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I'm probably oversimplifying some pretty complex issues here, and retreading some old ground. But, as I understand it, all end-positive magic systems in the Cosmere are basically this thing: It's called the Fun Factory(tm). You put your Play-Doh(tm) underneath the red flap, then you push the flap down. The pressure forces the Play-Doh through a hole, extruding it into a funny shape. The blob of Play-Doh that goes into it? That's your investiture source. Preservation. Stormlight. The Dor. It's raw Shardic power. Formless and without specific function. The Fun Factory is you. The Allomancer, or Surgebinder, or Elantrian. You draw that raw, amorphous power into your body, and you turn it into something direct and specific. A force of repulsion against metal. 'Awesomeness' that reduces friction. A light source, or a deadly fireball. But what's that blue thing? That's the hole that your Play-Doh is extruded through. And you can swap it out for a different one. This is the piece that determines what shape your Play-Doh takes. In allomancy, this would be your metal. Each metal produces a different effect, channeling your Preservation-power into a different magical ability. In AonDor, it's the Aons themselves. Which Aon you draw determines the magic. It's the same in Forgery, Dakhor, and ChayShan. All across Sel, it's the shape you make that determines your magical action. On Nalthis, it's about the command. Every awakened object does something different, because each is given a different command. Metals. Shapes/forms. Commands. This blue thing... is the focus. So really, I think this is the definition of focus: It's the element of a magic system that determines the magical effect, or the precise action of investiture. It's the category whose internal variation corresponds to the versatility of the magic system as a whole. (Here's the WoB that backs this up: http://www.theoryland.com/intvsresults.php?kw=allomancy+aon) Which brings us, inevitably, to the question of Roshar. A common theory (endorsed by the Coppermind) is that gemstones are Roshar's focus, because Surgebinders and fabrials both rely on gemstones. But my definition disagrees. Kaladin can draw stormlight from any gemstone (or from a non-gem source), and his powers always remain the same. Whether he uses emerald broams or diamond chips, flying is still flying. Lift, notably, doesn't need gems at all. To find the focus, look for what distinguishes one type of magic from another. What distinguishes an Adhesion-binder from a Transformation-binder? I think there's only one logical answer. It's the spren. Each surgebinder-type bonds with a different spren. Sure, some spren offer overlapping surges, but the basic fact remains: the magic you can do is determined by the spren you bond. The metal you burn. The Aon you draw. The command you give. And fabrials? Fabrials use specific gemstones because specific gemstones trap specific spren. The real exception to this is the Honorblades, which provide surgebinder-bonds, but are not spren. Or are they? They look and behave exactly like ordinary shardblades. Bonding, summoning, cutting. They're not self-aware, like spren are, but they're clearly the same type of entity: splinters. Objects made of investiture. Honor's investiture, which seems to be inherently bond-forming, whether it's sentient or not. So the focus isn't spren, exactly. It's bond-forming splinters -- a category which consists almost entirely of spren, but also includes the Honorblades. This opens up some interesting speculations of Voidbinding. Is it done by bonding different spren, i.e. Voidspren? Or is it like on Scadrial, where different magic systems use the same foci? Maybe Voidbinding is just surgebinding, but with a different power source. Maybe Kaladin could intake the 'voidlight' from the mysterious black sphere, and access a new power-set.

N was tired. “And this is all the details you could find?” she asked the data analyst. “Yes, unfortunately,” he replied, motioning to the stack of files on the desk in front of her. “We received some more reports as well. Apparently they have connections with a business known as Tybalt Transportations over in the States, though they have branches all over the world. We also have reports of a recent attack on one of their branch offices, a Doc Oleny if you’ve heard of him? Someone suggested he might be one of ours, but I’m not, of course, at liberty with that information.” “He is one of ours, yes.” “Ah.” “You think he’s dangerous?” “He is, but that shouldn’t be an issue.” N looked to the rest of the table. “Thoughts?” “If he’s making attacks on collaborators with our enemies I see no issue with it” replied the Prime Minister. “We don’t know if Tybalt are actually collaborating or simply being used. It could be that he’s one of the voles.” replied the Minister. N sighed. “It’s probably best if we leave him be for now.” “Agreed.” responded the data analyst. “If there are later issues we can deal with them then.” “All right. Now, I need to discuss another of our agents, Loyde. At least two agents have reported them to me under suspicion of being one of the voles.” “Do you think they’re trustworthy?” replied the Prime MInister “They have a good reputation in the agency. I think I believe them.” “It might be appropriate to remove them from service.” mumbled the head of Human Resources. “I agree. I’ll organise that as soon as possible. In addition, another agent named Fifth Nameless has gone silent. Any suggestions on what to do with them?” “Cut contact, cut resources, cut supplies. Either they’re dead or they’ve gone rogue.” “Done.” N jotted this down in her notes. “I believe that’s all for today. I will look over these files tonight and see if I can find anything interesting. We’ll meet again at the same time tomorrow.” The table nodded. Everyone stood up and left the room. This was bad. This was really bad. Voles in MI9 and everyone on edge with no idea about what was going on. N needed a cup of tea. --------- <Transmission received> <playing transmission> [music plays] And now for a word from Mi9! Mi9 wishes to greet you, and proclaim the mandatory announcements for the day. Mi9 has realized it has no mandatory announcements for today. Do not be so quick to show your relief, agents. Mi9 trained you better than that. Keep that poker face on, agent [redacted]! In any case, please stay tuned for the following missives from your fellow agents. Mi9 wishes to issue a reminder, once again, that the Missive announcement system is not to be used for: Asking fellow agents out, announcements of the football scores, [redacted for sensitive information], [redacted for nsfw reasons], your confessions - drunken or lucid, [redacted for fun], or playing the James Bond/Mission impossible/Johnny English theme on loop. The missive announcement system is not your personal radio station, so keep that in mind, agent [redacted] . Ahem. Commence messages! [static] [MESSAGE ONE BEGINS ] This is Justin. I'm in contact with Joe Bond and Ryth. Not much chatter. Things are looking bleak. I need more information. I've revealed my role and contacts with both contacts, but they have yet to do the same. Mission will fail without more communication. Joe Bond viewed message before me, but has yet to respond. Hasn't been around since the beginning. Ryth sent a couple short messages, but no substance to them, so I'm attempting to take him down. No more time, I've got to go. It's tea time. Over and out. [MESSAGE ONE ENDS] [MESSAGE TWO BEGINS ] If I'm not misunderstanding the rules, no one would know who posted this. If I find a missive suspicious, how would I connect it to the person who sent it so that I could vote for them, unless they've claimed in a PM what they'd be talking about? Anyway, the Elims need to have PMs with every living player, which means Bureaucrats would be quite useful; just pick the person you find suspicious and cut their PMs off. I would be keeping an eye on those whom I get new PMs from, though I'm aware of the existence of Contacts. [MESSAGE TWO ENDS ] [MESSAGE THREE BEGINS ] Suggesting everyone reveals PM's. It will help catch Elims with high numbers of PM's, or prevent them from making too many. I have PM's with Seonid, Conquestor. Contacts: Set up trust group - we need information. Worth risk, IMO. C: Direct PM's between 2 best guesses for Elim - Elims gain nothing if you're right. Bureaucrat: Use on most suspicious player. Hacker: If you find PM that isn't marked in Missives, be suspicious of PM Creator. No suspicions right now. Mild trust on RP'ers. Creating alias to use in case I need to reveal I wrote missives. Suggesting others do same. Buckbeak [MESSAGE THREE ENDS ] Yes, that means you lot can clear off now. Mi9 warns it's agents to practice safe drinking and brawling. And with that done, I can go get my own drink… Oh, and the code word of the day is: cabbage. Over and out. <Transmission ends> --------------------------- (Thank you Doc for the Mi9 section) Darkness Ascendant has been lynched! They were a Spy "Coffee". Mi9 has fired Ecthelion III for poor performance! They were a Spy "Contacts". Vote tally: Darkness Ascendant (2): Stick, Arinian Silverblade5 (1): The Mighty Lopen Cycle 2 has now begun! You have 24 hours! Have fun! Player List:

