My crazy Way of Kings theory

Joined
Jan 4, 2002
Messages
2,448
Location
Louisville, KY
Okay, so I'm only just now on page 500 or so of Way of Kings, reading it for the first time. It's taking me awhile to plow through it, but I'm dedicated to reading at least this one because I like what Sanderson did with WoT, and I'm willing to give him a shot at selling me on his own meaty fantasy world. I really do like several of the ideas I'm seeing coming up like the Shardblades, but I'm encountering the apparently not-all-that-rare reaction that the exposition is a bit daunting.

Nonetheless, I'm making this thread because I just want to put down in public, before I read any further, my wacked-out, crazy theory about what I think might be the overarching story to this series. I will freely stipulate that I'm almost certainly wrong, and probably am proven wrong even before I finish this book. It just all seems to spur my imagination to this crazy theory, and I know it can be fun for the fans to see the newbies get it super wrong anyway. :p

My random thought/theory that's been building so far is this: That all these events are taking place within a virtual reality/ augmented reality that all the people in Roshar experience their whole lives without realizing it. It's a bit Matrix-y, but not quite that dark. What made me think this started with the spren. The way they represent abstract things like ideals or emotions, and are often just seen as glowing dots or forms made me think of a science fiction story I read once where humans had been augmented with nanogenes generations previously, so that now they could activate essentially a Google-glass kind of vision where everywhere they looked they were getting data readouts, from oxygen content of the air to soil nutrient values, etc. The spren sort of remind me of that, especially the way that you usually don't see other people's spren (though I have gotten far enough to know that's not always the case, re: Syl). Still, I love the idea that all these folks are constantly getting data fed to them by nanogenes, but since they have lost any concept of technology they just assume they're fairy-like beings and take them as just a part of life.

The Shardplate also feeds into my theory. I've gotten to parts where it describes how when you put on the helmet it becomes translucent so you can see out of it from the inside. In my head I'm totally visualizing a medieval person putting on Tony Stark's Iron Man armor and just thinking it's armor with magical properties. Likewise, and although I've only seen this happen back in the prologue so far, I could see the assassin's ability to change how gravity reacts to him with Stormlight as being a kind of Neo-like ability to subtly alter the virtual reality code around him so that he can perform superhuman feats of acrobatics.

Likewise, I could imagine Shardblades as being just a form of programmed weapon, like a special access key, that lets you have superhuman abilities within the program when you wield one. The thing that really freaked me a bit is that the Parshmen warriors are described as having orange blood. I'm half-convinced that everyone in that world really is just some sort of avatar in a massive game that's been left running for thousands of years unattended. Maybe the Knights Radiant were the actual player characters, and they just abandoned the game and now all that's left are the people who would have been the background characters and peons, trying to find meaning in their lives. :p

Anyway, like I said, I know what I've been saying is almost certainly not what Sanderson is doing. I just rarely get the chance to so fully speculate wildly at the outset of a big storyline like this very often. lol And so here it is, for your collective amusement. :D
 
Joined
Apr 13, 2006
Messages
2,482
Location
Indiana, US
He uses spren-like things in other books as well. I think he is really good in constructing worlds.
It is the overly lengthy descriptions that... I don't know..

It would be interesting if it ended up being something like your idea though ;)
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2010
Messages
4,315
Age
35
Location
Sweden
This isn't really a spoiler for WoK (as it was known before the book was even published), and it definitely does not spoil the plot of the book. I suppose it doesn't really undermine your theory either. But it might be interesting to know, if you don't already. Maybe you could incorporate it into your idea :P I'll just put it in spoiler tags, in case you really don't want to know.

Most of his books take place in the same universe (The Cosmere). If you're paying a lot of attention to details, you'll notice it as soon as you've read books from two series. I didn't realise until I had read both Mistborn and WoK, after which it becomes more evident. There are certain concepts and beings that are mentioned in some way in all of them.

The rest of his books are worth reading for the theories about that alone :P
 

Leira Galene

Aes Sedai
Moderator
Joined
Nov 28, 2013
Messages
13,457
Location
Kiruna, Sweden
Pronouns
  1. They - Them
  2. She - Her
I'm also part of the way through Way of Kings and Shardplate reminds me of Spartan armor from Halo. Seriously, it's basically exactly like it. It's a bit odd.
 
Joined
Jan 4, 2002
Messages
2,448
Location
Louisville, KY
Update on my reading and my theory. I just got to the Interlude section where the man and woman were testing flame spren and finding out they freeze when they're measured. I now feel more confident in my theory than ever. This is almost tailor-made, in my mind, to resemble the way that at the quantum mechanical level wavefunctions have only a probability of being in any one state until it is observed or measured, at which time the wavefunction for that object is collapsed into one particular state. I'm not sure exactly how to map that entirely onto the events in that section, but it's too big a comparison to me to be coincidence. :p

Or I may be full of it. lol
 

Asandra al'Terra

Marquise de Sparkle
Aes Sedai
Joined
Jun 4, 2003
Messages
6,756
Location
NYC
Pronouns
  1. She - Her
Discord
ola#8172
I dunno, I thought the spren measuring was a pat-yourself-on-the-back-for-knowing-about-wave-function-collapse kind of thing :P Granted, it was so heavy-handed, I'm not sure anyone with a basic knowledge of physics would miss it. :laugh:

I don't think it's Matrix-y; I think it's Age-of-Legends-esque.
 

Leira Galene

Aes Sedai
Moderator
Joined
Nov 28, 2013
Messages
13,457
Location
Kiruna, Sweden
Pronouns
  1. They - Them
  2. She - Her
The spanreeds were also quantum entanglement, which made more sense after the section at the end about fabrials. Interesting how such macro things as spren and gems experience quantum effects.
 
Top