Jump to content

FeatherWriter

Moderators
  • Posts

    1833
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    29

Everything posted by FeatherWriter

  1. So much happened in The Sunlit Man, that... well, we needed a second lore episodes discussing all of it. And here it is! In this one, we talk about the what's going on with Aux, how you get from Threnody to Canticle, and how some of Canticle's crazy invested geography really works. Also, we start out with a round of shots, so you know it's all going to go downhill from there. This episode, we have Eric (Chaos), David (Windrunner), Evgeni (Argent), Grace (thegatorgirl), and Ala (Rasarr). Thumbnail image is the art of Canticle in the The Sunlit Man, by Ernanda Souza. If you like our content, support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/17thshard For discussion, theories, games, and news, come to https://www.17thshard.com Come talk with us and the community on the 17th Shard Discord: https://discord.gg/17thshard Want to learn more about the cosmere and more? The Coppermind Wiki is where it's at: https://coppermind.net Read all Words of Brandon on Arcanum: https://wob.coppermind.net Subscribe to Shardcast: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:102123174/sounds.rss Send your Who's That Cosmere Characters to [email protected]
  2. Diceborn: Secrets in Stained Glass is finally complete, and today we're bringing some final assets from the show to you: the show soundtrack and the full post-advancement character sheets for our cast and key NPCs! Be warned, there are MAJOR spoilers for Diceborn: Secrets in Stained Glass under the cut, click with caution! First up, if you liked the background music in the episodes, or had a specific moment with a track you wanted to find, you're in luck! An official list of all the tracks used in the show and the moments they go with can be found here: DB: Secrets in Stained Glass - OST Guide. Careful that the related scene descriptions contain spoilers! A full playlist of the OST tracks can also be found on Spotify! Finally, we've got the fully revealed, final character sheets. After episode 3, our cast went through a round of advancements, which means some traits were added, some traits were swapped out, and some stats were improved! Additionally, for the first time, we are sharing the character sheets for our key NPCs, Maevis and Addison. In case the previous spoiler warnings had not deterred you, our characters do have major secrets included in the sheets below. Highly recommend having finished the show before opening these! Player Characters (Post-Advancements) NPC Sheets
  3. Oh wow, thank you for reading even though you haven't watched yet! I hope you enjoy the show, I had a lot of fun playing this nasty boi. He's... messy.
  4. In between episodes of Secrets in Stained Glass, we will have a variety of stories coming your way! This first one covers a key moment in the backstory of Dier Venture, and another comes next Wednesday, August 2nd, about his sister Eliane. You can see all Secrets in Stained Glass content in our tag! Spoilers for Secrets in Stained Glass Episode 3 are below. For a PDF version of the story, click here! Content Warnings: Brief depiction of violence, character death, abusive treatment 1010 FE: Three weeks before the Elariel Lakeside Solstice Party The old man was in one of his moods again. Dier wasn’t exactly surprised. Certainly didn’t take much these days to set his father off. Renholm Venture had become steadily more ill-humored and foul-tempered since cousin Straff took over the house and started subjecting him to the indignity of having a man twenty years his junior pulling rank to make him behave. And he’d never been anything resembling a pleasant person to begin with. But while the cold demands of his unyielding nephew were a source of frustration and stung pride, nothing got Renholm’s blood set to boiling more quickly than trying to rein in his willful, disrespectful, useless firstborn. At this point, Dier didn't even bother listening to what was being said as his father shouted himself red in the face. He knew what he'd hear: the same old, well-worn talking points from the dozens of other times they'd had this fight, over and over, ad nauseam. You're a disappointment to this family, and an embarrassment to me! I'll be damned if I let you disrespect this house and our legacy! Be better! Do more! Just care! Or else. Dier lounged back on the long chaise in his father's study, all but basking in the glorious sounds of his father’s shouting as he fiddled with his dueling cane. It didn't matter what his father was saying at this point. It wasn’t about the words anyway, it was about the tone. Renholm’s fury was nothing short of music to his ears. Dier couldn't remember which of his many potential failures or offenses had prompted tonight's particular "lecture" about filial responsibility. Lord Ruler knew he’d left enough of those lying about for the house to enjoy. Twist-click. Twist-click. Twist-click. The smooth metal join that kept his dueling cane together had a satisfying feel as he loosened and refastened the two cane halves across his lap. Most nobles kept solid wood canes, fearing Allomancers, but Dier's canes always had a core of steel beneath the wood exterior. No reason to avoid metal if you were one of those Allomancers everyone was supposed to be afraid of, after all. Renholm was a large man, though neither terribly muscular nor particularly rotund. Just naturally broad in a way he knew how to use to be intimidating, a presence he’d learned to wield to make others feel small. His face, over the course of this scathing rant, had started to shift from sun-red to something verging on purple, and Dier absently wondered if perhaps his father had somehow found a way to shout so hard he wasn’t getting enough air anymore. Now wasn’t that a pleasant thought? “...will not hear any further snide comments or objections out of you! Am I understood?” Renholm towered over him as he barked the words, leaning in close enough that Dier worried he might get caught by spittle. Dier listened in just long enough to catch his cue, nodding along without looking up. “Oh, don’t worry Father, you’ve made your point perfectly clear. I swear, never again will I…” He trailed off, snapping his fingers distractedly as he pretended to search for his next words. “Sorry, remind me what it is we’re talking about again? I’m sure you must have mentioned it somewhere in there, but I just can’t seem to—” “How dare you mouth off to me, boy,” Renholm growled. “You will pay attention when I am speaking to you!” Dier scoffed to himself as he clicked the cane-halves apart again. “Why? Were you planning on saying something worth listening to at any point?” Renholm backhanded him, and immediately a sharp jolt of thick, suffocating fear surged through Dier, a raw animal panic. The blow was hard enough to make the room spin for a second, though Dier managed to lean with the motion to soften the impact. He had enough training to know how to dodge such a simple blow—something his father always seemed to forget—but he knew letting Renholm think he was hitting harder than he actually was would get this over with faster. That fear that accompanied the hit felt like it was clawing its way up Dier's throat, a seizing terror that made him want to cringe down or plead for mercy. But he steeled his expression to annoyed boredom instead, refusing to let the emotion show. And as expected, it was gone in a moment anyway—as he’d known it would be—replaced by a burning shame and crippling insecurity. Then a gnawing guilt over how inadequate he was. Then a hollow sense of impotence. Then a jittery anxiety. Then a hollow dread to bring things back around to fear, for good measure. An endless slew of negative feelings, dragged against his will onto the surface of his psyche until they stacked up in a sloppy mess, each one vaguely burying the last. There were only so many ways a person could feel bad about themselves, but there were endless iterations within the themes, subtly different flavors, tones, and reactions. And Renholm had enjoyed plenty of opportunities to practice getting creative. Whenever his temper flared, so did his zinc. Most people thought emotional Allomancers were all subtle masters of manipulation, pulling the strings of others so carefully that their subjects never realized they were dancing to another’s tune. And admittedly, Renholm could be subtle when he wanted to be; one didn’t live in this house for long without learning to question any twinge of a feeling that seemed unexpected or potentially out of place. But whenever things turned ugly, he preferred a stronger tactic. Once the gloves were off, it wasn’t about manipulation, it was about a show of power, about making sure whoever was unlucky enough to be on the other side of him knew what he was doing, knew they couldn’t stop him from getting in their head. An onslaught of powerful, unnatural emotions like punches to the gut, enough to keep anyone's head spinning, to make sure they had no chance of keeping their own thoughts straight. Dier straightened from the slap, cheek still smarting, and forced himself to keep his expression trained to neutral apathy. Then he finally looked up at his father and pushed out a smile, knowing it'd drive Renholm crazy. Without Allomancy like his father’s to make manipulating emotions easy, Dier had always had to resort to more mundane methods to ensure Renholm felt as frustrated as he