens and the timeline for when Hoid is *telling* the story. I didn't even think of making that distinction, but it's important.
The other thing with -nimi, is that the stone ground was too hot to walk on without the clogs. Definitely brought to mind how the Shin frown on walking on stone. The thing that takes away from my budding theory is that the Shin are described as having round eyes, where the art in Yumi has seemingly everyone with epicanthic folds.
Yeah that was what originally gave me pause, because everyone else on Roshar BUT the Shin have epicanthic folds; it sees the consensus in my comment section is that the "nimi" was just a translation for the Rosharians listening.
The line from this book that has me the most worried is one I haven't seen anyone else talk about, and that's the line from chapter 5 "It wasn't an *actual* body - we all kind of learned our lesson on that" which causes me to believe that something quite terrible is going to come from Ishar's experiments, something worse than what we've already seen.
I think it’s because we already all knew it was going to break very bad - in fact that line almost gives me hope because it means they *stop* doing it and maybe Syl is safe 🥲🥲
Although I've been vocal about not wanting an animated adaptation of Stormight, I COMPLETELY agree that Yumi would fit the animated/anime style perfectly. I almost couldn't even picture it as live-action.
I was thinking this the WHOLE time. I thought of no face from spirited away, or the demon in mononoke. Also chihiro being invisible at one point. The odd characters like design. The whole time I saw it as one of miyazakis works in my head
Great video! I assume that "Iron Seven Waystation" must have been built by Scadrians because we know they love naming things after metals (like the gates in Luthadel). Which also makes me wonder how many space stations they have by that point if they're up to #7 just for one metal. But who knows?
Ok but brilliance here; didn't even think of "iron" in the title meaning it was probably Scadrian. Gives more credence to the theory about Scardian's being everryywhereee
as someone who literally has no idea about the cosmere (this was my first sanderson book!), i originally thought -nimi was a play on the honorific -nim in korean since yumi's half of the worldbuilding is loosely based on korean stuff hahah so cool to learn that it's actually an established thing from the cosmere!!
You are correct. The speculation you are seeing from everyone else is because we have only seen one other person use this honorific before in all the cosmere books, the character of Szeth in the Stormlight series so obviously we are all trying to figure out what connection there is to him and the Shin people he comes from. Especially since there seems to be other connections. For instance the Shin consider walking on stone to be sacrilegious. Yumi comes from a place where stone is too hot to walk on.
I loved this book! It’s on par with Tress for me. The visuals, the characters, and the Cosmere lore and mechanics were amazing. I love that with everything going on, it was still a story about character development in a weird situation. I especially loved Design! She was such a great addition to this book and I loved how prominent she was. Yes, a big mystery is how Hoid managed to get her off planet, but we sort of knew he would manage somehow. I think her sword comment mostly reflects how Hoid couldn’t hurt anyone with a sword anyway. With regard to your Awakened machine going haywire because of its commands comment, this machine is essentially Nightblood with a different purpose.
I haven't read this yet but I'm super excited about Virtuosity (the Shards are some of my favourite things about the cosmere and her Intent is very close to my heart). As for why she Splintered herself, it's very intriguing, esp as WOB said previously she was travelling to experience different forms of artistic expression and didn't want to get tied down. It could be for any number of reasons, including negative ones like a threat, but we know Shards are compelled by their Intents and as a creative person myself I could see Virtuosity inspired to sacrifice herself for her art and thereby inspire others. It's very in line with the artistic spirit especially if it's not bounded by other balancing aspects. Odium must be relieved he can cross another of his brethren off the list (damn him!).
I feel like the Awakened things going bad because of poorly-worded Commands was really necessary. We had seen Nightblood, but it was kind of suggested that Nightblood was unique. And it’s very, very clear now that Nightblood is not one of a kind.
Also, Nightblood is endearingly bad. We're told that he was a mistake, but from the perspective of the reader he's really cool and we like him. We needed this example of something that's absolutely and clearly a complete disaster.
We knew that something like Nightblood could happen again, since the whole reason Vasher killed his wife was to prevent her from telling anyone else the secret behind how she made Nightblood.
I rarely subscribe to channels. This is the first video of yours that I've seen and I'm only 1 minute and 30 seconds in. You've already earned my subscription. The production quality is great and you really seem comfortable on camera. Excited to watch more of your videos.
I think the iron 7 way station would hint at when mistborn reaches era 4 (that's when the space age saga is supposed to be if im remembering correctly)
Man I need to pay attention more when I'm reading these books. I ways watch these sorts of videos after reading and feel like I missed half the book, literally didn't pick up on 90% of the stuff talked about here
I forgot which one but in the epitaph of one of the original trilogy books of Mistborn, it's mentioned how The Lord Ruler actively suppressed most technological advances on the planet and that if it weren't for that, they'd be much further ahead than most planets at that point in time. And to that that in Wax and Wayne, we can actually see how fast it's been developmed and see the beginnings of the industrial age, and I think Harmony did get involved with that somehow, it's safe to say that it'd be one of the first to be space-faring.
Seeing how Hoid is unable to physically harm people, he would really only summon Design for self defense. Though he'd want to do it in a way where he wouldn't be at risk of hurting the attacker. So I would think he wouldn't use a blade since he would risk harming the attacker
I think that Scadrians getting off planet first makes a lot of sense specially considering the flying machines they have in Era 2 not to mention the translating metal minds that they use So it would be easy for them to engage in commerce as they´d be able to comunicate very well with anyone as long as they are in their planets. Also Rosharans would be a close second now that they have also flying machines like the Fourth Bridge and can use Surgebinding to create Connection between people to translate for them Maybe even we get to see space age Scadrians fighting space age Rosharans. And man! What would a confrontation like that look like? Imagine being able to summon your ship in the Cognitive Realm from a bead of black glass and travelling through there at the same time as the Phisical ship is in the Phisical Realm aswell. You might be able to steer the ship in the Cognitive Realm to be on the same place that an enemy ship is in the Phisical and have your people board that enemy ship by making them jump from the Cognitive Real to the Phisical. And boom. You have Surgebinders inside an enemy vessel! That would be wild
The fibonacci sequence stuff was more likely due to it being an artistic principle- the Golden Ratio- used in visual composition as well as musical composition. So less about a connection to our universe and more about the idea of it being a fundamental artistic pattern/force.
About the fibonacci sequence: we don't really 'have' the fibonacci sequence just like we do not have the number 7. It is a relatively simple mathematical recurrence, and this is why it appears in a few places. Same with the golden ratio. It is a root of a relatively simple polynomial.
I didn't realize that about Sixth of the Dusk! I need to reread it now. That was one of the first things I read in the cosmere weirdly so I don't remember it a ton.
Unless I'm mistaken, didn't Brandon do a reading of part of a Sixth of the Dusk sequel that contained a space travel who was very Rosharan and talking about how they could help against "The Ones Above?" I really think the Scadrians and Rosharans are going to be pretty close in terms of when they get off world, with maybe a slight edge to the Scadrians
@@GoErikTheRed And we see the Ones Above take off from the planet in a ship where the means of landing and take off is utterly invisable but requires a large steel plate to have been built for the ship to land/take off from. Seems to be the two sides are in competition with each other for resources, or at least certain factions on each side. Most likely the Scadrian's focus on space travel in the physical realm, while the Rosharn's focus on travel via the Cognitive realm, since they'd have Radiants with the Surge of Transportation to make getting in and out of it easier.
if people using the word 'nimi' is a hint that shin people originally come from Komashi it would be super ironic that the people from the one planet inspired by korean and japanese culture are actually the oddity in roshar in terms of eye shapes but in the complete opposite way from real life but I do think this is possibility, they might have might have migrated from komashi to roshar long ago. I feel like Hoid would have indicated that they arent actually saying the word nimi exactly but a similar word to mean the same thing the same way he was talking about the other language differences, or maybe both shin and people in komashi were influenced by something else to use similar words also for the floating plants, I think it might have been a hint that its all part of the shroud I'm not sure if Hoid confirms if thats how the planet was pre machine overlord but if it was I also saw some people say that the plants might be using some magic similar to scadrian magic to make themselves lighter.