Stormlight archive:

Well that is actually a very good question that cosmologists would love to know the answer to. Before I continue, let me clarify something. When I say "space is flat," What I am referring to is a large scale curving of all three dimensions of space. I don't mean that space is actually a two dimensional sheet, I'm discussing weather the universe as a whole has a larger shape and structure to it. I am also ignoring distortions made by massive objects, i.e. gravity wells, because they are just blips in the large scheme of things. We don't really know what the universe is like beyond the region within which light has had enough time to reach us, since the beginning of the universe 14 billion years ago. We do not know if the universe is finite or infinite. Does it go on forever, or does if have discernible edges somewhere out there, that we could fall off of, as you put it? Or maybe spacetime is finite in volume, and instead of having edges, it loops back on itself, like the edges of a Pacman map. These are questions we don't have the tools to answer, and probably won't for thousands of years, if ever. It's still fun to speculate, though. To a point. It's actually somewhat more complicated than that. The working mechanics of relativity say that we are actually moving through the four dimensions of spacetime at a constant rate: the speed of light. If we are sitting still, away from anything with strong gravity, then 100 percent of our movement is in the direction of time. We experience time at one second per second. However, if we begin moving at hi speeds, we direct more and more of our speed towards spatial movement, and our progress through time begins to decrease. As we approach the speed of light, nearly all of our motion is through the spatial dimensions, and we have practically stopped moving through time. From an outside perspective, time slows nearly to a crawl for us.

And if you must, steer clear of Terry.

I sort of agree in that I enjoyed the Wax and Wayne story arc, but found it lacking in comparison to the first trilogy at first, for similar reasons as you give. For one, it took me a while (and a few re-reads) to "buy into" the idea that the world of "Mistborn" would not, in fact, have any Mistborns in it, or even Feruchemists, "only" Mistings, Ferrings, and the occasional/rare Twinborn (who nevertheless were not one, not two, but three of the main characters in Alloy of Law). For another, it felt a lot like Alloy of Law was what it in fact was originally intended to be - a standalone writing exercise to "catch us up" on how Scadrial had developed after Harmony's Ascension, including the dilution of the Metallic Arts, and to keep a thumb on Scadrial's pulse with respect to the Cosmere's overall on-going Grand Unified Epic Saga. It'd be very hard for a one-off novella to measure up to how each of the three books of the original Mistborn trilogy had its own "twist" with a satisfying ending, and how the biggest jolt was when it turned out there was an even larger "twist" spanning the entire trilogy all along. And so, it doesn't. Given the "less deep sketchwork" comparison between the two, I agree that Wax and Wayne could come off as cardboard versions of The Lawman and his Comic Sidekick. Yet even in AoL, on re-reads, I can see hints of the deeper character issues that would come to the fore in Shadows of Self, and especially in Bands of Mourning. However, I disagree that having more of Wax/Wayne's "back story into how they got to where they are now" would be the tonic. What we're seeing play out starting with Shadows of Self is doing just fine. Because where Vin and Elend go from uncertain of their place in the world to being confident in their roles to build a new one as they grow in experience and knowledge, Wax in particular experiences the reverse: the more he learns, the LESS certain he is of his faith in Harmony, of the true nature of his personal relationships (Lessie, his sister), and so on. Vin's growth involves realizing that Reen never betrayed her, that she CAN learn to trust and to love people, and learning the true nature of Ruin. In contrast, Wax has to come to grips with "everything I thought I knew was a lie", and goes from proclaiming "I am not Harmony's hands... I'm his sword," to essentially saying, "I put my faith in Harmony all my life and He rusting set me up to get kicked in the nards, TWICE". (Until he has a literal Take A Walk With God moment.) Meanwhile, Wayne's sometimes overtly comic shtick is being shown as a kind of defense mechanism. The Robin Williams analogy is on point. Good stuff. And only getting better with the whole Trell thing and off-world tidbits.