did. He liked to think his spite was equal to the task of matching his father’s zinc, and that was a reserve within him so boundless he’d been flaring it for years. It took effort to keep the maelstrom of all he was being made to feel from breaking across his face, but he knew nothing would annoy his father more than not getting the right reaction from his endlessly defiant son. His smirk twitched as he held it in place, and he felt a bead of sweat roll down his back between his shoulder blades. He was determined not to let himself crack from this, internally keeping a white-knuckled grip on his control as the Rioting tore and tugged and yanked at him from all angles. After all, he'd had as much practice enduring zinc as his father had burning it. None of it's real. He forced the thought through his head over and over. It's all fake. We've done this all before. None of it matters. Renholm scowled darkly, stepping closer to try to loom over his disrespectful son. "Your behavior is unbefitting of any child of mine and it is unbefitting of a Venture! It’s as though you wish to intentionally provoke me and bring shame upon this house! As though you enjoy forcing me to deal with you this way. Enjoy leaving me no choice!" And why shouldn’t I? I was never going to be good enough, and you were always going to ‘deal with me’ like this. Why wouldn’t I devote my life’s efforts to ensuring you feel as powerless as I do in this relationship? I can’t do anything to stop your tirades and your zinc, but I can make certain you know you can’t do anything to stop me from embarrassing the house and our good name. Why would I not enjoy seeing just how miserable I can make you too? It was the thing Renholm had never managed to figure out about him. He thought Dier lazy, unmotivated. But he was wrong. So very wrong. Of course Dier was motivated by his father’s wrath. Motivated to ensure it never worked. Motivated to make sure that every time Renholm screamed at him to get better, Dier met his eyes with a smirk and intentionally made himself worse. Renholm, so obsessed with his own station in a house he’d married into, a Lordship he couldn’t even inherit, could not fathom how readily his son would throw it all away. Despite how clearly Dier had proclaimed it in his every word and deed, Renholm never seemed to realize how gladly his son would set his own life ablaze if only for the chance to see his father burned down with him. But saying any of that aloud would give the game away, and besides, Dier just couldn't resist the opening Renholm had left him. "Oh, and what would you know of what's befitting of the Ventures, Father? I'm the only true-born Venture in this room. But if I have any questions about how to marry into a stronger house and take my wife's name instead, I'll be sure to ask you about it." Renholm's red face purpled further, and Dier knew he'd struck home. “Don’t you dare mention your mother to me, you insolent brat! As though selfish, reckless conduct like yours isn’t exactly how she nearly brought this house to ruin! She was lucky her unbridled decisions that night led to no one’s death but her own!” Dier’s smirk faltered momentarily, crumpling into a grimace as Renholm punctuated that sentence with a hard yank on not only his shame, but his sense of grief as well. He struggled to force it back in place, not wanting to concede even that small victory to his father, but his own expression resisted him. How deeply unfair that he could still ache like this, even knowing how blatantly he was being Rioted, even after how many times he’d endured this. How could the cautionary tale of the late Fedrienne Venture still be so sharp despite how many times his father had scraped it against his ribs? Not to mention, it was hard to take such warnings seriously when no one was ever willing to say what the hell it was she’d actually done. No details, nothing about what had truly happened all those years ago. Everyone tiptoeing around like talking about the real answer would dredge it all back up. No, the only times Dier ever heard anyone speak of his mother’s fate was to throw her misbehavior in his face: their proud, talented, overconfident Mistborn who’d struck out on her own against orders and gotten herself killed in the process. How he was like her in all the worst ways whenever the house was displeased with him. Such a tragic, senseless loss of a key Venture asset for no other reason than hubris and disobedience. At least she’d been kind enough to Snap her son into a Coinshot before dying in such an inconvenient way for the rest of them. An eight-year-old untrained Misting to replace their fully fledged, adult Mistborn. A trade no one in the house would have chosen, particularly that worthless new little Allomancer they all simply had to put up with until he’d learned enough to be of value to them. All his life he’d felt the weight of her absence, the impossible expectation that he needed to be worthy of her legacy, fill the hole she’d left behind. You have to be your mother’s son, Dier, but… No. No, not like that. He knew what he was to his family: Never enough. Their only chance to make back the Allomantic debt his mother had left in her irresponsible wake. A constant reminder to his father of the worst parts of his beloved wife: the part of her he hadn’t been able to control, the flaws she’d indulged that took her from him too soon. Dier tried to maintain his strong front, but the Rioting never gave him a moment to think, and Renholm still knew how to hit his son where it hurt. So all Dier could do was make sure he did the same. “Do you think she’d be proud of you,” he asked, looking upward slowly and feeling his lip tremble as it curled into a snarl, “to see how well you raised her only son after she was gone?” Renholm lunged forward, snatching towards his son’s throat, but this time Dier did dodge, shoving the arm out of the way with one of his cane halves. "You will learn not to speak to me with such disrespect or I'll–" "You'll what?" Dier said, finally managing to find his grin again. “Shout at me? Riot me? Slap me across the face, perhaps? I think you’re running out of credible threats, Father. Might need some new material.” He tried to find his satisfaction in his defiance, knowing it was there somewhere beneath the over-zinced emotional mess his father had made of him. He’d feel it later, remembering this look on his father’s face, knowing how deeply he’d struck back. But he wanted to be able to feel it now, desperately. Here he was, sitting across from the hard-earned reward for all the effort and planning and care he’d put into his delinquency and misbehavior and that damn zinc wouldn’t even let him taste the joy of it. Though that vindictive pleasure he rightfully deserved eluded him, there was one constant he could still grasp through the roiling seethe; one feeling that he knew was his own: a churning, delirious rage. That burned brightly enough to shine through whatever shame, guilt, or fear his father unfairly manifested, and Dier clung to it, his lifeline in the maelstrom. Renholm would never be so stupid as to stoke such an emotion within him, after all. He'd never encourage something that could lead someone to defy him. So Dier held onto that beautiful, pure loathing, knowing it was his, and knowing that his father could pile whatever meaningless, false feelings he wanted on top and it didn’t matter. Rioting couldn’t do a thing about this other than try to choke it out with something louder. Renholm had no Soothing to take that hatred, that fury, away from Dier, and Dier relished it. Renholm opened his mouth, taking a deep breath—no doubt to find some inept new insult or take the whole affair from the top again—and some long-strained cord in Dier just… snapped. Before he could think about what he was doing, his steel warmed to a comfortable glow in his gut and lines of blue sprang into existence across his sight. In the same moment, he raised the hand holding the top bar of his cane, carefully judging the angle, then opened his hand and Pushed. That steel-cored bar, about the length of his forearm when separated from its bottom half, flew up and caught his father right under the chin, sending him stumbling backward. Dier secured himself on a handful of anchors behind him and then let the other half of his cane fly, hitting his father in his stomach with it and knocking the wind out of the blustering man. Dier leaned forward in his seat, bracing himself as he shoved hard against the bars, Pushing until his father was pinned against the wood-paneled wall of the study. Renholm sputtered, grabbing the bar against his throat with both hands to try to push it back and regain his air. Dier stood slowly from the chaise, carefully managing anchors behind to ensure the pressure on his father didn’t let up. Renholm outweighed him, but Dier had caught him by surprise, and now, with Renholm in such a disadvantageous position and Dier braced as he was, he had no trouble keeping his father pinned. It took a complex net of steelwork to hold him down, but that was another thing his father never seemed to remember about him. That despite how much of an inept failure the house might see him as, he wasn’t entirely useless. Vasha, at least, had taught him well. “Before you finish whatever unoriginal threat you were planning to deliver, I’ve had a realization.” Dier shrugged as he walked forward, finally starting to find that satisfaction he’d been craving at the shocked look on Renholm’s face. His father gave