Well, I think we know all the Rosharians came from Ashyn, which is why I was confused because I originally thought it was pointing to that. I think it might just be using a word Rosharians would recognize, even though it isn't explicitly stated...
@@Bookborn not all rosharians came from ashyn no, the iriali for example came from somewhere else considering the distinct differences between the features of shin people and other rosharians is what made me think they might be from somewhere else too
@@Bookborn But I do think I may actually be wrong about the shin being originally from komashi because hoid does mention nikaro's people look similar to veden people not the shin and the art also depicts them with epicanthic eyes
Im pretty sure we know that hoid could move investeure off world allready at the time off rythem of war before groups like the ghostbloods learn the way, also the fact hoid himself isent trapped on yolen indicates that he could do so for a long time
Hearing this gave me an interesting idea about why the shard fractured. Like how autonomy has multiple avatars this might be a way to do something similar. But instead of action, it person with the best art that will make themselves into the an avatar by pulling Investiture into themselves with the art. Its a talent competition with godhood as the grade prize
I think I enjoyed the world in this one more and some elements of it more, but a couple of scenes bothered me and it was romance-focused, so I think it's tied with Tress for me too haha
Re the fabrial for testing investiture and how it's powered; if I recall correctly she plugs it into the hion? So I think it isn't stormlight powered but powered that way. It doesn't seem to have been designed to be powered that way though (since Hoid bought it with them, rather than it coming from this world) so I guess Stormlight-powered fabrials could be powered by any form of pure investiture (although I suspect we already knew that)
This was a great video! I assumed Hoid was talking specifically to other worldhoppers like Khrissala and Vasher. But maybe he was relating it to Rosharians in general.
Well the plants thing is a local adaptation similar to the rosharan creatures. The plants probably have some sort of bonded spirit or something similar to how native rosharan creatures have spren bound to them that makes them stronger/lighter than they should be.
I think the plants were capable of lashings. In the Windrunners from Roshar sense. I mean, they are talked about as if they are consciously choosing to do this, so I'm betting they are invested a little and use that to perform lashings to raise and lower themselves as needed.
Totally random; but I love that you call your viewers "nerds" instead of bestie or some other uncomfortable parasocial word. It makes me feel at ease and helps me engage with you as a creator in a safe way. So just, thank you, for your content, for you.
I was thinking while reading how much the story reminded me of Final Fantasy 10. I was so happy when Brandon spoke about it. I really loved this book. My favourite SP so far. Still not the biggest fan of Hoid telling us these stories though.
*****Possible SPOILERS contained ***** Heyyy, I'm a new listener/ watcher, but appreciated your mention of awakened machines across other cosmere novelsbthat I've missed. Also, wanted to mention that I believe any mention of awakened objects (especially when given a command) is setup for better understanding Nightblood (the sword that was awakened in Warbreaker). And hearing the Nimmi?(apologies if mispelled) mention makes me curious of how this world amd its magic system relate to Nightblood, Nalthis, and their magic.
Regarding the scholars using Stormlight to power the machine, I doubt that's the case because the machine was activated 1700 years before the main story, and even if Yumi is far in the future that probably means that the machine was created before people figured out how to get Stormlight off world (unless Yumi is a solid 2 millennia after the "present day" of Stormlight and Mistborn Era 2). Although that does make me curious as to how the scholars got access to and knowledge of Awakening
I recall some previous discussion from reading way too much into BrandoSando's Q&A's that Elantrians are pretty much the GOATs of investiture powers, more so than returned, radiants or powerful allomancers.
I also think that it takes place very late in the cosmere. And the Scadrials being the ones who are the first everywhere sounds logic to me. Those hion lines and the way the spirits where transformed and often split. reminded me of fabrials and the experiments with spren on roshar.
The Fibonacci sequence is a pretty basic mathematical sequence, and one should expect it to arise in any world where 1+1=2. That's literally the complexity of the math we're dealing with here. So I wouldn't expect that to imply any connection to Earth
I'm late on these secret projects and all but yeah this art grabbed me when I went to the bookstore. I originally was going to buy the frugal wizard book just based on the ridiculousness of the idea but at the store that Yumi cover was just so awesome I ended up getting this one instead. 😂
Sp2 was terrible, I agree. I don’t think this is too far into the future and if it is, we were just introduced to a way for memory wiping to ‘feel’ like time travel. Odium showed that he can do this from a distance. So how far and how many people can you extend this ability to? Since Yumi and Hoid were vulnerable, I expect there to be few defenses against this trick. Can you imprison calidan and wipe his mind every day and have him be 1400 years old on the space station?
On the "what form Hoid uses for Design," question. I don't know if he does use her as a weapon. Now I don't think it's ever been directly stated, But I think it's been pretty obvious throughout the Cosmere that Hoid can't hurt people. That he's bound with some sort of oath to prevent him from causing physical violence to another living being.
In the past we have seen Hoid not being able to hurt people, physically at least. Also we have seen with the Returned that Investiture is interchangeable to some extent, so she could have been chugging the Hion to power the weaving or herself I guess
I got to this book late, it had just been sitting on both my shelf and Kindle while life was going on. I enjoyed it, and thought it was a solid 4 star. I think I liked it more than Tress, but only just. Thanks for this video, I forgot to start writing down Cosmere things and questions so this was perfect.
Since this whole story is so oriental-flavored, I can only assume that hion is "hee-on" since pretty much every language (that isn't English) defaults to using a long E sound for any word with an "i" in it. Plus it rhymes with "neon" that way, which makes sense given how it's described (even if it only comes in one pre-determined set of paired colors). Adonalsium - Ey don all see um, Adonalsium. Iron Seven Waystation. Which culture might POSSIBLY name their space station(s) after a metal, particularly one that would be very useful in moving large metal spacecraft around? Also, the end of The Lost Metal should give away which Cosmere planet is going to develop space travel first. Virtuosity killed herself. Or did the Shard equivalent. Very on-point for an artistic savant, I'd say. I'm sure you could name a few tortured, misunderstood artists from History who suffered similar fates. There may not be Earth, but Math is Math. You don't need Earth to have a Fibonacci sequence (although it would undoubtedly be named after it's Cosmere discoverer instead). Hell, it might even be named after a Cryptic. Or BE a Cryptic. Who knows?
With the plants i got the vibe that it was using some way of storing weight like the Scadrial medallions in Era 2 that they use when they flym we know that storing weight is possible so the plants coukd have evolved a natrual way if doing this
I dont remember which book it was. But I remeber them saying that scadrial was more advanced than other planets. So you are probably right about them reaching other planets first. Plus era 3 i thought is supposed to during a space age. Maybe im wrong, but im fairly certain.
I believe Endowment giving Breaths is a form of Splintering. But there’s a second form of Splintering like when Odium “killed” Honor, basically making it impossible for someone else to take him up as His vessel
Right! I know we’ve seen splintering, but it specifically says that Virtuosity splintered *herself* which is the part I’m interested in since it seems like her choice, versus other shards who seemed to be splintered by an outside force
@@Bookborn yes exactly. I intend on re-reading Warbreaker soon cuz it’s the foggiest one for me now, but I remember Endowment Splintering herself to gift Breaths to the Returned, iirc. That’s the only other example I can think of
@@trevorfultz I didn't think that was the case, I thought Endowment was still solid. A Shard doesn't need splintered to give some of their power to mortals. On Scadrial neither Shard is splintered (quite the opposite at this point) but lots of people are invested there and we even seen physical pieces of the Shards in the form of god metals. Essentially, some of the investiture of Shards can be split off without it being a splintering, and that investiture can return to them later and be recycled. What Virtuosity did, and what was done to Honor, is something much more complete and irrevocable.