Syl is a acronym for see you later which explains why she left Kaladin so much

I actually managed to do a full day's work today Also, yesterday (well, it's past midnight so take the day measurements with a grain of salt) I ran a skype session for the PBP mistborn adventure game crew I've been running for years and it went pretty well

< Encrypted Transmission received> <transmission decrypted> <Message plays> Mi9 cheerfully reminds all personnel that there is to be no game talk in thread . Talk about your exploits all you want and at your own discretion, but please use the proper encrypted channels for your vital intelligence and strategizations. Mi9 wishes to advise that any dissident agents caught discussing vital intelligence like this again will be disavowed, dissed, and made to disappear! Mi9 wishes to express its disappointment in you should said destruction and discharge occur. Good luck, agents! Practice safe disposal of corpses, proper table manners and hygiene, and please remember to practice proper communication safety, such as the usage of ciphers and code words! And most of all, remember mi9s watchword - In Paranoia we Trust! Rutabaga. <Transmission ends>

Over the internet, you can stop and think something through. There are no awkward pauses on a forum. In real life, I come across as supremely sarcastic by saying things to the effect of "Magnificent!" "Fascinating!" ""Do tell me more!" This isn't sarcasm - this is my brain trying to make more time to come up with an appropriate response. Because my brain assumes that the correct response to "I've got eight hours left for an essay that I've procrastinated for a full week, and now I kind of want to die" is to proclaim "MAGNIFICENT!" Thankfully, I'm surrounded by cynics who take it as a joke. Basically, I make sarcastic static while my brain tries to come up with things to say. This. Just this. I write way more than I speak. On one hand, I get to look smugly at someone when they ask me to stop and define a word I used. On the other, well... writing is a multi-draft process. If you don't like how a sentence looks, you are literally a button press away from removing the offending part from existence and starting fresh. You can change individual words after you finish the sentence, which for me at least means my first drafts are always rather chaotic. I can always edit them later. For actual conversations, though... My brain uses basically the same mindset for writing and talking. On paper, I can conjure an exquisitely written argument to dazzle the eyes and convince the mind. In speech, I just sort of flail about using words that are vaguely related to the point I'm trying to get across in order to give myself time to think of the best way to proceed. I used to stutter doing this, which has more recently been replaced by the more bearable Um and its two siblings, But and Well See Here, and the red-headed stepchild of The Point I'm Trying To Make You See Is As Follows. To summarize, I use semi-sarcastic delaying tactics to improvise a script line by line when I have conversations with people I'm not completely comfortable with. Makes everything from checkouts to flirting to submitting assignments far more storming difficult than it has to be.

They just maybe synthesized a metallic form of hydrogen. It takes obscene amounts of pressure to create, but it might be stable once created (like graphite vs diamonds), and can have a ton of applications, like the fabled room-temp superconductor or a rocket fuel 4x as powerful as what we've got now. The pressures to create it are well above anything on Earth... but scientists theorize that the conditions it needs may exist in the larger gas giants of our solar system. So, depending on the size of the Scadrian gas giants, they might have it. I don't think it would be very good as a burnable metal (much more violently reactive than an alkali metal, and I don't think anyone expects to see Harmonium burnt by an Allomancer anytime soon). But it could greatly enhance the Scadrian technological development, if they have an easy way to 'mine' metallic Hydrogen from their gas giants using Lurchers and Nicrobursts, rather than having to develop the technology to effectively produce it in laboratories. Anyways, it's cool news that made me think of Mistborn. It's not every day we learn about a true new metal.

Ah, but good sir, you forgot that I informed Joe (HH) yesterday that I would be influencing him with Brass. Hey look, I found a picture of myself... But not my enemies. They can get Coinshotted tonight. (I occasionally make memes in my spare time. I've been waiting for the night cycle to post that.)

Good! And be careful. And don't go on the Oregon Trail.

I unlocked the door to the office, and swung it wide open. Some days, it felt good to do something so sweeping. Made you forget everything else that was happening. Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy. There was a ruffle of paper and a banging sound. I rolled my eyes and stepped around my partner's prone body. He swore at me for banging him on the head with the door. "Maybe you shouldn't have slept there," I pointed out, rolling my eyes a little, Hardly my fault if I happened to brain someone with the door when I opened it - Who slept on the floor, anyway? Real helpful, partner. I told him to go home and get some proper sleep; judging from the bags under his eyes, the poor sod'd been working all night and fallen asleep at his desk. Probably didn't even wake up when he hit the floor. Well, that's our detective agency. We practically ooze competency. Though if I were honest, wasn't like I was doing much better sleeping at home. This case had a bit of a habit of getting to me, guess you could say. Don't think it'd be fair to blame me for that either. Sure, I've been stabbed and Coinshot at before when pursing cases, but that wasn't anything personal. It was kinda professional, in a way. At the end of the day, the perps didn't want to kill me, they just didn't want to get locked up in the slammer. It was understandable, you could say. Just business as usual. But this was the first time I had a case where I could die because they wanted me dead. I don't do so well with the personal stuff. You have to be detached in the business, be able to take a step back. Couldn't exactly do that when my back was against the wall. My partner'd been messing around with my board. Guess he'd got a tad restless on his own case, thought he could solve mine for me. Thanks for the vote of confidence there, partner. I'd be offended if I knew I wasn't getting anywhere myself. Ah, what the hell, I'd choose to be offended anyway, it's fun. But I'd sent him home now, so not like I could complain at him. I felt a bit robbed. Sometimes the world just wants to kick you when you're down. Though I guess it was unfair to complain that I couldn't make him as miserable as me. Guess the world was saving me from myself there. I had a look at the notes, frowning a bit as I tried to make them out. Not that his writing was worse than mine. My partner's writing looked like a drunken spider had written it. Mine, only chance you had to read it was to run past it and pray it magically became readable. 'Felix - Arrived before first death?' I guess it made sense. I frowned a little as I went through the events in my head. A stranger arrives at the village, and suddenly people are dying? Well, it was certainly possible. Would explain why it just started. More to the point, it was interesting that he'd only really started to perk up about things when there'd been this many deaths. Interesting that he'd slipped under everyone's noses until now, and was simply going along with the crowd instead of using his own reasoning.