a little jerk as every step forward Pushed on the bars a little more. “I’m done with this conversation. In fact, I think I’m just… done. With all of it.” He stepped right up next to his father and flared his steel to give a little extra shove against the cane-half against his father’s neck, ensuring Renholm wouldn’t be able to talk back. Dier's emotions flickered frantically through him, a zinc-stoked cacophony and unnatural in every way, but he focused on what it told him, not what it made him feel. It was his father’s panic, shining through every Rioted sensation, Renholm’s Allomancy trying to grab onto anything in Dier he could, anything that might make him stop. He knew which of his feelings were real, his wrath and joy blending into a cocktail so intoxicating, no false Rioting could distract him from them now. Dier simply let his grin spread, not even having to force it this time, and loosened his signet ring on his finger. He set it gently against Renholm’s forehead, that symbol of the inheritance that no one actually wanted him to have, and held it there with a very soft Push of its own when he pulled his finger away. “Shhh,” he said, savoring the fear in his father’s eyes at the threat the little ring represented. “Haven’t we said enough to each other? Haven’t you surely found every possible way to express your profound disappointment with me by now?” Renholm’s mouth worked as he struggled against the cane halves, trying to get out from beneath them—or at the very least, get the higher one off his neck—but Dier’s steel was relentless. The Rioted emotions in Dier were manic chaos, overwhelming but practically indistinguishable in how quickly they flickered over him. Then stopped. Dier started, caught off-guard by the sudden disappearance of his father's Allomancy in his head. Renholm never let up on him during a fight like this, it was unthinkable. Which was why, a moment later, Dier was hit full-force when a singular, all-consuming sense of love for his father slammed into him, drowning everything else out. It was a terrible, aching affection affection, strong enough to bring tears to his eyes as his chest seized up. He gasped softly, staggering, but as Renholm tried to surge forward to escape, Dier instinctively shoved on the bars again to hold the pin. He looked at his struggling father, feeling nothing but warm, soft sentiment inside for the man he’d loathed his entire life, and just slowly shook his head. “No,” Dier said, making his face contort into a grimace against the sickeningly unnatural emotion, even as he blinked those ill-begotten tears away. “No, I think we both know it’s far too late for that, Father.” Renholm snarled, still gasping for breath against the pressure on his neck. “You’ll… regret this… you damned… ungrateful…” Dier leaned in, feeling a strange moment of certainty within, an unexpected eye in the storm. “You know what, Father? I really don’t think I will…” With a cruel grimace, he flared his steel and Pushed on that ring with all the Allomantic strength he could muster. With a sharp crack and a wet crunch, the zinc stopped, false emotions evaporating in an instant. The room, and Dier’s mind, went blessedly quiet. Dier stepped back, taking hold of the pieces of his cane as he released the anchors behind him and let the body drop in a heap to the ground. With the Rioting halted so abruptly, he felt unnaturally numb in the aftermath, like it hadn’t fully sunk in yet what he’d just done. With rote motions and a blank expression, he locked the cane back together again, then leaned on it as he stood there, staring down at what had once been his father. It wasn’t the first time he’d killed someone, not even close. As a Coinshot, he was often pressed into house courier duty, and it just so happened that occasionally the messages he was tasked to deliver were sprays of coins sent at speed toward something soft and vital. He’d never minded getting his hands dirty if a job needed to be done. Honestly, what surprised him in this moment was how simple it had been. He’d thought it would be harder somehow, acting against his own flesh and blood, but really… it scarcely felt any different from cleaning out a rival house’s skaa. Hmm. The real question is… what am I supposed to do next? Even he couldn't ignore that this presented a logistical problem. Unlike a bunch of skaa, the death of such a high house lord would have repercussions. Their family wasn’t the leading branch of the Ventures; that dreadful duty had thankfully fallen upon his cousin Straff instead; but his mother and Straff’s father had been siblings. Straff’s sister had married out to House Erikell years back, leaving Fedrienne’s line next in the ranking. They were far from unimportant in this lineage. Assuming Straff’s little brat of an heir ever came down with a nasty cough—Lord Ruler forbid—Dier had the most obvious claim to inherit the house title. Something neither he nor the rest of the house had ever been pleased about. And if it came out to the house that Dier had been the one responsible for his own father's death? Well, that would cause all manner of unpleasantness for him, he was sure. He ran his fingers through his dark hair, pushing back the messy strands at the front which always escaped the loose braid he usually wore. What to do? What to do? Could he blame this on another house, somehow? Frame it as an assassination by one of their rivals? He needed some way to get out of this. As satisfying as the crime of passion had been, he was forced to admit that perhaps something premeditated might have been wiser. A chance to give himself time to come up with a plan before it happened. He’d have to pay the Ministry somehow for the killing, which wouldn’t be cheap, particularly since he hadn’t gotten an authorization in advance for an assassination. Technically Renholm had struck him first… Could he find an obligator that would take payment for it as an act of self-defense? Not to mention the bribe he’d need to keep his culpability quiet. He was smart enough not to risk Ministry sanction for not paying his dues, but he would need to make sure whomever he paid also knew to keep the details to themselves. Of course, there was one person who’d probably know exactly how to handle this with the Ministry, but how in the world was he going to explain this to h— A floorboard creaked outside the office, and Dier, still tense with adrenaline, reacted immediately. He grabbed a thick anchor behind him—his father’s hidden safe cabinet—and shoved on the office door’s hardware, sending it swinging open with a bang. Revealing, much to his frustration, his wide-eyed younger sister crouching on the other side. Eliane jumped back with a yelp as the door nearly hit her, locking eyes with him in a panic and starting to try to back away. Of course it would be Eliane, Dier thought with thick annoyance. The servants knew better than to be in the same wing when Renholm was in a bad mood. The old man had always been prone to breaking things when he lost his temper, and skaa were infinitely more replaceable than furniture or the Keep’s valuables. His sister, on the other hand, had always been too fond of sticking her nose in other people’s business for her own good. That little habit would get her in trouble someday. “Eliane,” he snarled through a paper-thin polite smile, “why don’t you step in here and join us? Shut the door behind you.” How much had she seen? He had to assume it was everything. Eliane blanched slightly, but wisely realized from his tone that he hadn’t been asking, and ducked her head as she stepped in. Though she was only a few years younger than him, he’d always thought Eliane felt far younger than her twenty years. Eliane, whom Venture had sheltered, while they sent him to risk his neck for their politics and schemes. Where Dier had only ever been a reminder to their father of Fedrienne at her worst, Renholm had always treated Eliane like she was the sole remnant of all the lovely parts of their mother at her best. When he looked at her now, he found resentment simmering within. He never went after you like he did me… There’d been times in their childhood where things had been better between them, nights she’d waited up to make sure there was someone awake to see he was safe when he got home from a mission. Pity in her eyes as she’d helped stitch him back together after a job gone wrong. But now, as he saw that fearful tremble in her expression, he found nothing but disdain for his little sister and everything she represented. She hid from conflict, he confronted it. She kept her head down and avoided attention where he always flaunted his presence at court affairs. Nervous, weak little thing that she was, Dier had always known she’d never have the temperament to survive amongst the cutthroat nobility. Right now, she was a problem. And a problem was the last thing he needed. Eliane closed the office door as requested, then carefully walked forward to join him when he pointed to a spot on the floor in front of him. When she was far enough in to catch sight of their father on the floor—and the new hole in his head—she clapped a hand to her mouth in horror. "Sit down," Dier snapped, before she could say anything about it, "and don't even think about screaming." Eliane stared at her brother aghast, but did drop to sit on the chaise when he pointed again. "Dier, what have you done?" "Oh, don't start," he said witheringly. "The old bastard more than had it coming. Now, shut up so I can think." Eliane opened her