Talk:The Stormlight Archive

Implied or inferred, but not confirmed to my knowledge - 6-24-10

Do we have a citation for this? "Sanderson's work on completing the final two books of The Wheel of Time series will also contribute to a slower start to working on the second and third books of The Stormlight Archive." --Caleballen (talk) 18:42, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Northern Hemisphere season references

the page makes reference to "release of the first book (fall 2012)" - while this may be accurate for the northern hemisphere, it is not accurate globally. Is there a wiki policy on this? should it be amended to "3rd quarter 2012"?Trok333 (talk) 01:16, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

When possible, it is better to avoid these. There is a naming conventions article at WP:Naming conventions (Seasons) where there are some alternatives. It was easier in this case to remove Fall 2012 anyway (since it was not going to be out then anyway due to the delay) than to put "between September and December" or the less approximate (4th quarter 2012) in this case though.Caidh (talk) 02:54, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

References regarding soulcasting 24, 25

The page states that the ability to soulcast may be genetic (reference 24) as her father "was capable of soulcasting but did not have a functioning soulcaster". There is nothing on the page referenced to support this claim. The soulcaster Shallan posseses at this point in the book WAS her fathers, and it was revealed to the reader earlier in the book that her father's steward used the (previously functioning) soulcaster to secure economic boons for their house. It is also hinted at that the same event which resulted in her father's death also broke the soulcaster. In fact, according to many sources from interviews with Sanderson himself, as well as the Coppermind wiki which is devoted to the worlds from his work, the ability to surgebind (of which Soulcasting without a soulcaster fabrial is a subset) is most definitely NOT genetic but a result of a bond formed with spren. There are exceptions however, such as the character Szeth whom Sanderson has stated does not have a spren bonded with him despite being capable of surgebinding.

Similarly, there is no evidence or mention of Dalinar, Jasnah's brother, "having seen or observed" the same spren that were following Shallan unseen on the page cited by reference 25. No where in the first book does Dalinar experience any strange or unusual interactions with spren. The sole caveat being that during highstorms he experiences visions of the past accompanied by a narrative and warning from the Almighty. To posit that he has any direct connection to the spren seen by Shallan is completely unfounded.

I apologize for lack of supporting material right now but strongly urge someone to look into the matter and correct this. 173.177.229.163 (talk) 12:02, 4 February 2014 (UTC)Anonymous User

Thank you for posting here. As far as I know you are correct. The incorrect information has been removed. In the future you can make the change yourself; just be sure to include an edit summary so other editors understand why you made the change. If everything cannot fit into the limited space afforded in the edit summary put some information there and make a post like this in the talk page. Spidey104 14:23, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

Table

Should we put up a table under the books in the series section, regarding pages, word count etc.? --BurstDragon 16:06, 6 March 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by BurstDragon (talk • contribs)

Are highstorms hurricanes?

So one of my edits was reverted, and I guess the proper etiquette is to discuss the edit on the talk page, right? So here was the edit, and here is my justification:

Apparently he uses the word hurricanes in the flap-text. I don't have my copy of the book here (and I only had the paperback), but he does not use the word "hurricane" where his website posts the flap text.

In addition, highstorms are nothing like hurricanes (in my opinion, at least); they are both weather phenomena, but that is pretty much where the similarity ends.

Hurricanes are roughly radially symmetric storms, characterized by high winds, intense rainfall and flood potential, and a low-pressure eye. They ramp up slowly over time, and taper off slowly after the eye passes.

Highstorms are not radially symmetric; they are characterized by a violent "stormwall", a front of high winds and heavy rain. After this stormwall passes, the highstorm slowly tapers off in intensity, ending in light rain.

This is a great description of an mesoscale convective system or a derecho. These are characterized by a sharp front that is often visible in the form of a shelf cloud (like this or this or this) with an region of high intensity rain, winds, and lightning, followed by lower intensity rain.

Derechos and MCSs are much better descriptors of highstorms than hurricanes, and I think that describing them as hurricanes is misleading. I think just explaining that highstorms are periodic storms characterized by a violent stormfront is the best way to go (rather than making people look up what a derecho or an MCS is).

I don't know if there's any way to summon the guy who reverted my edit. I guess what I'll do is that if there's no reply within a week I'll make my change again and refer to the talk page.