*Shallan eats chouta honour rock while Kaladin stares in disgust* Kaladin: Is that really what you kaladinner? Shallan: It is and it was and it shallan there's nothing you can do about it. Why gancho let me do what I want? It’s not going to harmony body. Don’t go to baddalinar false premise. Kaladin: When did you join the cult of chouta people anyway? Shallan: When I tasted it! It’s delicious. I’m proud to be a member of a cult of chouta, if it exists. How about you just try some of this chouta, you’ll probably like it. Kaladin: No! It’s filled with preservatives, sodium, and other terrible things that will ruin your health! I will navanibble any chouta. I prefer the cultirational people. *Dalinar walks up, eating chouta. He sits down to watch. * *Shallan waits until Kaladin’s not looking, then throws some chouta at his face, and some gets in his mouth. He immediately spits it out, then glares at Shallan* Kaladin: This means war. Dalinar: You want to start another war? You’re meant to be an honourable windrenarin yet you don’t have the maturity to accept other people’s diet choices. *Kaladin glares at Dalinar* Shallan: Kaladin, wait, don’t get angry. I actually hate chouta. I only eat chouta to get your attention. *Dalinar chokes on his chouta* *Kaladin goes pale and falls upwards, then sideways. Within seconds he becomes a speck above the horizon* Dalinar: …are you serious? *Shallan snorts* Shallan: No. That was a custormlighto make him go away. *Dalinar’s eyes narrow* Dalinar: I hope you’re happy. You’re gonna make thiskybreaker leg flying too fast over a cliff or something. *Shallan shrugs* Shallan: I think I deserve a pattern the back. *Shallan resumes eating her chouta. Dalinar sighs, then eats some more of his chouta. * Dalinar: I gotta say though, this chouta is deliceshonai can’t stop eating it.

...so... I'm wondering if it's worth starting a blog? But that makes me wonder just what I have to offer. I mean, I know I ramble and talk about comics a lot, but comic blogs are a dime a dozen, and I don't know if my perspective us different enough to be of interest. (Though I do want to do a blow by blow comparision of the Civil War comics...)

Don't have any proof for this theory but just thought I would throw this out there. My theory for Marasi's character is that she will be the last surviving member of Era 2 Mistborn. What envision happening is Wax dying at the end of LM and Marasi being in some way responsible for his demise. She goes off into the roughs and becomes a lawman (law-woman?). But as technology spreads and urbanization reaches the roughs, her positions as a lawperson becomes irrelevant. She ends up going exploring and is never heard from again... Until Era 3 where she shows up and is surprisingly young considering the time lapse. This is because she gets fed up with the backward ways of society and spends a significant amount of time burning or even flaring Nicrosil Cadmium to propel herself into the future. She will act as a guide to at least one of the protagonists in Era 3, maybe even her great-niece/nephew. Again, no proof for this just daydreaming here.

Can ANY shard exploit hemalurgic tears? I thought only Ruin could do that (Harmony now). At the AU signing in Provo Sanderson did say Kelsier scares him more than any other character because he could very easily become a villain, a nearly unstoppable one.

I'm not really sure that's something a Spiked would lie about, Arin. Because it's obvious that Ecth would've soothed someone's vote, so why claim a double soothe? Why claim anything at all? If Len were a Spiked Soother and didn't really soothe HH's vote, why try to claim it at all? Wouldn't it be better to say that he just didn't soothe that turn? But my question is actually that if Len were a Spiked Soother, why didn't he soothe a vote off Dalinar? One of their Mistborn (probably Nyali) rioted a vote from Dalinar to save him, so why not soothe one as well, just to be sure? Or, better yet, why not soothe a person who voted on someone entirely different (not the second-most voted person) to make it look like they rioted Doc? That's what I would do if I were rioting and had a Soother as well. Soothing from the second-most voted person makes no sense, because if anyone else had done vote manip, Dalinar could've died. The fact that Len is claiming to have soothed HH, and that there isn't any other soothing that happened that turn, like there should've been if the Spiked had a Soother (and they would've used their Soother that turn if they had one), tells me that Len probably isn't lying and therefore isn't Spiked. As for the village having multiple Soothers. Well, for the same reason they have what looks like multiple Thugs (Mad, Jon, and Rae at the very least). The Spiked have a slew of Mistborn. If their whole team is Mistborn and there's 5-6 of them on the team, they could easily have 2-3 of them draw zinc/brass on the same cycle, and then they'd be able to control the lynch. A GM would counter that possibility by giving the village a couple extra vote manips of their own. This also explains why there are multiple Thugs: because what if multiple Spiked draw Steel at the same time, or draw Steel multiple turns in a row? That's an additional kill, so you give the village a few extra lives to counter those extra kills. It's called balancing. This is why discussion of role distribution, once you have evidence of a few roles and powers, is a good thing to do. Useless at the beginning with Meta as GM, because he likes to screw with the meta, but Meta is also very good at balancing, so role distribution discussion is really good to do in the mid-game, when you have a better idea of what's going on. Like now. Anyway. My vote. I'm going to hold off for now, but my vote is probably going to go on either Assassin or HH. Leaning toward Assassin right now, because of his comments about Arinian during the night and his posts today have all seemed like backpedaling. Meanwhile, HH is advocating bandwagons, which are perfect for eliminators to blend in and get a few extra villagers lynched with little to no reasoning and therefore little for the village to gain by way of analysis post-lynch. After all, what are you really going to analyze when 90% of the votes have no basis other than "jumping on the bandwagon"? But I haven't decided yet where my vote is going, because I've had very little time to spend on the game the last couple days, what with a fairly important work project and figuring out my living situation next month. And I'm meeting with some other Sharders tonight so I probably won't be on again until just before rollover. But I will vote.