mouth to protest, but a hard glare from him snapped it shut again. She folded her hands in her lap, fiddling with her skirt as she laced and unlaced her fingers. Every so often her eyes would drift towards their father’s body, but she quickly yanked them away when she realized what she was doing, choosing instead to stare instead at a specific patch of the rug. Admittedly, as he paced and tried to think of what to do next, a not insignificant part of Dier wondered if, as a witness to this impulsive little crime of his, Eliane might now be more trouble than she was worth. It was tempting to consider just getting rid of her too, make things simple. But he already had one murdered family member to deal with tonight. He reluctantly admitted to himself it would probably be wiser to deal with the first before he considered adding any more. Renholm had more than earned a hole in his head, but there were probably better ways of dealing with the inconvenience of Eliane than creating another corpse to have to cover up. After a few minutes of Dier muttering to himself as he racked his brain to find a way out of this, Eliane looked at him again, fear and worry still writ plain across her face, and asked in a soft voice: “Dier… What’s going to happen to us?” He started to tell her to be quiet again, when an idea finally popped. An idea that just might work. He stopped pacing and turned to face her fully, mouth splitting in a grin. The expression seemed to, if anything, frighten Eliane further. “What’s going to happen? Nothing,” he said lightly, even giving a little laugh at how obvious it was, ready to kick himself for not seeing it sooner. “Nothing at all, little Ellie.” Her expression hardened as she stared back. “Have you lost your mind?” He was almost impressed; perhaps his sister did have a backbone in there somewhere. Unfortunately, it was, for him, a deeply inconvenient time for her to have grown one. “Watch your tone,” he said, lip curling. “You ought to be thanking me. Don’t try to act like you’ve got any kind of moral high ground here. You’d have done the same thing if you’d been capable of it. You just weren’t strong enough.” Her hands balled and she pressed them against her thighs, crumpling the fabric of her skirts as she did so. “I’m not…!" she started to protest, then stopped herself. Wisely."Tell yourself whatever you need to if it helps you feel better about what you’ve done, I don’t care. But we need a plan, because now you’ve dragged me into this. What are we going to do?” He rolled his eyes. “If you’d listened rather than immediately mouthing off, you could have let me finish telling you the plan.” He leaned down, getting right up in her face and enjoying the way she flinched back from him. “I am going to stay right here and ensure no one else in this household… interrupts this very important conversation Father and I are having. And you, little Ellie, are going to go find SaeNinn and let him know his presence is required in the study.” Eliane frowned for a moment, bewildered as she tried to understand his reasoning for such a demand. Her eyes slid back to their father on the floor and she flinched, realizing what he intended. She looked nauseous at the thought. “Y-you can’t be serious. He’s… he’s our father.” Dier straightened again, giving a dismissive wave. “No. He was our father. Now, he’s an inconvenient corpse. One that needs to be dealt with expeditiously. Unless you’d prefer we sit here until someone else stumbles upon him in such a state?” He stepped back, pointing at the door. “SaeNinn. Study. Now. Tell him his Contract holder wishes to discuss an amendment.” Eliane held his gaze for an extended moment without moving to obey, long enough that he raised an eyebrow at her in challenge. How exactly do you think this is going to go down, little sister? Is this really a fight you want to pick right now? She broke first, dropping her eyes to the floor and standing. She even dipped him the tiniest curtsy when she was back on her feet. "Very well," she said, clearly not pleased but cooperating. "As you wish, my lord." He smirked, trying to decide if she was being cheeky with the formal address. Hard to tell, though the look she shot him when she raised her head again was anything but respectful. "Oh, and Eliane," he said, "I expect you to be back by the top of the hour. Otherwise, I'm coming to find you myself, and I can assure you we'll have a much less pleasant conversation if that becomes necessary." Her mouth thinned to a flat line. "It won't be. I don't need to be threatened, Dier." He shrugged, smirk undeterred. "Merely making sure we're both on the same page here. On you go, then." He sat down behind his father's desk, tossing his legs up on top of it and kicking back a fresh vial of steel dust. Just in case. Eliane gave him one last dark look, then turned and walked out, off to find the kandra. Or off to make a very foolish mistake. By the top of the hour he'd know which. Dier didn’t have to wait long. It was well before the bell when he saw the steel-lines of his sister's jewelry approach on the other side of the study door. He stayed tense, running his thumb over the handful of clips in his left hand, until he heard the knock and Eliane’s voice called through: “My lord, may I enter?” He Pushed the door open again in lieu of answering, quickly checking that this wasn’t an ambush. Eliane was in front, startled again by his Allomancy, and behind her was a single figure he didn’t recognize. The young man had short silver hair, and he leaned around Eliane to peek curiously at Dier beyond, seeming interested in the display with the door. Dier paused. He’d thought SaeNinn had been a Terrisman last he’d seen the thing, but perhaps he’d simply not been paying attention to the latest assignment. He supposed he ought to be thankful Eliane had known where to find this version of him. The role couldn’t have been that important, whatever it was. And besides, it was over now. Eliane stepped aside and indicated for SaeNinn to enter first, then closed the door behind them both. The kandra, clearly still in character, turned in a circle as he walked in, admiring the tall bookshelves before stopping before the desk and offering a bow. “What a well-appointed room, Lord Venture. It is an impressive collection,” he said with a polite smile. “Your sister mentioned your Lord Father would be joining us to discuss business?” Eliane grimaced, wrapping an arm around her waist. “That wasn’t… quite it.” “Drop the act, creature. Your assignment’s over.” Dier stood, moving to pull back the window curtains he’d done his best to hide his father’s corpse behind. “As lord of this family branch and inheritor of your Contract, I hereby compel you to a new assignment. Thankfully, it's a target you’re fully familiar with, so I do not expect you’ll have any trouble with the role.” Immediately, like the snuffing of a candle, any hint of emotion vanished from the kandra’s face, an inhuman emptiness left in its place. Dier had always found kandra disturbing, especially when the creatures stopped pretending, but he couldn’t argue with how damn useful they were. SaeNinn’s blank gaze slid to Renholm on the floor, and he might as well have been staring at an off-color bit of paint on a wall rather than the corpse of a man he’d served since before Dier was born. “I see. You wish me to take these bones?” “Yes,” Dier said, waving towards the body. “In case you need it said outright, from here on out, you will be Lord Renholm Venture, and you will ensure his true passing will be known to none beyond this room. Understood?” SaeNinn bowed once. “Yes, Master. And what assignment would you have me undertake, in this new role?” “Assignment?” Dier scoffed. “That’s it. Just be him. Do whatever you think he’d do. Oversee the house. Run interference for whatever Venture directives come down from Cousin Straff. Frankly, I don’t care what you do, or how you do it, so long as no one suspects you.” For the briefest of seconds, there was a flicker in the kandra’s expression, and Dier wondered if the creature actually had emotions of its own under there somehow. “To clarify,” SaeNinn said slowly. “You… wish me to run your branch of the house?” “I wish you to be the old man and ensure none suspect anything has happened to him. And yes, that means I expect you to handle whatever responsibilities he had,” Dier said. “Lord Ruler knows I’m not going to do it. If there’s some truly important decision that needs to be made, I can inform you how to proceed, but I do not wish to be bothered with mundanities and minutiae. Handle whatever comes up however you see fit.” Eliane fixed him with such a look of shocked contempt as she heard the hands-off instructions, and he crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow back. You really think you want to lecture me right now about not taking enough responsibility, Ellie? Because it didn’t go so well for the last person who tried tonight. Her frown deepened, but eventually she glanced away, wisely choosing to hold her tongue. The kandra watched the silent exchange of looks between the siblings before addressing Dier again. “It shall be done, Master. I will need several hours undisturbed, but the transition will be complete by first light.” Dier smiled, spreading his arms in a showy little flourish towards his sister. “See? Solved. As far as anyone else is concerned, nothing's happened. Nothing changes. And for us, dear sister? No more of his raving, no more lectures, and best of all: not