@@Lord_zeel I checked Coppermind last night after commenting cuz I was curious and they claim it was an example of Splintering. But specifically when Endowment gifts Breaths to Returned
It makes sense for Elantrians to be more Invested than Returned. Elantrians are directly connected to the Dor, while Returned only have a supercharged Breath. I don't think Hoid uses any weapon since he can't harm others.
It might be that since The Pits on Scandrial were a main trade route that a lot of cultural stuff, including knowledge of Ironeyes and their magic systems, propagated out. Also Khriss might have told them Him referencing things in Scandrial and Roshar makes me think he must be telling this to someone cosmere aware. That doesn't really narrow it down after RoW, but still
I believe this story takes place around the final era of Mistborn, as Branderson has stated that era will be cyberpunk. I definitely got cyberpunk vibes from this book so that’s the theory I’m going with! It certainly takes place after the events of the first 5 storm light books, if not all ten books.
No, Era-4 is going to be far future, Sci-fi level tech, and that very much exists since Hoid and Design get away by hijacking the locals space ship that Design figures could get them to the nearest hub of interplanetary travel. The Cyberpunk one is a potential, he'd like to write it but isn't sure he'll have the time trilogy set between current era's 3 and 4.
The reason the plants floated is because they were pure investiture. The entire village Yumi lived in was walled off with enough Shoud as to make it impenetrable (to most things) and the Farher Machine wiped her memory and rebuilt a different village every day as a form of imprisonment. She was the only thing with enough Investiture and to not be fully absorbed by it. Hoid mentions the heat from the ground as a kind of by-product from the machine, though that doesn't fully leave after the Father machine is stopped.
Re Scadrial: Brandon plans for Misborn to go from medieval tech (era 1) to faster than light travel (era 4), and that they will probably be the first to get FTL technology. They were delayed a good bit due to the effective tech freeze under the Lord Ruler, but under Harmony they seems to be catching up very quickly. Thus your hunch of Scadrial tech being present on other worlds seems very feasible to me.
Theres a thing about virtuosity I dont think we got a perfect answer for. How did she splinter herself? Did she splinter most of herself, or like half( afterall there are splinters of Odium&cultivation&honor(before he died) without those shards having died.)? Also, one other scary thing for me is the fact that the shroud is WORSE than THRENODY. A man made machine messed up a world more than the clash between Odium and Ambition(sure, she was JUST mortally wounded, but its a matter of shardic level). And the nightmares look like nightblood to an extent. I think theres a connection here, Humans screwing up with their commands leads to black smoke and devastation I think.
SP 4 Preview Spoilers Below!!! We know from the SP4 preview that after the events of Stormlight 5, Rosharans experience some sort of diaspora where they end up in many places across the Cosmere. “-Nimi” could be the influence of some Shin soon after SA5 but long before Yumi.
So I listened to it so don't remember the wording, but I think there was a refrence to the listener having swallowed stormlight spheres before, which Makes me think the lopen?
about the fibonacci sequence... the fibonacci sequence doesn't have anything to do with earth. Just start with 1,1 and then add up the previous two numbers a few times. So, It doesn't imply earth is in the cosmere.
The Fibonacci Sequence is never mentioned by it's Earth name, it is described and given a couple In-Cosmere names. Mathmatical numbers/sequences are universal (mmmmm..... numbers... many numbers) and while they may not call them what we call them, such a series would be easy to figure out - we had it figured out in 300 BCE. Likely, there is a cryptic that represents the concept.
I think why most people thought Returned and Elantrians are equally invested because we have interacted mostly with the strong(est) Returned characters. I mean Elantrians have so much investiture that their skin has a bright metallic (perhaps an allusion godmetals) glow on a level much beyond what Radiants glow.
They are! Available everywhere except for Audible on the 11th. I've used Barnes and Noble and Google Play Books before and they're both just as good as audible for my needs.
@@joshjansen86 I recommend requesting them at your library. I've done that a lot and had mostly success. Sometimes you'll have to wait longer and sometimes it just doesn't fit into their budget.
I think Tress is the furthest in the timeline and this (Yumi) is behind it. Maybe after they stole the spaceship, they ended up on Tress' world. However, where the heck is Design during Tress?
@@Bookborn My main line of thinking of Tress being last (so far) is Hoid not being described as anything resembling an Elantrian. While that crafty little storyteller could've simply omitted it, I don't think it had happened yet. After so long of trying to become Elantrian, he doesn't seem like the type to hide/omit that part, and he doesn't explain his glowing skin to his audience, making me think it hadn't happened yet Also, nowhere in his Yumi story does he recall being turned... dumb? (the actual curse has slipped my mind at this time) by the Elantrian. Hoid also talks about his memories being stolen (or something along those lines) but nothing about his embarrassing time on Lumar. Unless... His audience during the Tress and Yumi stories are the same person/group... Nah.. or I'm just thinking too much.. RAFO for now.
Hoid probably uses Design as a mace or a club when he uses her as a weapon. Hoid would rather cut people with his words and if they can't handle that then he would beat them upside the head with a mace or a club.
I’m sitting here every day hoping for my shipping notification, and I keep thinking “did they forget me”, but then I remember we’re not yet halfway through the month. 😅 -T
I think Design said it was a fabrial; as Design is from Roshar (spren) I think it's probably a real Fabrial. (But I'd have to go back and see if it's Design saying that or Hoid)
@@Bookborn Yes Design said it. I just think the term "fabrial" might refer to any type of device (mechanical?) that uses or analyzes Investiture. Hoid or someone else may have created this device anywhere, not necessarily Roshar. Design may have said any word there, but Hoid translates it to fabrial, so his audience understands what it was.
I think when it comes to things like the Fibonacci sequence, he just uses words from our world. He could make up an in universe word for it, but then he would need to explain it. I don't know about you but I think plenty of other readers would struggle with it. I had some people tell me RoW was to complex.
The Fibonacci bit seems like just _math TM,_ and not specifically Earth related. It makes sense to me that it’d be important/sacred here, given its alleged link to beauty and art.
Theres a description in the book about nightmares looking like black tar and I remember that that same description is usted in stormlight to describe some sort of creature. I don't know if they are related. Does anybody know something about that?
I feel like (with no research) the "machine" thing feels like Autonomy tried to set something up then got annoyed and left because it removed free will and maybe Virtuosity splintered to stop Autonomy's plans. Feels a bit like Mistborn Era 2 and if I recall correctly, there were comments about Autonomy screwing up other planets before moving to Scadriel.
I don't think so. It's clear that the culture Yumi lived in was around for a LONG time, and their whole deal is about getting the spirits to turn into stuff and the spirits are like Spren - they are little splinters of the shard. That means she splintered herself not 1700 years before the story, but many hundreds of thousands of years before that. Most likely this was done either because she wanted to in order to bless her planets with her power, or because she wanted to protect her power from someone that wanted to take it for themselves.
Fibbonaci sequence did not stop me. At least Hoid did not call it by our Earth's name. It is a sequence of numbers that is pretty common in art. I mean for proportions and segementation. No wonder it is referred to even in Cosmere. Where my mind paused for a second is when Sanderson mentioned ronins. I often feel like words for things and concepts from other cultures introduced in an English-based fantasy literature should be used under made-up names. He uses made up japanese-like sounding words for some things, but then direct reference to "ronins" threw me off, as if he was referring to the actual Japan on our planet Earth. Might have included Earth in the Cosmere then, I wouldn't have been able to use that argument then :-)
I might be misremembering, but didn't it specifically say that Design plugged in the Fabrial to the Hion of the noodle shop?
It did, oops lol. I got too excited 😛
@@Bookborn I jumped out of my seat when they actually mentioned Virtuosity. It took me a couple seconds to realize it was wholly new information. So cool!
Hoid probably uses design, as a flute.
New head canon unlocked
lol now I'm just thinking of all the innuendos between Design and Hoid using her like that.
One time, at band camp...
Maybe Design is tramatized by the death of his original bond just before Hoid picked him up?
Could a Shard Flute, especially played by someone of significant heightening, create pure Rosharan tones?