With her curiosity about Trell... I'm thinking (and hoping) that she becomes a worldhopper.

This would be very interesting to see in Era 3. It would be fun to see a slightly older, Roughs-toughened Marasi dealing with whatever is going on in Era 3 *Quick correction, Marasi would be flaring Cadmium, not Nicrosil

I won't have much wifi for the next week. See you guys whenever I can!

Cassius, friend... I fear you mistake capitalism for atheism... Unless you happen to subscribe to the idea of Social Darwinism (an idea that arrived several centuries after the formation of laissez faire economics), atheism and capitalism are not intrinsically connected. "In every part of the universe we observe means adjusted with the nicest artifice to the ends which they are intended to produce; and in the mechanism of a plant, or animal body, admire how every thing is contrived for advancing the two great purposes of nature, the support of the individual, and the propagation of the species. But in these, and in all such objects, we still distinguish the efficient from the final cause of their several motions and organizations. The digestion of the food, the circulation of the blood, and the secretion of the several juices which are drawn from it, are operations all of them necessary for the great purposes of animal life. Yet we never endeavour to account for them from those purposes as from their efficient causes, nor imagine that the blood circulates, or that the food digests of its own accord, and with a view or intention to the purposes of circulation or digestion. The wheels of the watch are all admirably adjusted to the end for which it was made, the pointing of the hour. All their various motions conspire in the nicest manner to produce this effect. If they were endowed with a desire and intention to produce it, they could not do it better. Yet we never ascribe any such desire or intention to them, but to the watch-maker, and we know that they are put into motion by a spring, which intends the effect it produces as little as they do. But though, in accounting for the operations of bodies, we never fail to distinguish in this manner the efficient from the final cause, in accounting for those of the mind we are very apt to confound these two different things with one another. When by natural principles we are led to advance those ends, which a refined and enlightened reason would recommend to us, we are very apt to impute to that reason, as to their efficient cause, the sentiments and actions by which we advance those ends, and to imagine that to be the wisdom of man, which in reality is the wisdom of God. Upon a superficial view, this cause seems sufficient to produce the effects which are ascribed to it; and the system of human nature seems to be more simple and agreeable when all its different operations are in this manner deduced from a single principle." -Adam Smith in The Theory of Moral Sentiment Basically, the fellow who is widely acknowledged as the founder of modern capitalism is laying fourth an argument for the existence of a god. Take that you non-survivorist heathen. I agree with you. A few minutes after posting it, I looked back on my most recent vote, thought "you know, bandwagonning alone is actually a pretty bad reason to vote someone up" and rescinded it. At this point, we don't need quite as much guess work. We have identified two elim mistborns, and their lynchings were controversial enough that we have information. All we need to do is make sense of it.

Harvard scientists managed to smoosh hydrogen down into what they believe is a solid, metallic form. They're going to leave it smooshed between diamond tips, run some lasers through it, and see if it breaks. If it doesn't, they'll release the pressure and test to see whether it will remain in metallic form even after the pressure is released. If it does, this is going to mean major advances in superconducting technology.

The problem here is what exactly constitutes a god to a given person. For those who believed that a divine entity was watching over them, increased knowledge of Realmatics would confirm their personal faith (e.g. Wax meeting Harmony). However, that same knowledge might conflict with the beliefs of someone who believes in a single omnipotent being, as they see that their presumed-deity is not the only one, and that there are evil deities just as powerful. Those with the latter belief would either give up their belief (as KereDerek speculates), or retain their belief that there is an omnipotent being, but that it is Beyond and allows Odium, etc. free reign as part of its master plan. Comments? Concerns?

Shai's experience recreating the Emperor's soul reminds me a lot of Brandon's experience finishing the Wheel of Time

Compounding is having the same feruchemical and allomantic metal ability, charging a metalmind and burning it, thus releasing greater power, right? Well, I had a little thought about how Wax could Compound. An allomancer gains the most power if the composition of the alloy is right (for example pewter is 91% tin and 9% lead) , if he or she burns a metal with the percentages wrong, the released power is less and they might even get sick or die. A feruchemist can fill a metalmind more if it is closer to allomantic purity. Wax can fill iron metalminds and burn steel. Steel is mostly iron with some carbon, in our world. I couldn't find anything on the composition of allomantic steel, but let's say it is 98% iron and 2% carbon, while allomantic iron is 100% iron. What if Wax filled a metalmind that is 99% iron and 1% carbon and then tried to burn it?