another hint of zinc in this house. Never again.” He crossed the room and clapped her on the shoulder, a motion that made her flinch sharply. “You’ll see. This’ll be a good thing. You keep your mouth shut about whatever you think you saw tonight, and I assure you, it’ll all work out for the best.” She pursed her lips, looking up and searching for something in his eyes. “If you say so, Dier. You know best. Clearly.” His smile thinned, not appreciating that little spark of disrespect she still had. “Keep that thought in mind, won’t you? I think it’s a mindset that would serve you well in the days to come. It’s a trying time, after all. We’re family. We should support one another, shouldn’t we?” I’m not an enemy you want to make, Eliane. She sighed, giving one last look towards SaeNinn and the body, shuddering. Always too soft for the hard realities, she was, Dier told himself. But he had to trust that she was smart enough to not let her foolish sentiment get in the way. She’d see he’d been right in time, once the surprise and messy emotions faded. She'd be grateful their father was gone. And she was smart enough to figure out that defying him wouldn’t go well for her. She’d stay in line. Dier turned back to the kandra, sweeping a sarcastically elaborate bow. “I suppose I’ll see you in the morning, Father. So glad we were finally able to have a productive conversation between us.” He started to make for the door, putting a hand at the small of Eliane’s back to shove her out of the room along with him, then paused to turn back. “Also, one last thing,” he said, remembering something, “when you’re done with it all, kandra, spit my signet ring out. Think I left it in there somewhere, and I’d really like it back.” Eliane looked like she was going to be sick, stumbling a bit as he pushed her forward. He just laughed. There was that satisfied delight he’d been searching for. Honestly, the only regret in his mind as they walked from the room was that he hadn't done this years ago. (Portrait Sketch by Elisgardor)
  5. The latest episode of Secrets in Stained Glass, "Race to the Bottom" is now out, and with it, we're posting a few of the visual assets that have been used in the show so far for those who want to take a closer look, or for our audio listeners who haven't gotten to see them! Below the cut, you can find the on-screen character sheets for our main cast as of Episode 3, now that all their traits have been revealed, featuring the gorgeous character portraits drawn by Elisgardor! We have the full version of that stunning feature illustration of a very key moment in the latest episode, done by the amazing Diego Lopez. If you've finished the episode, click through to see more! POST CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR DICEBORN: SECRETS IN STAINED GLASS EPISODE 3, DO NOT OPEN UNTIL FINISHED! Feature Illustration First up, (I really wasn't kidding about those spoilers, turn back now if you still can!) what you're all REALLY here to see, the "Race to the Bottom" itself, in all its glory! As mentioned in the episode itself, we reached out to Diego to illustrate this moment as a private commission initially, but he very kindly allowed us to feature it in the show itself! I'm still amazed at how beautifully it turned out! Diego does amazing work, especially in depicting the visual aspects of Allomancy, and we knew he was absolutely the right artist to bring this moment to life. Please go show him some love at his Instagram: @diegolopez_artist and check out his other Cosmere fanart while you're there! Character Sheets Next up, for those of you who have been watching the video version of the show, you've seen the mini character sheets that pop up on screen whenever we're talking about a character's traits or trying to decide if we can wheedle just one more dice out of Matt for that next roll, and as of Episode 3, our main cast's sheets have been fully revealed! These don't represent all of the things on their full character sheets (MAG sheets can be quite complex!) but hopefully they're a helpful snapshot of at least some of the most key attributes and stats that we're calling upon the most as we play. And we've sung her praises many a time before, but the character portraits featured on these sheets are by the lovely and wonderful Eli, who you can find over at @elisgardor on Instagram and @ElisaGDorta on Twitter. If you haven't seen yet, she's posted the full versions of these portraits on her socials, along with some fun bonus sketches of the characters. Drop her a follow and send her some kind words about the amazing work she's done while you're over there! Character sheets are listed in order of initial appearance! Character Playlist: "The Bottom's All I've Found" (Dier) Finally, given that this was a shorter episode than usual, if you're still looking for something SiSG to listen to with all that extra time we gave you, feel free to check out "The Bottom's All I've Found," a character playlist for Dier Venture. An hour and a half of songs all about everyone's favorite nasty trashboi! You can listen on either Spotify or Youtube! Feel free to check out the lyrics guide here for some of the most Dier-y lines from each track! [Please note some lyrics contain explicit language!] Still not enough SiSG content for you? Well, that's all you're getting for today, but keep an eye out over the next two weeks, we've got a few more goodies coming later, including some backstory scenes about Dier and Eliane that will drop in a few days! All Secrets in Stained Glass stuff (episodes, bonus content, and stories) can be seen on this tag! For our Patrons, we'll be sharing some of Matt's narrator notes on NPCs in the game so far, so if that (or any of the other Patron exclusive content we've got out there) sounds interesting to you, you can get access to all our 17S bonus content for Diceborn, Shardcast, and the other things we do around here for as low as a dollar. Hope you guys are liking the show, and enjoy all the goodies this week! We'll see you back here soon for more! Until then, well, you know the drill now: race you to the bottom! ~ Feather
  6. Oh hey, maybe I should be on the forums more often, there's fellow FFXIV fans out here! I admit, I spend more time than I probably should in the FFXIV thread on our 17S discord (we've got a good crew over there, and some lovely sprouts playing through for the first time) but I love this game to bits, I think it's got some absolutely amazing storytelling and Ishikawa is a cruel and wonderful writing genius. Love the story, love the gameplay, love the community. Spend far too many of my waking hours hunting down streamers doing first time MSQ playthroughs so that I can feed off their reactions like an emotional vampire (the true endgame of XIV, of course). I've got a couple of viera that I play, because viera are the best, hands down, I love all bnuuys deeply and with my whole heart and soul. I hard main red mage because I think it's got an awesome aesthetic, great raid utility, and a very snappy build-and-spend cycle to its rotation, big fan. I do also dabble in Dancer and Sage on occasion though. Props to @Zurvanite for keeping this topic going for so long, fighting the good fight! If anybody's on Crystal, we've got a CWLS set up for a few of the 17S folks to keep in touch though it doesn't see a huge amount of use on a day to day basis. In conclusion: bnnuuuuyyyyyyy. That is all.
  7. @Wittless If you're curious about the experiences of plural readers and how they read Shallan and her role as representation, there's a few good threads discussing this already. The Winter System started one here that had some good responses on this topic: I am singlet (not-plural) myself, but will say I think you are getting some more brusque responses because some of the things you've said regarding the story and plurality are close to some of the more harmful ideas about it, even though I assume that was not your intent. Things like saying that you find this weird or uncomfortable, or that it's "an issue that needs to be dealt with" or that plurality is "dangerous" are harmful stereotypes, and the people who are affected by these things are understandably upset. One of the criticisms in that thread of Shallan's arc was that it ended in integration, and while some systems see integration as a goal, others prefer to find stability amongst themselves, and having Shallan persist as a stable system in a loving relationship would have been very good positive representation for plurality. I found that very interesting, as it wasn't something I'd thought about, as a singlet, but I could see the point that was made in that, it made sense. There's plenty of cheap horror portrayals of plurality where "gasp, a 'normal' person some of the time, and a crazy murderer others! how frightening and terrible!" but there's plenty of actual plural systems out there living their lives as normal people and when their only representation is as a horror monster, well... obviously that's a pretty bad thing. Anyway, I'd encourage you to read that thread, and some of the others that are around on this topic, and also just read online about the experiences of real plural systems if you want to know more. I'd encourage you to be careful about the way you phrase things and remember that there are real people out there with similar experiences to Shallan's when you talk and ask about her storyline. That's good advice anywhere, but it's especially important for things like this. I hope that helps!