F22raptor07 (talk) 19:54, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

I think your description is more accurate as to how they are depicted. Even if the jacket mentions the word hurricanes (I can't check, I only have the ebook) your description appears to be more accurate. I think using derecho, aside from being confusing to people who don't know the word, may be overly specific. Seems like something someone should ask the author at a signing/interview though.Caidh (talk) 01:16, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Well, it's been longer than the week I promised, so I'm going to go ahead and make the changes to the highstorm descriptions. F22raptor07 (talk) 22:18, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Reference 10

Reference 10 states that the Q&A happened in October 2013 and was retrieved in February of 2013. I'm assuming it means February of 2014. However I also went and checked the source and it is still valid as of 9/2/2014. However, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to fix it. Thanks! TiCaudata (talk) 01:24, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Circular sentence

The line "Shallan's father's steward knew how to use a soulcaster,[39] as he used Shallan's father's soulcaster." contains circular logic. Maetrix (talk) 06:43, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

Userboxes

Hi all, I've created some userboxes for editors' talk pages; two general ones, and ten for each of the Radiant orders. Life before death!

Wikipedia:Userboxes/The arts/Books/Series/02#The Stormlight Archive

Radagast (talk) 18:29, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

Books Word Count

In the Books section, each book's word count is listed as is a total. The problem is that the total does not add up to the listed total. Unless my old TI-36X & my phone's calculator are both wrong the actual total of the listed word counts is 1787571. 97.103.33.244 (talk) 04:10, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

Stormlight 5 Release Date?

The page says that the fifth book is scheduled to release in fall 2024, but the source says fall or Christmas 2023. What's up with that? Ice Cream Sandwich 7 (talk) 03:40, 30 October 2022 (UTC)

Only that updating refs is pain in the ass ;) But did just that and survived the peril... Mithoron (talk) 14:19, 30 October 2022 (UTC)

Magic Subsubsections are Incomplete

In the subheading, there are two subsubheadings that have no text, Voidbinding and Old Magic. Could someone knowledgable about the topic fill them out? MekuMeku216 (talk) 16:59, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

I've put in a short summary for each. Radagast (talk) 17:38, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

novellas?

Wikipedia cites main American English dictionary a novella is between 17,500 and 40,000 words (70 to 160 pages), which almost 10 other sources roughly agree with (or define novelettes up to size of smallest novella) with one other source saying 50,000 words. Though American English defines a run-on sentence half the size of standard/British English, when I was a kid, most novels were smaller, and novellas in middle of that length were popular (even in UK) but most people called them novels. The author can call them what he wants, but they fit the definition of standard (not short) length 'novels' and not novellas--dchmelik☀️🦉🐝🐍(talk|contrib) 03:17, 17 February 2025 (UTC)

If the shorter companion books are novels, what are the main-series books to be called? 76.110.136.121 (talk) 17:13, 4 June 2025 (UTC)

Novels or long novels (opposite Japanese term 'light novel' though these are getting longer too). It doesn't matter they have same classification; it's about minimum size, not maximum size. The Mahabharata is the world's longest epic (18 books) but there's no extra word to describe long epic; only short epic.--dchmelik☀️🦉🐝🐍(talk|contrib) 06:19, 24 June 2025 (UTC)

High Fantasy {cite} tag

Do we really need a citation for the claim that The Stormlight Archive is high fantasy? It's not set in any real environment, and therefore not "low fantasy". It's also much more concerned with "fate of the world" themes than Sword and Spell fantasy 76.110.136.121 (talk) 17:13, 4 June 2025 (UTC)

removal of spoilers

Hi @Mithoron, you appear to have re-removed some material from the characters section, including Taravangian's ascension to Odium, Kaladin becoming a Herald, Dalinar being killed, Szeth leaving the Skybreakers, and Moash joining Odium. Can I ask why you did this? As I mentioned in my edit summary when I reverted your previous edit, I had assumed it was to remove spoilers, which is expressly disallowed per wp:spoilers. If there is some other reason why you think that material is non-encyclopedic, please say so. Otherwise, it should probably be re-added. Odanr (she/it) (talk) 08:11, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

This section should describe characters - who they are, not summarise plot in jarring manner. This was badly written, vague and sometimes incorrect - more "fancrufty" than some of the description of the world you deleted (a bit of info about the setting should definitely be here). Mithoron (talk) 14:04, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

I don't disagree in principle, but in practice I'd argue that some amount of plot description is necessary to describe the characters. For example, I really don't think it is possible to effectively describe Taravangian's character without mentioning him becoming Odium. Odanr (she/it) (talk) 22:44, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

Character focus by book table

The focus characters in each book look wrong or misleading. All of the main 5 published books follow multiple characters. Should this column be removed or updated with every POV character? ~2025-43573-42 (talk) 12:44, 28 December 2025 (UTC)

Each novel has a single character who's backstory is explored through flashbacks and that's who's named as focus character M.kai.we (talk) 16:02, 7 March 2026 (UTC)

Shallan Davar

Is there in world proof of her haveing “dissociative identity disorder” (I’ve only read the first book but it’s not mentioned there) ~2026-18235-69 (talk) 18:23, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

It's a major plot point from the third book onwards. Radagast (talk) 21:11, 23 March 2026 (UTC)