This isn't a theory so much as a question to discuss. One of the definitions of Odium I found was "general or widespread hatred or disgust directed toward someone as a result of their actions". That got me thinking. What if the purpose behind Odium's hatred and mission to shatter shards is because he regrets the Shattering? As you would like this would have been the first act he witnessed as the "Odium" shard. He saw it as a mistake, and was "disgusted" towards the other vessels and their actions? The theory kind of loses momentum once you realize he would have to group himself in with the other vessels/shards. But he would also try to reconcile that by thinking he was manipulated by the other vessels. Obviously not much is known about the Shattering, but it could be possible that the vessels knew beforehand they were going to get the shards of power, and decided to pawn of the Hatred shard onto Rayse. Like I said this is more a discussion question, as theres not enough information and to many holes to make a full fledged theory. Would like to hear your guys thoughts on it.

If my math is correct it is roughly 450 hours of narration so 27,000 minutes at 15 minutes a day it will only take you 1,800 days to complete the series.

I am even more evil in real life! Mwahaha!

A quick addition to "C"'s role action: The PMs you started with are referred to as Primary PMs, with all PMs created by "Contacts" or by the Double Agents being referred to as Non-Primary PMs. Suppose two people, F and G, have a Primary PM. If a "C" elects to redirect one of F's PMs and the RNG selects a Primary PM, the PM will be closed and neither F nor G will have access to it. However, everyone must have 2 Primary PMs at all times (the exception to this being if a Bureaucrat has blocked off one of the PMs). Thus, a new PM is created between G and a random non-F player which serves as a new Primary PM.

Ohh dear. Gettin' into the confusing (or as my biology teacher puts it, cornfusing) stuff. Well, people, let's learn some stuff.

So, using your analogies, using allomancy to fuel feruchemy would be like lining up two fun factories nozzle to nozzle (one representing allomancy, one representing feruchemy), with the same blue attachment on each one, putting a big ole blob of Play-Doh (preservation investiture) in one (the allomancy one), and squeezing it directly through into the other one (the feruchemy one). Since they both have the same nozzle (for example, gold) the investiture can be stored directly in the feruchemical store. The Play-Doh fits the key perfectly to go into the second fun factory while coming out of the first fun factory. That's why you can compound to dump incredible stores of health into a gold metalmind, even though seeing past selves has nothing to do with healing. You just keyed the power the right way. You are "cheating" because the feruchemy fun factory isn't supposed to be able to get supplied with extra play doh. You have one can, and only one can, and you are supposed to push it in through the nozzle bit by bit, until you need it, and then you can squeeze it all out at once using the red handle. With compounding, you can grab as many cans of play doh as you want and force it on in there with your handy second fun factory.

I have made movies. One character I played did not have a fun time with his new Mafia friend.

So this isn't about something I read, but you know how there's this cultural thing where "he" has sort of been the catch-all pronoun, and if you don't mention a character's gender, lots of people assume it's male? (My brain still usually assumes male.) Well this week was the first time I wrote something where I knew the opposite would be true, and it was a very cool experience! I wrote an extended journal of my experience at the Women's March in DC, and I realized as I was writing that any readers would assume everyone was female, and if a person was male, I needed to specify. Yay for gender norm breaking! It made my brain happy.

I think there's a conspiracy in all of this... Johnst is the name of the person in question. The general assumption (Marasi and MeLaan's assumption) is that Paalm killed Johnst, used him to blow the dam, was executed and buried, and then escaped from the grave. I think there are some flaws to this, plus I've got a theory that there's more going on in SoS than meets the eye. I think Trell/Autonomy is pulling strings and directly interacting with Scadrial, particularly via the spikes of an unknown metal (presumably 'trellium'). My theory is that these spikes block out Harmony and allow Trell/Autonomy to speak directly to people. So what are the oddities? Marasi and MeLaan identify one of them. If Paalm were playing the role of Johnst, she would have done her research and known the man's family better. They write this off, assuming that she was in a hurry or just didn't care, but I don't think this solves the puzzle. If that's the case, why bother imitating someone at all? The whole point was to put real economic stress on the Elendel basin. Couldn't Paalm have just done that without the use of someone else's bones? Also, why would she defend herself at the trial, arguing that the whole thing was a mistake? (saying he wanted to ruin a neighbor's farm, not blow the whole dam) If her end game is to be executed and crawl out of the grave, and if she's in a hurry, why not take full responsibility and move things along? It all just doesn't make enough sense for me. My theory is that Paalm wasn't the one to blow the dam- it was Johnst himself. But why would Johnst semi-accidentally blow a dam, forget the names of his family, and then ask to be executed ASAP? Because he was losing his mind... thanks to a trellium spike. It's EXACTLY the same thing that happened to Rian-- the guy who "tried" to shoot the governor in Elendel. The voice in his head was driving him crazy and convincing him to do things he normally wouldn't. It exploited his anger towards a neighbor and drove the man to a dark place that left his mind broken. Why was Johnst's grave desecrated? Because Paalm (or somebody) had reason to recover the trellium spike. Heck, maybe it's the same one implanted in Rian. My theory is that Trell/Autonomy herself is actively speaking to people with these spikes. For more on this, see the theory linked in my signature. But it's also possible that Paalm was the one who convinced Johnst to do what he did, for the sake of a less conspiratorial answer.

Okay, I wanted to post here but then I realized I'd need to give some context and stuff and I wouldn't want to spam the topic... Have you heard of Polish Legends short films? You should watch them. I made a thread for it so I can give context and stuff

Took me less than minute to find: www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=977#167 EDIT: Since I'm already getting downvoted, I want to add that you should have searched for it. It's not exactly hard to find. from OP.