The biggest thing I noticed was Hoid referencing Odium (Teravangian) messing with his memories, which to us feels like it just happened. I know there has been a lot of debate whether or not that was Hoids plan or if he was tricked and I think this confirms that Hoid did not expect that and has now implemented safeguards against it happening again.
I've seen people debating whether that was a reference to Rhythm of War or what happened in Tress. I lean towards RoW, but I guess we don't know for sure.
Ohhh so interesting, I interpreted this as Tress for some reason but maybe it is RoW.
@@tgibridays Maybe after it happening twice he figured, Oh I have to do something about this!
I don’t think it could be Tress, since, if I remember correctly, it wasn’t his memories that were taken, but his sense of self among other things. He remembered what to do, just couldn’t articulate it.
Maybe this points Stormlight in a particular direction. I feel like the way the entire story has been framed, book 5 cannot have a happy ending.
I've seen a lot of people say that the nimi thing is just a sign that Hoid is talking to a Shin person, but I think the worldbuilding of Komashi might actually imply a deeper connection with the Shin. For example, a lot of the Shin's stone shamanism makes sense if you think that they might originally be from Komashi, a place where the stones are literally too hot to walk on. That could easily have changed from a practical tradition into a religious one over time. And the general reverence the Shin have for stone could stem from the fact that on Komashi the spirits seem to dwell in the stone and are summoned by stacking stones.
Ohhh good point!
But we know that the Shin are from Ashyn, don’t we? They’re just the only humans that didn’t leave the land assigned to them by the Singers.
@bookreviewsfromareadingmac1148 yeah, we do know that. And that's the main counterpoint to this theory. But the cosmere has a long timeline, which gives Sanderson a lot of room to build connections
Plus, Sanderson is a very creative storyteller. So I'm not ready to rule out a connection of some kind.
Love the idea of the hot stone connection. Great observation!
@@bookreviewsfromareadingmac1148 Yes but who says they couldn't have come from somewhere else first? Like Komashi maybe? I mean hell, the Iriali have been all over the place.
I also feel like the machine worked similar to Nightblood. It's an Awakened object that drains Investiture from people to power itself and gives of inky smoke as a byproduct. It's not a perfect 1 to 1 as Nightblood's smoke is corrupted Breaths but it's still Investiture.
Mmm great comparison, despite Warbreaker being my favorite book I somehow didn't connect that Nightblood is also an awakened object with a command gone wrong.
Nightblood was the first thing that came to my mind when we learned that the machine was awakened :D
I think in both cases, what we're seeing is entropy: Investiture that has been used and transformed into a state that is not longer useable. It isn't gone, but you can't actually get it to do anything useful. The energy is conserved, but that doesn't mean the energy is still in a form that's actually of any value. I think what Nightblood does is more complete though - his smoke is totally "used up" high entropy investiture, while the shroud is mid-high entropy that can still do a little bit when there is enough of it around, but what it does is sort of annoying rather than helpful.
I could see the connection between both at some point in the book. It shocked me, in fact, when hoid said something like "be careful with the orders that you tell when awakening something" it reminded me of how lack of specifity messed it up once again. First with nightblood and now with this machine (I read the book in Spanish so translations might not be perfect)
Regarding the use of Nimi - I think this is a Shin word of respect (which is why Szeth calls Nightblood sword-nimi). So it might be that Hoid is telling a story to some Shin, or maybe even just Rosharans who are familiar with the Shin word. Or heck, maybe he’s telling the story to Szeth!
Oh ok, so the nimi thing actually just go towards my theory he’s speaking to Roshar! I was trying to figure out the Shin thing and then being from off planet… but I don’t think it’s that deep 🤣
Could be a Silverlight resident as well given the mix of things referenced.
Exactly. I think he's just trying to do a good job translating into the local language of the listener, and since they have this honorific he used it.
Him talking to Szeth is actually one of my main guesses as of yet.
Hoid does point out a few times in the book that the word he uses are not the "true" words but a translation of sort to make it understandable for his audience. So I agree that he's speaking to Roshar.
I thought that Brandon already confirmed that Scadrial was going to be the primary mover in terms of space travel, that era 4 would be future tech and involve that. Also, Iron 7 is the kind of name a Scadrian would give to something, so the waystation is almost certainly of their origin and if the naming scheme is a metal and a number, that implies there are probably many more than 7 of the things.
That’s what I was thinking surprised she did not mention it with the other mentions of Scadrial but not the biggest deal.
There’s a line in the book when Hoid is describing Design’s appearance/having a body, and he says something like “she doesn’t have a real body, we know how that turned out” that made me think he was referencing what Ishi is doing with the Spren at the end of RoW. Not sure it gives us much info, but interesting
“it wasn’t an actual body-we all kind of learned our lesson on that-“
Yeah I think it was referencing RoW too and so like… uh oh for book 5
this was such an ominous line, I think its referencing some major event that has yet to happen in stormlight
100% this. That's absolutely got to be it! Ishar's attempts to make this happen had catastrophic consequences for the spren involved.
@@dawnshard12lol I took this to mean he tried to sleep with his custom waifu..
I always saw the floating plants sneaking past physics as an implication for the spirits acting much like spren who make skyeels fly and chasmfiends etc much lighter than they should be normally. A lot of the cosmere’s magic now that I think about it uses the cognitive realm to skirt by physics.
As for how much I enjoyed this book, I absolutely adored it. Frugal Wizard’s guide was a little unbelievably clean in its plots and arcs, whereas I felt that this book took its time to be believably clean in its plots and arcs. Its themes were consistent and well explored and it’s characters were ones I understood and cared about. It’s probably one of my top favourite standalones of Sanderson’s right now though we’ll see if it stays that way as the rereads happen.
Finally, another reason that I really enjoyed it was the anime-ness, which might turn some people off but it drew me right in. Your Name influence was clear. I also wondered if it had full metal alchemist influence but it wasn’t mentioned. Either way, this has become now the number one easiest to adapt to anime.
Yeah, I also highly enjoyed the anime influences. I also like your explanation of just the floating plants behaving like other cosmere creatures - that's a simple and elegant answer!
Regarding the fabrials, Brandon mentioned the the term fabrial is used by arcanists (and/or Silverlight) for every mechanical device povered by Investiture. So even the malwish bracelets would be called fabrials, while not being powered by stormlight. Then about Design not being a good sword, I think it's because Hoid cannot use swords or even summon Design in the form of a sword. His normal sword in Stormlight Archive was used precisely once and that by Jasnah. Brandon also said that we might see more on Hoid's inability to harm others in some future project. We also get to see another awakened object with immense destructive power. Awakening is proving to be one of the most dangerous magic systems in the cosmere. This machine almost destroyed a planet, Nightblood has already killed one vessel and they were created by mistake. The engineers wanted to make a mechanical joki-hijo and almost destroyed a planet. Shashara only wanted to recreate a shardblade and instead made the most dangerous weapon in the cosmere. Now imagine what level of destruction could you achieve with awakening, if you intended to.
It's not the Awakening that's dangerous... it's the fact that Awakening an inanimate object is like trying to word your Monkey's Paw wish in a way that won't backfire. Good luck.
Also keep in mind Design is not on Roshar, she shouldn't even be able to exist on Komashi. Whatever they did to allow her to leave Roshar likely has consequences
Also, the Fibonacci sequence would exist anywhere there are numbers, it just wouldn’t have that name (since fib is the one who discovered it). And hoid doesn’t call it that, he simply implies we would know the name. So someone in Roshar discovered it and it’s Vev’s Golden Ratio (get it, like vev’s golden keys?)
Trrrueeee I just still thought it was weird lol
@@Bookborn It's just one of those things that if you go to meta it starts to get weirder than it's supposed to be. Hoid is translating to a Rosharan audiance - but people on Roshar don't speak English, so there is a further layer of meta-translation for the actual reader. This can lead to situations where the only English translation of something is inherently tied to Earth history in a way that it can't be in the original language. Yet it still needs to make sense to the reader, so we just end up seeing the term the reader would understand even if it doesn't make sense within the framing device. Regardless, the mathematical aspect of these things is universal - so anyone anywhere could have come up with them. And since we know that life in the Cosmere is very similar to in our world (except where it isn't) it's of no surprise that these numbers appear in Cosmere nature too. Questing that level of similarity forces us to also question things like "why does the Cosmere have humans?" and that's just a rabbit hole we need not go down.