  8. I mean, the original speculation regarding Shallan being bi was because there were a lot of interactions and descriptions in WoK with Jasnah that easily read as Shallan having a crush. In all honesty, Shallan doesn't really ever express attraction to Kabsal, it's just that he expresses attraction toward her, which she finds both flattering and a bit frightening. I think, as we said, that probably wasn't Brandon's original intent, but hey authorial intent changes! And when Silver sent that tweet, Brandon acknowledged that the reading was valid and now, it seems, is moving to make that reading more explicitly canon. The bi Shallan reading started long before Veil even existed. Sure, Veil has an easier time talking about finding people attractive or flirting because she's a darkeyed, streetwise con woman. She's rough and tumble, she drinks Horneater white, she asks salacious questions about the pretty girl across the bar. Shallan the lighteyed Highprincess, as a person, is far less likely to say things like that in a public setting. She's got to be a little more reserved and refined, because that's who she is. But it doesn't change the fact that it was Shallan who was always all flustered about how gorgeous and perfect and well-endowed her mentor in Kharbranth was. The one who said that Jasnah "opened a box of storms in [her]" and all that. I will say, I really like that Shallan and Veil seem to have the kind of relationship with Adolin where they talk about former crushes or who they find attractive. Even in a light, teasing sort of way to make Adolin blush about his old girlfriends. I think it's much healthier for a relationship to be able to discuss things like that rather than acting like monogamy means you're never allowed to find anyone else attractive for the rest of your life.
  9. Jian Guo's art is just absolutely stunning. What an amazing interview! Now I realize how much I need the Chinese version of Infinity Blade... that cover is breathtaking!
  10. I think Lady said it very well, but yeah I definitely think an over-reliance on what is explicitly canon hinders the experience. Canon is the basis, it tells us who these characters are, what they value, what they want. But I as a reader and a fandom member get to take that canon and build on it, explore it in my own ways. Shipping is about dynamics, chemistry, charisma. Regardless of whether or not I think Brandon's going to write these characters being in a relationship together in the books, do I as a reader see them as compatible? Kaladin and Adolin have great chemistry, they're opposites in many ways that fit together nicely, but they're also just very supportive of each other and care about each other. Sure, plenty of people are never going to read anything deeper into their on-screen interactions, but for those of us who resonate with that dynamic, those canon moments feel more special. Shipping is something that gets written off by a lot of communities as something silly, it's just for people who want to see characters kiss each other, or be sexy or whatever. But shipping done well is character appreciation. It's learning to explore characters in such a deep way that you start to extrapolate that character's bonds with others. Like mixing two shades of paint to see what new color results. How could these characters make each other better? How can they make each other's problems worse? What are their strengths, flaws, wishes, and how do those things interact with the other person's strengths, flaws, wishes? What would happen if they were in a different setting? What would happen if they'd met in a different way? Who are they in relation to themselves, and who are they in relation to the other person? Thinking about these sorts of extrapolations as separate or divorced from canon isn't really accurate, rather I would say they help you understand the characters in their canon state better. If we think of canon as moving in a clean line in one direction, theorizing is trying to guess where that line is going next. If it's not on the line or not going to be on the line, the theorizing side doesn't care. Shipping and other creative fandom endeavors is more like exploring all the other angles the line could have taken, filling in the empty spaces around. We appreciate canon more deeply because we can keep coming back to it as a starting place, playing with its implications, using Brandon's story and set-up as the clay to sculpt whatever we want to see. I am driven by characters in the books, it's why I read cosmere. Realmatic theory, WoBs, those aren't what get me excited about reading Brandon's books. It's his rich characters, who are people I like and people I'm interested in reading about. I want to dig into the motivations and struggles and all that nitty gritty of what makes each character themselves, and how that drives them through the plot. There's plenty of fans who don't think this way, who are fine sticking to the line Brandon gives and taking the books and characters at face value and being satisfied with that. But for those of us who love the story and character's potential to be more, who show our love of the cosmere by exploring possibilities rather than staying fixed on the set canon, well... most of us end up as shippers. I hope that maybe helps clarify some of the mindset? It really saddens me that 17s doesn't really have the same rich shipping communities that I've loved in other fandoms or other cosmere groups. I think the more people are used to the idea of shipping and speculative creativity as an expression of fandom and the way those conversations can be valuable and engaging—even if they don't really get into those discussions themselves—I think the 17s fandom side would be a richer, more interesting place.
  11. Sorry OP, but unfortunately, I cannot be the Shalladin friend you search for. Shalladin is a hard nOTP for me, and I was very relieved at the end of OB when they decided they weren't right for each other. That topic's been talked to death and I feel like it's rude to talk about why you don't like someone else's ship to them, so I won't go into all the reasons I didn't like it, but I definitely felt like the story had dodged a bullet when she chose Adolin at the end. In terms of my own Stormlight ships, Kadolin is waaaaay up there. Kaladin and Adolin have such a magnetic, addictive chemistry and it feels like their relationship has just grown stronger and stronger as the books progress. Is it going to be canon? Probably not. But it's amazing regardless. The only correct solution to the "love triangle" is with Adolin in the middle, if you ask me, ha. A diagram, for reference: Shadolin is... fine, I guess? It's better than Shalladin for me but also I don't really get excited about it. Probably wouldn't ever really make content for them. In terms of canon ships, it's decent. No complaints, at least. After Kadolin, Kalarin (Kaladin/Renarin) would probably be my next favorite ship. Much as I love Kadolin, I've probably written more stuff for Kalarin, though I blame the fact that I hung out with lots of Kalarin shippers for a while and they rubbed off on me. It's just such a different dynamic. Kadolin has that great rivals-to-lovers, bonded-in-combat-together kind of vibe, and Adolin is just so good at looking out for Kaladin's mental health too; but every so often you just want a ship that's fluffy and gentle, and that's Kalarin all the way. The scene where Renarin works up the courage to ask to join Bridge Four and Kaladin just... immediately understands how hard it was for him, and how much he just really needs a place to belong, ohh my heart just melts. I have a reputation around the fandom for Renarin being my favorite character of all time and I just get teary when people are nice to him and think he's a valuable person, and Kaladin was so great about that. I have written some things for Shasnah, though those were more for friends than necessarily it being my own ship. Personally, I think Jasnah is definitely Shallan's type (and that she absolutely had a baby bi crush on Jasnah in WoK), but Shallan doesn't really strike me as Jasnah's type. For Jasnah ships, I feel like Khriss would be my pick for her. Two fierce, noble scholar ladies discovering the secrets of the Cosmere together, who wouldn't want that? Finally, my terrible, dumpster-fire unhealthy ship: Mraize/Veil. I absolutely love a good charismatic, manipulative villain, and I especially love it when two very smart characters are trying to outwit and outplay one another from behind the guise of sharp smiles and paper-thin politeness. Tack onto it that Mraize is very well-dressed and well-spoken and he's absolutely my villain-crush type. The strength of emotions between enmity and attraction, the intimacy of trying to get inside your opponent's head, the manipulative mix of wanting the approval of someone you're trying to beat in a very dangerous game, its all just *chef kiss.* It's definitely not the kind of ship for everyone but it hits all the shipping buttons I love.
  12. I am SCREAMING, this is everything I pictured. I love the excerpts from the logbook too, like mmmm yes. A+, 10/10, S-tier fanfic. Long live Rashendi.
  13. Funnily enough, despite having never played Halo, my mental picture for shardblades was that they were ethereal and translucent like the energy swords from Halo. I was quite confused when I started my first reread of WoK and finally noticed the description that they were metal. Also @The Deity wooo fellow Guardian. I definitely have a post floating around about how Destiny and Stormlight are actually really similar!