Except that the Oathstone is Shin law, not just a moral code. He didn't believe the oathstone controlled him, he convinced himself he had been wrong and that his punishment was just and deserved to be followed. Being given the weapon and required to use it at others' direction was his legal punishment for his heretical beliefs. Szeth "went insane" in that he was having difficulty realising that he had deluded himself, not because he followed his own convictions. If he had done that, he would have been raising the alarm about the impending desolation, and it would likely have come about due to Gavilar instead of due to Eshonai. Szeth might have broken the laws of other lands, but he held to his own people's laws perfectly. There's certainly a contradiction there, but it's one that probably wouldn't bother Nale so long as you picked a consistent approach with sound legal reasoning. I imagine Szeth's logic was that as someone who was effectively a prisoner, he had no right to question his people's laws just because he had been taken into another country, but if we're getting an answer on that, it'll probably be in Szeth's flashback story, which I would assume is #5 if Brandon holds to his gender-alternating pattern.

Probably Hoid just cause he is Dioh

The problem with that is you're actually not building up real speed; only the appearance of it. The water running example works because the "apparent" speed of your foot is many times faster than the water's breaking apart. However, this doesn't work with gravity because, as I extrapolated above, its pull on you increases (instead of 9.81 meters per second for everyone, it's 9.81 meters per second to your point of view and much more than that to everyone else). So even if you Compound speed, gravity scales to match, and so you still can't get more than 2 steps on the wall. If the idea of gravity scaling is throwing you off, then I can show you the math that requires it to. @Oversleep

1. Where did you get your profile picture? 2. Besides Brandon Sanderson and Pat Rothfuss, what other authors or series to do you suggest or enjoy? 3. Which of the Cosmere stories is your favorite? Why? 4. (Not serious) What is you position on the ethical controversy of utilizing luminescent vegetation in the place of streetlights?

Logistics are really important in warfare. And Roshar was very technologically primitive back then; the Heralds often had to teach humanity how to make bronze. So the only way to get decent logistics would have been magic. IMO the roles would have been something like this: Windrunners - leaders and defensive warriors, protecting the refuges of non-Radiant humanity Skybreakers - soldiers and military police Dustbringers - primary offensive force Edgedancers - combat medics Truthwatchers - information/intelligence and medical Lightweavers - logistics & morale Elsecallers - logistics & transportation, Spren-realm diplomats Willshapers - transportation Stonewards - defensive warriors Bondsmiths - uniting humanity against the threat

The longer answer makes it sound like Harmonium isn't a Lerasium/Atium alloy, but a whole new metal. He described it as "super-cesium," and that its volatility was based on electrons, not on protons or neutrons. So, the Lerasium and Atium are combined at a more fundamental level than that. There was a following conversation about this topic, about how a lot of the elements were there before Honor arrived, but he coopted them. So, Stormlight is there, but there are big differences now. So, modern Stormlight might not be Adonalsium's Investiture. But there was probably ancient Stormlight that was. I'll wait until we get the transcript taken care of, since I was still on cloud 9 from the Harmonium reveal and the Herald reveal. That was my thought as well, and I closed that question by asking if Surgebinding was around before Honor arrived. Which it wasn't. 'cause that would have blown a whole lot of collected wisdom out of the water. Whoops... I thought I mentioned that. I was telling everybody who would listen! I guess I'll just blame it on how late it was. I realized on the way back that I hadn't heard your questions, either. Everyone always says how the best part of signings is the other fans. It's so true - it was great to be able to talk about this stuff in person, to share in the experience as people were getting all kinds of WoBs, to geek out. I might have made a few recruits to the Shard, I might have recruited a girl to my old college, and I got to compare my list of questions with @Segren's list (which might have been the highlight, aside from my actual signing turn). One fun story: right when the signing line had begun, I saw the lights starting to flicker. So, I got a joke lined up and ready in case it happened again. A few minutes later, all the lights in the room went out. (We think they were on a timer, or something, since it happened right at 6:00, IIRC.) Pitch black, and I shout "All right, who sucked the Stormlight out of the lights!" Brandon is a total boss - he finished his reading at around 5:30 or so, and then said he'd be there at least 2 hours to get everyone through. The line finished up at midnight, exactly. What a pro. Okay, so here's the in-depth story of my Harmonium signing (some liberties with descriptions may be taken for comedic effect, and not an exact transcription): P: *holding out list of Allomantic metal symbols* Is ettmetal's symbol one of these 4? *Points at the unused ones* B: No. It has a symbol, but I don't think you've seen it yet. No, you haven't seen it. P: *making connections internally* Oh, that's interesting, since we have seen Harmonium's symbol. B: No, you haven't. Have you? P: Yeah, we have. *momentary staredown* P: It looks like the double lerasium. *waves hands around in the air like an idiot to pantomime the axis of reflection* B: *looks crestfallen* Oh. Right. Then, I guess you have seen ettmetal's symbol. P: *cackles internally* So, ettmetal is Harmonium! B: *sadly* Yes... P: Am I allowed to tell people? I can keep it a secret if you want. B: No, you can tell people. P: *almost ditches the rest of his signing turn to go tell people* I got through my other questions, with good conversations on all of them (but none quite as much fun as this one!), he finishes signing my last book, and I realize: I didn't get RAFOd on anything! I say it out loud, "aww, man, I didn't get a card!" (1st world problems). He says, "Ask one more." After our discussion on Stormlight and ettmetal and looking at my pages of printouts, I'm sure he knows I've got some RAFO-bait. So, I ask, "Are the Cognitive Shadows on Braize the mythical Shades of the Knights Radiant?" No words, just hands me the card, I say my thanks and head out. That must have been 6:30 or so. I stuck around, chatting with other people in line, until it closed. It was great. I had some people pull out their copies of AU and read the Taldain essay while they waited, since they were wondering about Odium/Trell. I'm like, "You should really read this..." So, I'm really looking forward to his next signing. I might also think about going to JordanCon, if this is representative. I had a lot more fun that I expected.

That scene in WOR where Rock grabs a cremling, pops it into his mouth and eats it, suddenly became a lot funnier.