@@Lord_zeel A rabbit hole we need not go down... but I can't help wondering if "humans" is also some kind of translation artifact, or our universes will end up canonically connected somehow, just like Yumi and Painter's worlds were much closer than they thought.
Something recently confirmed by Sanderson in a Shardcast interview is that in the late Cosmere, words like Awakened have expanded meaning and don't necessarily mean that Breaths were specifically used. So, an Awakened object is one where Investiture was used in combination with a Command to give it an amount of autonomy, even if Breath wasn't the source of the Investiture. Just something to ponder when thinking about the machine in Yumi or the "tablets" in Tress which use "Awakened circuitry".
I think if is now pretty clear that Hoid did not trick Todium at the end of RoW, and that his memories were stolen without him expecting it. I've always thought Hoid had tricked Todium, but I've changed my mind after his discussion with Design in this book. The fact that he now has protocols to protect his Investiture seems to verify he had no idea what was coming.
I was always on team Hoid didn’t know / todium got the best of him so I do think this perhaps confirms it
I think the "nimi" honorific is just because he's talking to someone from Roshar, and that's the closest word (that a Rosharan would know) to what the locals were using. That *might* imply that Hoid is actually talking to Szeth or another Shin, but I think it might be Sigzil that he's telling the story to.
Ok, yeah, good point - it's probably just more proof that he's talking to Rosharians.
Idk what he uses her for, but Hoid can’t hurt people. So maybe her ineffectiveness comes from him, rather than her…
Ahh, probably
That's entirely possible. His issue may transfer across the nahel-bond to her, or it could just be him not being able to wield a sword in the usually violent way due to it.
Hoid can insult by witty sarcasm and jokes, but have he ever hurt anyone emotionally, without Allomancy that is?
What if he could remove his Intent, somewhat similar to loosing his memories and traits, and use Design as a ShardFlute weapon that could accidentially (or by Design) be used to hurt?
@@keithwinget6521 Let's also remember she is not on Roshar anymore. Technically, she shouldn't even be able to exist on Komashi. Clearly they have found some way around that limitation but such a move likely has consequences.
Regarding the term “Fay”:
The Shodel have been described by Brando as ‘fain life’ (they have a variety of species of flora and fauna, with the Shodel being the sapient humanoids of the fain).
Fay/fae could just be the fain equivalent of spren/spirits.
Oh great connection. Fay would make sense to be linguistically similar to Fain.
Or they could be invested things from wherever Whimsy settled.
I support that, Fay/fey are usually described as whimsical and capricious beings, and since it seems Splinters take on the Intent of their origin Shard (Seons are extremely devoted, spren put much emphasis on promises), I wouldn't be surprised if fay were Whimsy's Splinters.
But Coppermind told me we have no confirmation whether spirits on Komashi predate the Splintering of Virtuosity or not, so there is yet room for contradiction.
With 14 (or 16) Yokihijo - it seems like there's a pretty good chance that each one has a splinter of Virtuosity.
14 Yokihijo plus the 2 Hion lines
That makes so much sense!
@@luism9152 Maybe, but I seem to recall it being mentioned that there were no more than 16 at any one time, and that there just happened to be 14 now. Maybe I'm misremembering, though.
@@keithwinget6521 You are correct, great catch! Chapter 24 " 'And how many yoki-hijo are there?' the scholar shouted back. “Six-
teen at most! We currently have only fourteen."
We know too little about their planet, time to start some fan theories.
@@luism9152 I'll bet those hion lines have something in common with the light colors of Roshar's light investiture scheme, and would register a tone in a similar way. Navani would love to get her hands on some hion!
So as far as timelines, I think we need to look at it from two perspectives. Using the Mistborn scale, the events described probably take place in late era 3 or early era 4. Space travel is a thing, but it's not very common. Hoid and Design steal the ship at the end because then next one isn't due on the planet for 3 years. As for when Hoid is telling the story to someone on Roshar, my guess is that it's late era 4 or early era 5, because at that point tourism to the planet is common.
Ahhh ok so this is an important distinction, isn't it? The timeline of when Yumi's story happens and the timeline for when Hoid is *telling* the story. I didn't even think of making that distinction, but it's important.
The other thing with -nimi, is that the stone ground was too hot to walk on without the clogs. Definitely brought to mind how the Shin frown on walking on stone. The thing that takes away from my budding theory is that the Shin are described as having round eyes, where the art in Yumi has seemingly everyone with epicanthic folds.
Yeah that was what originally gave me pause, because everyone else on Roshar BUT the Shin have epicanthic folds; it sees the consensus in my comment section is that the "nimi" was just a translation for the Rosharians listening.
I didn't know that I wanted a cosmere version of Kimi no Na wa. So much fun. I love that they end with them just having a ramen shop.
I love how at 10:02 Yolen and Sho Del combined into yodel 😆
The line from this book that has me the most worried is one I haven't seen anyone else talk about, and that's the line from chapter 5 "It wasn't an *actual* body - we all kind of learned our lesson on that" which causes me to believe that something quite terrible is going to come from Ishar's experiments, something worse than what we've already seen.
I think it’s because we already all knew it was going to break very bad - in fact that line almost gives me hope because it means they *stop* doing it and maybe Syl is safe 🥲🥲
I need this book to be a syudio Gibli animated movie now. It was written to that! You can't convince me otherwise. I love it so goddamn much!
Although I've been vocal about not wanting an animated adaptation of Stormight, I COMPLETELY agree that Yumi would fit the animated/anime style perfectly. I almost couldn't even picture it as live-action.
I was thinking this the WHOLE time. I thought of no face from spirited away, or the demon in mononoke. Also chihiro being invisible at one point. The odd characters like design. The whole time I saw it as one of miyazakis works in my head
Great video! I assume that "Iron Seven Waystation" must have been built by Scadrians because we know they love naming things after metals (like the gates in Luthadel). Which also makes me wonder how many space stations they have by that point if they're up to #7 just for one metal. But who knows?
Ok but brilliance here; didn't even think of "iron" in the title meaning it was probably Scadrian. Gives more credence to the theory about Scardian's being everryywhereee
I would think that they would go through all 16 metals before adding numbers, so probably at least 96 stations older than Iron 7.
@@Lord_zeelit could also be in a 16th of a circle from scadrial
The “Iron” in Iron 7 may be an indicator of an arbitrary West. The metals Iron through Bronze are used as compass points.
as someone who literally has no idea about the cosmere (this was my first sanderson book!), i originally thought -nimi was a play on the honorific -nim in korean since yumi's half of the worldbuilding is loosely based on korean stuff hahah so cool to learn that it's actually an established thing from the cosmere!!
You are correct. The speculation you are seeing from everyone else is because we have only seen one other person use this honorific before in all the cosmere books, the character of Szeth in the Stormlight series so obviously we are all trying to figure out what connection there is to him and the Shin people he comes from. Especially since there seems to be other connections. For instance the Shin consider walking on stone to be sacrilegious. Yumi comes from a place where stone is too hot to walk on.
I loved this book! It’s on par with Tress for me. The visuals, the characters, and the Cosmere lore and mechanics were amazing. I love that with everything going on, it was still a story about character development in a weird situation.
I especially loved Design! She was such a great addition to this book and I loved how prominent she was. Yes, a big mystery is how Hoid managed to get her off planet, but we sort of knew he would manage somehow. I think her sword comment mostly reflects how Hoid couldn’t hurt anyone with a sword anyway.
With regard to your Awakened machine going haywire because of its commands comment, this machine is essentially Nightblood with a different purpose.