  14. Hey Lerasium, I don't want to sound like another person disagreeing, but I think I might have an idea of where your interpretation has differed from most other people's in regards to that WoB. It seems like you had a different intention with your question than you actually asked. I think you were hoping to ask something on the verge of: What is Dalinar's role in all future Stormlight books? When Brandon only talked about 4 & 5, you took that as confirmation that Dalinar would not appear in any other books. However, Brandon was not trying to answer that question. When he answered you, he was only talking about Dalinars immediate future. He very intentionally only told you about the next two books, no further. That's what Brandon's second message is trying to make clear: Whether Dalinar is in the back five or not, Brandon is not revealing anything. Dalinar could be in every chapter in the back five, or he could be in none of them, and Brandon's answer would be the same. That's what he's trying to convey. This is why he said he's "very, very intentionally not saying anything about any of the characters after book five." Now as you mentioned, we've seen with Lift that he's let a few things slip here and there, like you pointed out, but I think he is trying to be very careful now to not let anything else slip out. And you may have other reasons for thinking Dalinar will die (it's a possibility, sure!) but I think what people are trying to show you is that this WoB shouldn't be taken as proof that Dalinar only has two books left. That's not what Brandon is saying to you in this WoB at all. And that's why Brandon himself told you you were "reading a lot more into [his] reply than what [he] said." That's Brandon's way of saying that him not talking about Dalinar in the back five is not mean Dalinar can't be in them. Brandon's saying it could be either way, he won't confirm.
  15. I don't really have a dog in the race on Adolin becoming a Radiant or not. If it happens, cool, if not, cool. But in terms of the oath interpretation, I don't even necessarily think it's something that would come down to an Order's interpretation. I think it really might just be between the Radiant and their spren. I think the higher spren really are more individual than that. Sure, within an Order, you're going to share some ideology and ways of thinking, but beyond broad strokes, I bet each Honorspren has their own idea of what it means to be a Windrunner and each Cultivationspren has their own idea what it means to be an Edgedancer, so on and so forth. It's hard to know for sure right now, because we haven't really gotten to interact with multiple spren from within the same order, but I think we'll definitely see more of it come Book 4, from the Windrunners certainly, but hopefully from some other Orders too.
  16. Welcome aboard! And don't worry... we'll have a podcast that's aaaaall about pronunciations here soon. All kinds of fun with that one too.
  17. Those of y'all who said Renarin was your beef? My assassins will be with you shortly. Defense of my baby aside, I have been known to toss a y'all or two around and even some all y'alls. I don't have much of the accent but you don't live in Texas your whole life without picking up the lingo.
  18. Fun story about "hell" as a filtered word. It used to be in the filter, and then Brandon published "Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell" and we can't very well filter a word that's in the title of one of the books...
  19. I've made a point of bringing this up in Discord a few times, but I am also a lover of character-based and relationship-focused discussions. The A-S-K thread wasn't a sterling example of what shipping threads can be, but I know this is something that 17S' culture has had issues with in the past. There's nothing more fun to me than having a chill, friendly conversation about characters and ships and plots and narrative arcs and stuff like that. Unfortunately, 17S hasn't been home to most of those discussions. They've happened elsewhere. But I think it'd be great if they happened here too. I've had too many fandom friends say they don't feel like 17S is a place for people like them, the shippers, the character experts, the fanfic writers, the artists, the AU people. They get intimidated and think you've got to be a Realmatics expert and know at least 200 WoBs of the top of your head to post here, and I don't want that to be true. It's great that we have experts who really know the nitty-gritty of the cosmere in and out, and I think they're amazing resources for this site. But no one should feel like those are the only people who are welcome. One of the things that both saddens and encourages me about what's happened with A-S-K is hearing how many people seem to be really wanting those kind of discussions too. I hear it both from people who were active and supportive of the thread, who feel sad that it's gone, because it felt like it was the one place they could talk about these kinds of things. And I hear it from people from people who really wanted a place to talk about those kinds of things, but didn't want to jump into A-S-K for whatever reason, and felt like they were stuck and had no other places to go. That thread, for better or worse, agree or disagree, is done with for now. But I like this idea that maybe we'll get some new character-focused threads in the future and we can all have those cool, fun character or ship talks that apparently, a bunch of us have been wanting threads like that. I say, let's do it. It's silly for us to all sit around wishing someone else wanted to talk about this stuff. Let's just go for it instead of wishing! Who are you, and what have you done with maxal? I don't know what they've done with her, Kay, but I'm scared. Who is this new person????
  20. I think my post was perhaps, a little unclear. This is not to say that we never moderate through PMs. As I said, we do! For many people and for many reasons. A lot of moderation happens privately rather than publicly, but, since it's not open for everyone to see, obviously people don't know about those cases. This just happened to be one that people noticed happened "off-screen" so to speak. My point in talking about that experience wasn't to say that "my friend got private talks while strangers get public ones" because that's just not the case. I meant to say that in that case, because I know my friend well and we talk frequently, we were able to accomplish the moderation with a chill and friendly chat, because I knew she'd understand and listen even before I spoke to her. That's just not a luxury that we get with random users who we don't know. I have to tread more carefully when moderating people I don't know well because they don't know me and I don't know them. The kind of PM that I'd send to a user like that would be more calm, professional, and explanatory than the casual chat I can have with a friend where I can just swoop in and go "yo, fren, u went too far there, fix it." If the person who gets a PM is a brand new user, I tend to be gentler, because I don't want their first experience on the Shard to be a scolding from authorities. More than likely with newbies, they just don't have a handle on the rules yet and some encouragement in the right direction is all it takes. If it's someone who's been around for a while and should know better, I can be a little stricter. There's not a "boilerplate" response for when something's wrong. The kind of response that I send as a moderator changes based on the person I'm talking to and the situation at hand. I think perhaps the root of the issue is that while there's clear rules in place, there aren't necessarily delineated punishments for breaking them. Getting moderated on 17S isn't like getting a speeding ticket where it's "pay this amount if your 10mph over, pay this much if it was 25." There's not a chart somewhere that says doing this will get you a PM, or this will be a public warning, or this will get you mod queued, or this will get you banned. Dealing with situations is done on a case-by-case basis, and usually collectively. When a problem post is brought to our attention, the staff often talks together about how to handle it. Should it be deleted, or edited, or should one of us post a warning, or should that person be mod queued? It depends on a lot of factors. Has this person been trouble before? Are there multiple reports about this post, or is it just one person who might be overreacting a bit? Is this somewhere where making a statement about what's happening will help solve it best, or is it better to pull the person aside in private and see if they'll fix it quietly? Are there other people involved who also need to be seen to? Should they get PMs as well, or is it a problem that will shape up if just the main offender shapes up? Personally, I think that flexibility helps the staff respond to problems more efficiently than a more rigid system would. It gives us the chance to use our discretion and take extenuating circumstances into account while we're sorting through what are usually tense situations with high emotions. Because of that, we can handle them in the way we think is going to get things settled rather than making it worse. I think there's some situations where there just isn't a great answer that's not going to upset people, so you pick the one that upsets the fewest, or the one that's going to be better for the site overall. And in those cases, when the backlash rolls in, you push up your sleeves and try to mediate and settle that too. Like I said before, I'm sure we pick wrong sometimes. There's probably times where another method might have been more effective or better. But that can't always be helped. Conflicts are messy, no matter what, and that unpredictability of not knowing how people are going to respond to the things we do means often, we've got to take our best guess and go with it. Maybe that staff-discretion method needs to be reconsidered. Personally, I think it's efficient and the wisest course of action, but if a majority of our users find it unfair or feel like the staff are attacking them for no reason, then that's something we need to consider. From what I've seen, I don't think that's the case. I think a lot of people are mostly okay with staff making decisions in how to handle things as they arise, but maybe I'm wrong about that. That's part of what discussions like this are for.
