Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Cosmere Q&A - 17th Shard (Verbatim)

8. A bit RAFO but: Is Szeth bounded to the Oathstone (master) with magic/force or just with his honour? As I can remember, in the end of WoK he nearly killed Taravangian.

RAFO. :)

szeth, taravangian, oathstone, stormlight archive, rafo,

Pocatello Signing Report - LairdDuncan (Paraphrased)

Is there a pattern to Taravangian's stupid/smart cycle, or is it actually random?

His aides are convinced that it is random, but if you plotted it out, it's really a distribution curve that is only made to look random.

taravangian,

WOR Signing Table Q&A (Verbatim)

If Taravangian made the Diagram, and telling the future is of the Voidbringers, is that a bad sign?

It depends on if you're speaking culturally or actually magically.

Question

Magically, I guess.

Brandon Sanderson

Because he would claim to you that he did it all with strength of mind and no magical influence other than enhanced mind. That's what he would tell you. And so in that case it would not be—culturally they'd look very weirdly at it, but spiritually he would say it's not of the Voidbringers.

Question

Right. He would say that.

Brandon Sanderson

Uh-huh.

words of radiance, taravangian, parshendi, stormlight archive,

Orem Signing Report - Zas678 (Paraphrased)

And my other question is about Taravangian. It becomes clear that when he's smart, he's less compassionate, and when he's dumb, he's more compassionate.

Yeah, he mentions that in his interlude.

Zas678

Is that intentional, or is that just how you believe intelligence works?

Brandon Sanderson (Parapharased)

No, that's intentional. There's plenty of really smart people who are also compassionate, and dumb people who aren't.

Zas678

So when Taravangian is smart, his Cognitive aspect is stronger. So when he’s dumb, is his Spiritual aspect stronger?

Brandon Sanderson

*grins and pulls out a RAFO card*

taravangian,

WoR Signing Report - darkanimereal1 and luke (Verbatim)

Did Taravangian go to see the Nightwatcher before or after Gavilar's assassination?

Um, oh man. I'm going to have to look at my timeline. I believe it's before, but I can't guarantee I'm right, because these things are all happening around the same time.

Question

Because he says that Gavilar confided in him the night of.

Brandon Sanderson

Ooooh, you're right. Nope, it's after. It is after. You can send that question to Peter so we can confirm it. There might be something I'm forgetting about Taravangian.

[Peter said by PM: "As far as I can tell from what the book says, he went to the Nightwatcher after the assassination."]

taravangian, chronology, nightwatcher,

Firefight Signing Line Audio (Paraphrased)

I read online, something about one of your original drafts, I think it was about Gavilar, and it was where he was blind?

Yeah that was actually Taravangian, in the oldest version. One of the very first things I wrote was that, though Taravangian had a different name then, and was very different. Szeth has stayed the same through all the revisions. Kaladin has changed wildly, and almost everybody has changed dramatically, except Szeth is the same person. Him and Dalinar are the same.

way of kings prime, taravangian, szeth, kaladin, dalinar,

OdysseyCon 2016

How much did Super Mind Taravangian know about the Cosmere as a whole, roughly, rough estimate.

He had a little bit of knowledge. Not as much as... not as much conscious knowledge.

Tags

OdysseyCon 2016

Are we ever going to learn what threat Taravangian is referring to?

Uhhh, yes (So is there a different threat than Odium?)

Tags

Brandon Sanderson RAFOlympics at JordanCon 8 (Verbatim)

This is from our earlier discussion. So Taravangian…(diagram king guy) He asks the Nightwatcher for two things. The capacity to stop what is coming and the capacity to save humankind. And he gets this weird thing to happen. Is the intelligence and empathy thing because both of those things can’t come true at the same time?

That’s an excellent question. RAFO!!!

Question

Let me ask a parallel to that. Does the NW perceive those as the same boon or two parallel boons?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO!!! (big grin in his voice)

Audience

laughter

taravangian, nightwatcher, boons,