I haven't read this yet but I'm super excited about Virtuosity (the Shards are some of my favourite things about the cosmere and her Intent is very close to my heart). As for why she Splintered herself, it's very intriguing, esp as WOB said previously she was travelling to experience different forms of artistic expression and didn't want to get tied down. It could be for any number of reasons, including negative ones like a threat, but we know Shards are compelled by their Intents and as a creative person myself I could see Virtuosity inspired to sacrifice herself for her art and thereby inspire others. It's very in line with the artistic spirit especially if it's not bounded by other balancing aspects. Odium must be relieved he can cross another of his brethren off the list (damn him!).
I feel like the Awakened things going bad because of poorly-worded Commands was really necessary. We had seen Nightblood, but it was kind of suggested that Nightblood was unique. And it’s very, very clear now that Nightblood is not one of a kind.
Yes, totally agree, especially as investiture gets easier to obtain and people world-hop, we will probably see more dangerous things get created.
Also, Nightblood is endearingly bad. We're told that he was a mistake, but from the perspective of the reader he's really cool and we like him. We needed this example of something that's absolutely and clearly a complete disaster.
We knew that something like Nightblood could happen again, since the whole reason Vasher killed his wife was to prevent her from telling anyone else the secret behind how she made Nightblood.
I rarely subscribe to channels. This is the first video of yours that I've seen and I'm only 1 minute and 30 seconds in. You've already earned my subscription. The production quality is great and you really seem comfortable on camera. Excited to watch more of your videos.
I really liked the awakened tech. Be very careful what command you give awakened things.
I think it's going to be a very cool "game" in the future to think of how commands can go wrong.
I think the iron 7 way station would hint at when mistborn reaches era 4 (that's when the space age saga is supposed to be if im remembering correctly)
Man I need to pay attention more when I'm reading these books. I ways watch these sorts of videos after reading and feel like I missed half the book, literally didn't pick up on 90% of the stuff talked about here
There is absolutely nothing wrong with reading the book for the narrative and not like a crazy Cosmere person 🤣😭 I just find it fun lol
I forgot which one but in the epitaph of one of the original trilogy books of Mistborn, it's mentioned how The Lord Ruler actively suppressed most technological advances on the planet and that if it weren't for that, they'd be much further ahead than most planets at that point in time. And to that that in Wax and Wayne, we can actually see how fast it's been developmed and see the beginnings of the industrial age, and I think Harmony did get involved with that somehow, it's safe to say that it'd be one of the first to be space-faring.
Seeing how Hoid is unable to physically harm people, he would really only summon Design for self defense. Though he'd want to do it in a way where he wouldn't be at risk of hurting the attacker. So I would think he wouldn't use a blade since he would risk harming the attacker
or just dull the edge
You're right, this is probably it. I still like the idea of thinking about what he summons tho lol
I think that Scadrians getting off planet first makes a lot of sense specially considering the flying machines they have in Era 2 not to mention the translating metal minds that they use
So it would be easy for them to engage in commerce as they´d be able to comunicate very well with anyone as long as they are in their planets.
Also Rosharans would be a close second now that they have also flying machines like the Fourth Bridge and can use Surgebinding to create Connection between people to translate for them
Maybe even we get to see space age Scadrians fighting space age Rosharans.
And man! What would a confrontation like that look like? Imagine being able to summon your ship in the Cognitive Realm from a bead of black glass and travelling through there at the same time as the Phisical ship is in the Phisical Realm aswell.
You might be able to steer the ship in the Cognitive Realm to be on the same place that an enemy ship is in the Phisical and have your people board that enemy ship by making them jump from the Cognitive Real to the Phisical. And boom. You have Surgebinders inside an enemy vessel! That would be wild
The fibonacci sequence stuff was more likely due to it being an artistic principle- the Golden Ratio- used in visual composition as well as musical composition. So less about a connection to our universe and more about the idea of it being a fundamental artistic pattern/force.
Loving these videos. Finally able to watch as working through the secret novels now.
💯 on the -nimi honorific connection to the Shin...curious to learn more about that
About the fibonacci sequence: we don't really 'have' the fibonacci sequence just like we do not have the number 7. It is a relatively simple mathematical recurrence, and this is why it appears in a few places.
Same with the golden ratio. It is a root of a relatively simple polynomial.
The space travelers in Sixth of the Dusk are implied to be Scadrians, so the idea that Rosharans would have heard about Scardial by now makes sense.
I didn't realize that about Sixth of the Dusk! I need to reread it now. That was one of the first things I read in the cosmere weirdly so I don't remember it a ton.
Unless I'm mistaken, didn't Brandon do a reading of part of a Sixth of the Dusk sequel that contained a space travel who was very Rosharan and talking about how they could help against "The Ones Above?" I really think the Scadrians and Rosharans are going to be pretty close in terms of when they get off world, with maybe a slight edge to the Scadrians
@@GoErikTheRed And we see the Ones Above take off from the planet in a ship where the means of landing and take off is utterly invisable but requires a large steel plate to have been built for the ship to land/take off from.
Seems to be the two sides are in competition with each other for resources, or at least certain factions on each side. Most likely the Scadrian's focus on space travel in the physical realm, while the Rosharn's focus on travel via the Cognitive realm, since they'd have Radiants with the Surge of Transportation to make getting in and out of it easier.
if people using the word 'nimi' is a hint that shin people originally come from Komashi it would be super ironic that the people from the one planet inspired by korean and japanese culture are actually the oddity in roshar in terms of eye shapes but in the complete opposite way from real life
but I do think this is possibility, they might have might have migrated from komashi to roshar long ago. I feel like Hoid would have indicated that they arent actually saying the word nimi exactly but a similar word to mean the same thing the same way he was talking about the other language differences, or maybe both shin and people in komashi were influenced by something else to use similar words
also for the floating plants, I think it might have been a hint that its all part of the shroud I'm not sure if Hoid confirms if thats how the planet was pre machine overlord but if it was I also saw some people say that the plants might be using some magic similar to scadrian magic to make themselves lighter.
Well, I think we know all the Rosharians came from Ashyn, which is why I was confused because I originally thought it was pointing to that. I think it might just be using a word Rosharians would recognize, even though it isn't explicitly stated...
@@Bookborn not all rosharians came from ashyn no, the iriali for example came from somewhere else
considering the distinct differences between the features of shin people and other rosharians is what made me think they might be from somewhere else too
@@Bookborn But I do think I may actually be wrong about the shin being originally from komashi because hoid does mention nikaro's people look similar to veden people not the shin and the art also depicts them with epicanthic eyes
Im pretty sure we know that hoid could move investeure off world allready at the time off rythem of war before groups like the ghostbloods learn the way, also the fact hoid himself isent trapped on yolen indicates that he could do so for a long time
Hearing this gave me an interesting idea about why the shard fractured. Like how autonomy has multiple avatars this might be a way to do something similar. But instead of action, it person with the best art that will make themselves into the an avatar by pulling Investiture into themselves with the art. Its a talent competition with godhood as the grade prize
It would be very interesting if the aftereffects of being a Dawnshard applied to Design in some way!
I loved this book! I think it's tied with Tress for me. I also really enjoyed the art. The entire time it felt like I was watching a great anime lol
I think I enjoyed the world in this one more and some elements of it more, but a couple of scenes bothered me and it was romance-focused, so I think it's tied with Tress for me too haha
Re the fabrial for testing investiture and how it's powered; if I recall correctly she plugs it into the hion? So I think it isn't stormlight powered but powered that way. It doesn't seem to have been designed to be powered that way though (since Hoid bought it with them, rather than it coming from this world) so I guess Stormlight-powered fabrials could be powered by any form of pure investiture (although I suspect we already knew that)
This was a great video! I assumed Hoid was talking specifically to other worldhoppers like Khrissala and Vasher. But maybe he was relating it to Rosharians in general.
Well the plants thing is a local adaptation similar to the rosharan creatures. The plants probably have some sort of bonded spirit or something similar to how native rosharan creatures have spren bound to them that makes them stronger/lighter than they should be.