  21. I think some of it comes back to that grab-bag of reactions idea. There's nothing wrong with members talking out their disagreements themselves in private, but I don't think very many do. A random user who disagrees with you might be worried that you'd blow up at them if they tried to say something privately. Conflict resolution's hard and scary. I understand why a lot of people prefer to just ping staff with a report and let a moderator deal with it. It's a little easier for us to talk to people because we've got some authority and well... mucking through the unfun parts of conflict resolution is part of our job. We have to deal with it, but members have the choice of whether they want to handle it themselves or take it up the chain of command.
  22. Hey Dream, as the moderator in question, I'd like to give a little more insight into what happened there. I assume you're talking about Kogiopsis' brief foray into the Adolin-Shallan-Kaladin thread? Your retelling of events is fairly accurate, but I'd like to explain a bit of what happened behind the scenes. Yes, Kogi's a close personal friend of mine, has been for years. She's long disliked some of the culture of discussions on 17S and, for the most part, avoids them. She has an aggressive personality, and it tends to come out strongly when she is engaged in a heated discussion, and she knows that a lot of times, that kind of argument is against the rules on 17S. The mix of 17S conversations making her blood pressure rise combined with the fact that she hits too hard when she's annoyed means that she stays away for the most part. I didn't summon her as an attack dog or ask her to contribute. Frankly, I was downright shocked to see that she'd logged in here. We've got group chats on skype with other Cosmere fandom members, and some of us are on 17S and had been talking about our discussions in ASK, so she knew about the thread. But I certainly wasn't expecting her to go weigh in with her take on the matter. She went too far, got carried away and her tone strayed into a territory that broke the rules. The moderation staff discussed it, agreed that the tone was too far, the post was hidden. I talked to her privately about it, and she said she had a pretty good idea of where she'd crossed the line and so, after editing the offending part out, the post was reinstated. Now, I think you have a point about public chastisement in a way. There wasn't a call-out for Kogi in the thread for that event, but I think that has more to do with the fact that it was an issue that could be handled and fixed privately. And it's not just personal friends of staff who get that treatment. There's plenty of times where staff send private messages to members to try to fix posts or steer a conversation away if it looks like it's getting toxic. It doesn't always have to do with bias or relationship. Sometimes the person isn't too far out of line and just needs a staff nudge. Sometimes a public condemnation would throw an otherwise productive topic off-course and we don't want to interrupt for a staff announcement. Public moderation has its place too though. In some cases, it can be good for other members to see what kind of behavior is out of line so that they can not make the same mistakes in the future. A lot of times, conflicts in threads aren't the fault of one single person, but rather a group of people getting heated and taking things too far, in which case, it's easier to just sit them all down right there in the thread and ask them to cool off. It depends on the situation, again. In Kogi's case, I knew why she'd gone too far and I knew, as her friend, that she'd fix it when asked without throwing a fit. And yes, that is a benefit of being friends with someone, that you know them and it's easier to deal with stuff like that because you've got a previous relationship. I can't hit up RandomUser096 on Skype and say "hey buddy, I think you know where that went wrong, but I know you'll fix it because we're cool" sort of thing. Most of the users here are strangers here, and that means I can't just saunter into their PMs here and know for certain they'll be reasonable. There's plenty of members who blow up and try to make things worse when a moderator steps in. There's some who will shout that you're being jerks to them specifically, peppered with swear words, and throw tantrums. But there's plenty of people who apologize and are fine. Sometimes it's a misunderstanding, and the person didn't realize how their post really came across. But when you don't know the person, it's a grab bag which one it's going to be. And odds are, when the person has already gone too far and broken the rules, there's a higher chance that they're going to be the furiously angry former type than the reasonable and apologetic latter type. Maybe we, as staff, didn't handle that situation in the best way. Maybe we did. We did our best at the time to be fair about it. I'm sure there's other situations we could have handled better too, just as there's situations that were handled smoothly enough that other users never even knew about them. The staff are human. We make mistakes and we have biases on moderation things just as we have regular opinions on book things. We do try hard not to let those biases affect our moderation, but I'm sure it happens sometimes anyway, despite our intentions otherwise. I think I speak for the staff when we say that we don't want the moderation team to be some dangerous, shadowy cabal that might swoop down out of nowhere and execute you in broad daylight, or send assassins in the night to murder you if you don't fall in line with our nefarious agenda. We're just fans, like you guys, who joined this site because we love Brandon's books and love talking about them with other fans. We've just got... a little more say in sorting things out when things start to go wrong. I think maybe a thread like this is a good thing. I think it could be productive to talk about how moderation works on the site and maybe we as staff members can learn how to improve some things too. Like I said, we're not perfect. But we're trying our best. Maybe, after talking it all through, we can get even better.
  23. Hello! I am very much a Renarin fan. I am here for all your Renarin-love related needs. Welcome to the Shard!
  24. My thoughts are that I'm just... tired of the discussion for the most part. I think there is a hang up here in this thread on objective truth, and it's an issue I've seen in other threads on the Shard too. Romance, characters, plots, and enjoyment thereof are so so so so deeply opinionated that trying to argue down to tacks over who's "right" just seems like an exercise in futility. You didn't like the plotline. I did. We can... just accept that those two realities are both true without one of us needing to be right or wrong about it. Just because a plot didn't work for you does not necessarily mean that it's flawed or worthless. Just because it's not the way you would have done it doesn't mean that it's objectively and unquestionably bad. Just because I thought it was great doesn't mean that everyone's going to see it that way. See: The Last Jedi. No spoilers here, but I loved it. Probs one of my fave Star Wars movies of all time. One of my dear friends hated it and thought it was horrible storytelling, a disgusting mockery of a beloved franchise. We both talked about our thoughts and then we continued to be friends and it was fine. I didn't convince her that TLJ was a shining bastion that reworked a familiar narrative that needed refreshing and she didn't convince me that the plot was full of inexcusable holes and worthless storytelling decisions. Same thing here. I'm not going to convince you that Shallan and Adolin are a good pairing and that Oathbringer showed this well. You're not going to convince me that it didn't. That's fine. What works for me might not work for you. I don't love everything Brandon does in his books, but I really loved this. You and many of the other upstanding Sharders in this thread didn't. That's cool. I'm not going to be able to explain to you why the plot worked for me because it didn't work for you. These threads are cool when we get a difference of opinion and people get to say "I didn't read it that way, but it's interesting that you do" or "Oh, I hadn't thought of that angle, that changes my perspective." But when it's all about convincing the other side that you're right and they're wrong, it just gets onerous. At least for me. Maybe other people really like that kind of discussion and they are welcome to it. But I'm good without it. Back in the golden days of WoK-only SA fandom, my closest friends were my shipping rivals. I didn't like Kalarin that much and they didn't like Shallarin. We still had great talks and fun amusing fake rivalries. Now we've both written things for our "former enemy ship" and we're still besties. Heck, at this point, I've probably written more fic for Kalarin than I ever wrote for Shallarin. Life's funny like that. I think Adolin and Shallan are cute and supportive and work well together. I don't need Adolin to say outright, in his POV, how much he loves Shallan for me to be satisfied that he does. He's always been a character that is more externally read than internally. I think the book has adequate representation of Shallan and Adolin not only as a healthy couple but a couple who are truly attracted to one another. I think Shallan and Kaladin were a good example of mistaken physical attraction for romantic, and were an excellent subversion of typical romance narratives. If you disagree, that's fine. But if y'all want to keep saying that because you disagree, it's because Brandon Sanderson is objectively and factually a bad writer who screwed it up and made a huge mistake, then... well I guess that's fine too, but it's not a conversation I'm really interested in pursuing. Weirdly enough, I'm not overly enthused about participating in conversations in which things I like are stated to be "unquestionably bad because it's not an opinion it's the truth and if you can't see that then you should convince me you're correct or concede that I am correct instead." Nah. I got better things to do. Live your life, think your thoughts, ship your ships. I know I'm going to.
×
×
  • Create New...