So . . . TLR would have aged post-mortem if he died normally, but dead vessels don't have this problem . . . couple that with heightenings and "shades of deity". So by my current interpretations, biological aging is a thing specific to the souls of living beings (the ones that we know can age, anyway. Some things honestly don't . . .), and investiture directly attached to the person/creature in certain ways (like a Shard or breaths would be) can somehow make you less "human", thereby stopping the process of aging without changing the fact that you are [X amount of time] old just by obvious reference to your birth date that is almost certainly in your soul too. So if there was some way to change your soul to the point that you're not really a normal life form anymore, would it be possible to lose the aging problem outright? I vaguely recall Hoid having been described as not quite being human anymore, though he definitely used to be.

So if the shardbearer only heard the screams when a KR was touching it also, does this have dire implications for using these blades against the voidbringers? Could the evil version of KR also produce this effect? Have we just discovered a big weakness in what should have been one of the humans greatest assets? I can see sending a squad of shardbearers with "broken" blades to help shore up a line of spearmen that are being overwhelmed by VB only to fall to pieces when their blades start screaming at them. Total rout and now they have to rethink everything they thought they knew about how to fight the VB.

I know I'm supposed to be on a 17th Shard break, but a recent reply to my Transfersion thread has forced me to elaborate on the concept of "power ownership" that I used in my Transfersion theory. This concept covers Epic powers in general, so I'm (re-)posting my thoughts on it in a separate thread. One thing I haven't seen discussed here is how Megan prevented Calamity from taking away her powers, as well as how Prof regained his powers after Calamity removed it. After reading these scenes, as well as thinking about the concepts of Gifting and Assuming, I think it's apparent that there are levels of power ownership. Here's my speculative list of ownership levels from lowest to highest, including how I think one advances from his current level to a higher level: Level 0: You did not receive any power. Advance by being Gifted. Level 1: You received power, but it retreated from you, either via Epic Downfall (i.e. your weakness was triggered) or when the one who Gifted you takes the power back. Recover from Epic Downfall by escaping your weakness. If you are below Level 5, you may advance to Level 5 by using the weakness of the one who Gifted you. Level 2: Some, but not all, of your powers are not working properly. Usually a sign that your Epic Downfall was partially triggered. Level 1 conditions apply. (I was thinking of naming this Level 1.5. What do you guys think?) Level 3: Your power only has weak effects. Advance by using your powers more. Level 4: You can use your power at full strength, but the Downfall Avoidance of your power becomes more intense. Advance by sending yourself to Level 1 or Level 2 before using the weakness of the one who Gifted you. Level 5: You are now resistant to the Downfall Avoidance Rule, but you might revert to Level 4 if you use your power too much. Advance by fully accepting your power as part of yourself. Level 6: Highest level of ownership. Epic Downfall can send you back to Level 1 or Level 2, but after escaping you will return to Level 6 I base Level 6 on the scene where Megan finally freed herself from the darkness for good, back when she "defied" Larcener: Note that for the first half of the series, Prof was at Level 4 while Megan was at Level 3 (though she's Level 4 just after resurrection). When Prof Gifts his powers, he usually only lets the Reckoners have his powers at Level 3, and he always takes the powers back when no longer needed. Calamity, on the other hand, is at Level 6 and he Gifts powers already at Level 4. What do these levels entail? First, it appears that the powers can detect an Epic's level of ownership, as well as the chain of transfersion from him, to the one who Gifted him, to the one who Gifted the Gifter, etc. As long as the Epic has not reached Level 6 (total ownership), his power will defer to the next Epic in the chain of transfersion with a higher level of ownership. By that I mean the power will readily pull back either at the whim of that higher owner or automatically in reaction to that higher owner's weakness (as per the Downfall Avoidance Rule). Here are some things explained by these ownership levels: Megan reached Level 5 by first facing her weakness (moving temporarily to Level 1) and then using Calamity's weakness by selflessly trying to save someone. This was also the same thing that David did. Prof was sent to Level 1 without his consent, but that didn't really matter. The important thing was that he was at Level 1 when he tried to help David, and that was enough to send him to Level 5. Level 6, actually. See here. Calamity being at Level 6 is the reason why the darkness still affected Megan even after she reached Level 5 (but only when she used her powers too much). Megan reached Level 6 before David did (he reached it just before he turned the space station to steel), but it's possible that Dawnslight reached it way before anyone except Calamity. That's why he could freely use his powers without succumbing to the darkness. Strangely enough, Obliteration implied he's been at Level 6 for five years now. I'm speculating that his fear was of a crazy religious nature, perhaps the idea that God was using him to bring about Armaggedon. Coupled with another crazy notion that he can save people's souls by sending them to heaven before they have the chance to commit grave sins, Obliteration could have reached Level 5 by murdering innocent civilians in the name of his "holy task" via non-Epic methods (a conventional bomb, maybe?). Level 6 was probably reached when he blew up Houston. The reason why most Gifters can retrieve the powers they Gift is because the people on the receiving end often have a low level of ownership compared to the Gifter. The Diggers went crazy after using Digzone's power to create the Newcago's underground tunnels, but they seemed sane enough at the start. I think they were at Level 3 at the start, but prolonged use of the powers sent them to Level 4. Digzone himself was most probably at Level 4. Because the Diggers now owned the powers as much as Digzone, their power started skipping Digzone and deferred to the next Epic in the chain: Calamity. Hence, the descent into madness (which was simply the Rending). All other Gifters would have the same issue as Digzone. This is why Prof said that a person "changes" when Prof gives too much of his power to that person. I speculate that he Gifted too much of his powers to someone during his early exploratory days, and that someone became a Level 4 Epic. At that point, Prof no longer could take back the power because he was Level 4 himself, and he might have had to kill that person.