The awakened machines and Blade Runner vibe feels like foreshadowing for what the cyberpunky Mistborn Era 3 will look like. Into it!!! ❤❤❤
I think the plants were capable of lashings. In the Windrunners from Roshar sense. I mean, they are talked about as if they are consciously choosing to do this, so I'm betting they are invested a little and use that to perform lashings to raise and lower themselves as needed.
Totally random; but I love that you call your viewers "nerds" instead of bestie or some other uncomfortable parasocial word. It makes me feel at ease and helps me engage with you as a creator in a safe way. So just, thank you, for your content, for you.
I was thinking while reading how much the story reminded me of Final Fantasy 10. I was so happy when Brandon spoke about it. I really loved this book. My favourite SP so far. Still not the biggest fan of Hoid telling us these stories though.
*****Possible SPOILERS contained *****
Heyyy, I'm a new listener/ watcher, but appreciated your mention of awakened machines across other cosmere novelsbthat I've missed. Also, wanted to mention that I believe any mention of awakened objects (especially when given a command) is setup for better understanding Nightblood (the sword that was awakened in Warbreaker).
And hearing the Nimmi?(apologies if mispelled) mention makes me curious of how this world amd its magic system relate to Nightblood, Nalthis, and their magic.
Regarding the scholars using Stormlight to power the machine, I doubt that's the case because the machine was activated 1700 years before the main story, and even if Yumi is far in the future that probably means that the machine was created before people figured out how to get Stormlight off world (unless Yumi is a solid 2 millennia after the "present day" of Stormlight and Mistborn Era 2). Although that does make me curious as to how the scholars got access to and knowledge of Awakening
I recall some previous discussion from reading way too much into BrandoSando's Q&A's that Elantrians are pretty much the GOATs of investiture powers, more so than returned, radiants or powerful allomancers.
I also think that it takes place very late in the cosmere. And the Scadrials being the ones who are the first everywhere sounds logic to me. Those hion lines and the way the spirits where transformed and often split. reminded me of fabrials and the experiments with spren on roshar.
The Fibonacci sequence is a pretty basic mathematical sequence, and one should expect it to arise in any world where 1+1=2. That's literally the complexity of the math we're dealing with here. So I wouldn't expect that to imply any connection to Earth
Aren't there 4 Scholars mentioned in War Breaker? Where they awaked stuff and things devolved to war and violence?
I'm late on these secret projects and all but yeah this art grabbed me when I went to the bookstore. I originally was going to buy the frugal wizard book just based on the ridiculousness of the idea but at the store that Yumi cover was just so awesome I ended up getting this one instead. 😂
Sp2 was terrible, I agree.
I don’t think this is too far into the future and if it is, we were just introduced to a way for memory wiping to ‘feel’ like time travel. Odium showed that he can do this from a distance. So how far and how many people can you extend this ability to? Since Yumi and Hoid were vulnerable, I expect there to be few defenses against this trick.
Can you imprison calidan and wipe his mind every day and have him be 1400 years old on the space station?
On the "what form Hoid uses for Design," question. I don't know if he does use her as a weapon. Now I don't think it's ever been directly stated, But I think it's been pretty obvious throughout the Cosmere that Hoid can't hurt people. That he's bound with some sort of oath to prevent him from causing physical violence to another living being.
The space station having iron in the name made me think it was probably scadrian as presumably they are the first world to achieve space travel
In the past we have seen Hoid not being able to hurt people, physically at least. Also we have seen with the Returned that Investiture is interchangeable to some extent, so she could have been chugging the Hion to power the weaving or herself I guess
I got to this book late, it had just been sitting on both my shelf and Kindle while life was going on. I enjoyed it, and thought it was a solid 4 star. I think I liked it more than Tress, but only just. Thanks for this video, I forgot to start writing down Cosmere things and questions so this was perfect.
Since this whole story is so oriental-flavored, I can only assume that hion is "hee-on" since pretty much every language (that isn't English) defaults to using a long E sound for any word with an "i" in it. Plus it rhymes with "neon" that way, which makes sense given how it's described (even if it only comes in one pre-determined set of paired colors).
Adonalsium - Ey don all see um, Adonalsium.
Iron Seven Waystation. Which culture might POSSIBLY name their space station(s) after a metal, particularly one that would be very useful in moving large metal spacecraft around? Also, the end of The Lost Metal should give away which Cosmere planet is going to develop space travel first.
Virtuosity killed herself. Or did the Shard equivalent. Very on-point for an artistic savant, I'd say. I'm sure you could name a few tortured, misunderstood artists from History who suffered similar fates.
There may not be Earth, but Math is Math. You don't need Earth to have a Fibonacci sequence (although it would undoubtedly be named after it's Cosmere discoverer instead). Hell, it might even be named after a Cryptic. Or BE a Cryptic. Who knows?
With the plants i got the vibe that it was using some way of storing weight like the Scadrial medallions in Era 2 that they use when they flym we know that storing weight is possible so the plants coukd have evolved a natrual way if doing this
I dont remember which book it was. But I remeber them saying that scadrial was more advanced than other planets. So you are probably right about them reaching other planets first. Plus era 3 i thought is supposed to during a space age. Maybe im wrong, but im fairly certain.
I believe Endowment giving Breaths is a form of Splintering. But there’s a second form of Splintering like when Odium “killed” Honor, basically making it impossible for someone else to take him up as His vessel
Right! I know we’ve seen splintering, but it specifically says that Virtuosity splintered *herself* which is the part I’m interested in since it seems like her choice, versus other shards who seemed to be splintered by an outside force
@@Bookborn yes exactly. I intend on re-reading Warbreaker soon cuz it’s the foggiest one for me now, but I remember Endowment Splintering herself to gift Breaths to the Returned, iirc. That’s the only other example I can think of
@@trevorfultz I didn't think that was the case, I thought Endowment was still solid. A Shard doesn't need splintered to give some of their power to mortals. On Scadrial neither Shard is splintered (quite the opposite at this point) but lots of people are invested there and we even seen physical pieces of the Shards in the form of god metals. Essentially, some of the investiture of Shards can be split off without it being a splintering, and that investiture can return to them later and be recycled. What Virtuosity did, and what was done to Honor, is something much more complete and irrevocable.
@@Lord_zeel I checked Coppermind last night after commenting cuz I was curious and they claim it was an example of Splintering. But specifically when Endowment gifts Breaths to Returned
It makes sense for Elantrians to be more Invested than Returned. Elantrians are directly connected to the Dor, while Returned only have a supercharged Breath.
I don't think Hoid uses any weapon since he can't harm others.
It might be that since The Pits on Scandrial were a main trade route that a lot of cultural stuff, including knowledge of Ironeyes and their magic systems, propagated out. Also Khriss might have told them
Him referencing things in Scandrial and Roshar makes me think he must be telling this to someone cosmere aware. That doesn't really narrow it down after RoW, but still
I believe this story takes place around the final era of Mistborn, as Branderson has stated that era will be cyberpunk. I definitely got cyberpunk vibes from this book so that’s the theory I’m going with! It certainly takes place after the events of the first 5 storm light books, if not all ten books.
No, Era-4 is going to be far future, Sci-fi level tech, and that very much exists since Hoid and Design get away by hijacking the locals space ship that Design figures could get them to the nearest hub of interplanetary travel.
The Cyberpunk one is a potential, he'd like to write it but isn't sure he'll have the time trilogy set between current era's 3 and 4.
The reason the plants floated is because they were pure investiture. The entire village Yumi lived in was walled off with enough Shoud as to make it impenetrable (to most things) and the Farher Machine wiped her memory and rebuilt a different village every day as a form of imprisonment. She was the only thing with enough Investiture and to not be fully absorbed by it. Hoid mentions the heat from the ground as a kind of by-product from the machine, though that doesn't fully leave after the Father machine is stopped.
Re Scadrial: Brandon plans for Misborn to go from medieval tech (era 1) to faster than light travel (era 4), and that they will probably be the first to get FTL technology. They were delayed a good bit due to the effective tech freeze under the Lord Ruler, but under Harmony they seems to be catching up very quickly. Thus your hunch of Scadrial tech being present on other worlds seems very feasible to me.
Theres a thing about virtuosity I dont think we got a perfect answer for. How did she splinter herself? Did she splinter most of herself, or like half( afterall there are splinters of Odium&cultivation&honor(before he died) without those shards having died.)?
Also, one other scary thing for me is the fact that the shroud is WORSE than THRENODY. A man made machine messed up a world more than the clash between Odium and Ambition(sure, she was JUST mortally wounded, but its a matter of shardic level). And the nightmares look like nightblood to an extent. I think theres a connection here, Humans screwing up with their commands leads to black smoke and devastation I think.
SP 4 Preview Spoilers Below!!!
We know from the SP4 preview that after the events of Stormlight 5, Rosharans experience some sort of diaspora where they end up in many places across the Cosmere. “-Nimi” could be the influence of some Shin soon after SA5 but long before Yumi.
So I listened to it so don't remember the wording, but I think there was a refrence to the listener having swallowed stormlight spheres before, which Makes me think the lopen?
Waiiit wait wait, I need to go find where this was, I completely missed this...
I think Navani figured out how to take investiture off planet with her experiments of changing its rhythms in storm light book 4.
I loved Design here!
She was so great and perfect for Hoid as a pair. I wonder how she would've acted towards Elhokar 🥲
@@Bookborn Ugh! Do you think she would have helped him loosen up and have more 'fun' as a king?
@@IanKernohan I think we would've seen a very similar Syl/Kaladin relationship, just a little sillier for sure. So sad 😭
I assumed when Design said she makes "an encouragingly mediocre sword" that she was comparing herself mathematically with the might of Nightblood.
about the fibonacci sequence... the fibonacci sequence doesn't have anything to do with earth.
Just start with 1,1 and then add up the previous two numbers a few times.
So, It doesn't imply earth is in the cosmere.
The Fibonacci Sequence is never mentioned by it's Earth name, it is described and given a couple In-Cosmere names. Mathmatical numbers/sequences are universal (mmmmm..... numbers... many numbers) and while they may not call them what we call them, such a series would be easy to figure out - we had it figured out in 300 BCE. Likely, there is a cryptic that represents the concept.
Great video. I think Warbreaker should be included in your spoiler warning due to the Returned and Awakened references
I don’t consider those spoilers since they are things that are introduced pretty early on and aren’t plot points!
Roommate and i are pretty confident that scadriel was the first to reach the space age. Were getting 80s tech age in era 3 so this all tracks
I think why most people thought Returned and Elantrians are equally invested because we have interacted mostly with the strong(est) Returned characters. I mean Elantrians have so much investiture that their skin has a bright metallic (perhaps an allusion godmetals) glow on a level much beyond what Radiants glow.
(Earmuffs) Hope these come out on Audiobooks at some point! Until then I'll have to wait to watch this
They are! Available everywhere except for Audible on the 11th. I've used Barnes and Noble and Google Play Books before and they're both just as good as audible for my needs.
I listened to the audiobook on Spotify
Thanks! I typically wait for the local library to get them, but will have to go search for the Sanderson ones.
@@joshjansen86 I recommend requesting them at your library. I've done that a lot and had mostly success. Sometimes you'll have to wait longer and sometimes it just doesn't fit into their budget.
Everyone beat me to it lol. I hope you enjoy it when you get a hold of it!
If we don’t see fae on Whimsy’s planet, we riot!
Brandon keeps teasing us with Whimsy. Just SHOW US ALREADY!
I think Tress is the furthest in the timeline and this (Yumi) is behind it. Maybe after they stole the spaceship, they ended up on Tress' world. However, where the heck is Design during Tress?
Interesting! I'm convinced Yumi is after Tress but I really don't know. I'm also still wondering where Design was...
@@Bookborn My main line of thinking of Tress being last (so far) is Hoid not being described as anything resembling an Elantrian. While that crafty little storyteller could've simply omitted it, I don't think it had happened yet. After so long of trying to become Elantrian, he doesn't seem like the type to hide/omit that part, and he doesn't explain his glowing skin to his audience, making me think it hadn't happened yet
Also, nowhere in his Yumi story does he recall being turned... dumb? (the actual curse has slipped my mind at this time) by the Elantrian. Hoid also talks about his memories being stolen (or something along those lines) but nothing about his embarrassing time on Lumar.
Unless... His audience during the Tress and Yumi stories are the same person/group... Nah.. or I'm just thinking too much.. RAFO for now.
I think warden-nimi might be used with that honorific because Hoid is narrating it to someone on Roshar who is possibly a Shin.
Hoid probably uses Design as a mace or a club when he uses her as a weapon. Hoid would rather cut people with his words and if they can't handle that then he would beat them upside the head with a mace or a club.
I’m sitting here every day hoping for my shipping notification, and I keep thinking “did they forget me”, but then I remember we’re not yet halfway through the month. 😅
-T
Did it say that the fabrial was from Roshar? I think it is another example of Hoid using a word that can be understood by a Rosharian.
I think Design said it was a fabrial; as Design is from Roshar (spren) I think it's probably a real Fabrial. (But I'd have to go back and see if it's Design saying that or Hoid)
@@Bookborn Yes Design said it. I just think the term "fabrial" might refer to any type of device (mechanical?) that uses or analyzes Investiture. Hoid or someone else may have created this device anywhere, not necessarily Roshar. Design may have said any word there, but Hoid translates it to fabrial, so his audience understands what it was.
If Hoid can't hurt anyone, maybe he can't make a sword.
Yeah, this makes sense - I was thinking about it from Design's side, but Hoid can't hurt anyone so what's the *point* of making a sword (pun intended)
There was a bizarre reference explaining that one of the sleepless's body's could be an entire planet....
I think when it comes to things like the Fibonacci sequence, he just uses words from our world. He could make up an in universe word for it, but then he would need to explain it. I don't know about you but I think plenty of other readers would struggle with it. I had some people tell me RoW was to complex.
Well he technically never used the phrase Fibonacci sequence lol just described it. But yeah, it's probably not deep
I think the floating trees are storing weight somehow.
OMG FINALLY SOMEONE ANSWERING THIS IN A WAY THAT MAKES SENSE
The Fibonacci bit seems like just _math TM,_ and not specifically Earth related. It makes sense to me that it’d be important/sacred here, given its alleged link to beauty and art.
Theres a description in the book about nightmares looking like black tar and I remember that that same description is usted in stormlight to describe some sort of creature. I don't know if they are related. Does anybody know something about that?
I feel like (with no research) the "machine" thing feels like Autonomy tried to set something up then got annoyed and left because it removed free will and maybe Virtuosity splintered to stop Autonomy's plans. Feels a bit like Mistborn Era 2 and if I recall correctly, there were comments about Autonomy screwing up other planets before moving to Scadriel.
I don't think so. It's clear that the culture Yumi lived in was around for a LONG time, and their whole deal is about getting the spirits to turn into stuff and the spirits are like Spren - they are little splinters of the shard. That means she splintered herself not 1700 years before the story, but many hundreds of thousands of years before that. Most likely this was done either because she wanted to in order to bless her planets with her power, or because she wanted to protect her power from someone that wanted to take it for themselves.
Fibbonaci sequence did not stop me. At least Hoid did not call it by our Earth's name. It is a sequence of numbers that is pretty common in art. I mean for proportions and segementation. No wonder it is referred to even in Cosmere.
Where my mind paused for a second is when Sanderson mentioned ronins. I often feel like words for things and concepts from other cultures introduced in an English-based fantasy literature should be used under made-up names. He uses made up japanese-like sounding words for some things, but then direct reference to "ronins" threw me off, as if he was referring to the actual Japan on our planet Earth. Might have included Earth in the Cosmere then, I wouldn't have been able to use that argument then :-)
I read the audiobook. Does anyone know where I can find the images?