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Alfa

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  1. In the foreword, Sanderson writes that "Legion" was a very personal experience for him. And, in a way, each writer is not unlike Legion. I think, that having such a vivid imagination as Sanderson inevitably leads you to think like your characters. Note, that Sanderson is (by most definitions) a completely sane person. However, a fair bit of his characters are slightly insane (think Kelsier, Wayne), have strong mental problems (think Kaladin, Shallan etc ad infinitum...) or quirks (notably anybody); very much akin to the Aspects. And I think that having all the characters brawling for attention in his head might be taxing... And it might be also lead to questions, how strong your characters influence you. Might it be, that a certain aggressiveness comes from Kelsier, or that depressing thoughts from Kaladin? So, the Legion books are about the way of the writer to deal with this...
  2. I think this is kind of the point - is there a difference between the "before" and the "after"?
  3. Alfa

    Shardhammer 40k

    Oh. Of course the Roshar-Nalthis empire is administrated by the most obstructive bureaucrats of Air and Pahn Kahl... Navani's artificers are very aware that there are some people who want to know their technologies, so they guard it - partly from themselves. The results are somewhat... contraproductive. Technology does not march on, and is indeed on the decline, since some things get forgotten in time. They developed a religious complex, which suggested that a Navani (who disappeared at some point) is the goddess of fabrials and thus act accordingly... And that's before their rituals regarding the "machine spren"
  4. Alfa

    Shardhammer 40k

    How could I have forgotten the Aiminids?
  5. Don't forget a method long used against another kind of supernatural threat: staking.
  6. Installing an Anti-Virus programm. Windrunner flatly refuses, because it is his responsibilty to protect even computers, as long as it is right. Skybreaker installs one which gives him the hackers' IP adress. Follows up with a house-visit to said hackers. Dustbringer: just melts the computer, easier that way. Edgedancer: installs an old programm, to remember the forgotten. Truthwatcher: Just pulls out the internet cable when they sense that their computer is about to be hacked. Lightweaver: Is, most likely, the hacker. Elsecaller: Just soulcasts the computer in a new version of it, without all those messy viruses. Willshaper: Does not own a computer and is travelling somewhere. Stonewarden: Still does not move. Bondmith: Tries to talk reason into possible hackers. Also, unites the internet offhandedly.
  7. Wow, thanks for the contribution! And I thought this project would stay dead forever... Quite interesting what you say there. So, we now have a surface, and there are people down there, apparently with their own kind of magic(?)... Arcus Castellanus is the name of the City, or is it something else? Also, what exactly is so real that the poor boy dies from shock of knowing it?
  8. The answer to the ultimate question of life, the alleywerse and everything.
  9. In my signature you'll find a link to "alleymatics", which makes everything even more confusing. However it started with one of the mods, I think @Kurkistan listing people whom he wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. I guess the first offender was @Voidus who suggested to bake hemalurgic spikes into cookies, but that was some time before I joined the 17th shard. Anyway, the idea grew memetic and over time stuff such as "the light alley", "the mediocorely lit alley", "the highway" and "the roundabout" emerged. I tried to deal with it in the aforementioned alleymatics, but the whole thing is bigger than any single person, no matter how motivated. It is incomprehensible and very, very dangerous. However, if you want cookies, you just have to ask.
  10. There were a couple of arrow types which maximized cutting power. For example, they had some type of a crescent for a tip.Enlarge that, combine that with a greatbow, and shoot it approximately at shoulder height through a charging army to maximize destruction. Repeat. Bonus point: give two to five of your squires a greatbow each. When one shoots, the next draws, so you can shoot almost without stopping.
  11. You know, that sounds slightly creepy. (at least, it's not Re-Shephir) I think my favourite Villain is TLR, but only because Hrathen doesn't count.
  12. Alfa

    Shardhammer 40k

    A case of severe procrastination
  13. In the Topic "Things The Allomantic Metalhead Is No Longer Allowed to Do in the Mistborn Adventure Game" point 90 is "Misthammer 40k is a horrible idea". I disagree. It is a very fun idea. In a very alternate future version of the Cosmere everything went to hell just like this. Part 1: The Crusades of Honor After Dalinar unified Roshar, locked Odium away somewhere very, very deep in the Cognitive Realm, made peace with the Listeners, he consulted the Knights Radiant and decided to unite the whole Cosmere in one great Nation. In spaceships build by Navani first the Rosharan system was colonized and Ashyn and Braize were "Rosharformed" to inhabitable conditions, complete with their own highstorms and everything. The Listeners wanted no part in the unification process and asked to be settled for themselves on Braize, where they wanted to begin anew, with no interference from all those bothersome shards. The first other Shardworld encountered outside of the system was Nalthis and after some initial problems the two worlds decided to go together and colonized dozens of other minor shardworlds. Things started to look worse when Rosharan spaceships encountered their Scadrian counterparts. No one knows who fired the first shot, but in a matter of weeks it did not matter anymore. Shardblades met guns, coinshots and dustbringers blasted each other to the Beyond, lifeless and feruchemists met in day-long battles, the "hemalurgic option" was used on more than one occasion and it went only worse. Fabrials, Class IV awakened objects and Southern-Scadrial-Tec became exponentially more dangerous and at its height the war made desolations look pale by comparison. Part 2: Meanwhile, on Threnody At this time, on Threnody most of the population decided that if they had any chance of survival against the shades they needed to change themselves. Armed with knowledge somebody brought from Silverlight they made they transferred their minds to special bodies of metal so they would need neither fire nor blood. Of course, it went wrong. They all became cognitive shadows, trapped in their metallic bodies, and even worse, they became like the shades themselves. And for some reason they decided to enforce the Simple Rules all over the cosmere. Part 3: The Sel crisis On Sel, Cosmere-aware individuals decided to reforge all the splintered Shards of the cosmere. Elantrians build power amplifiers that made the original Elantris look pale by comparison, Forgers crafted a giant stamp to forge the shards back together, several scores of Dahkor monks offered to use the energy of their deaths to fuel the ritual, and dozens of other nations chose to participate in one way or another. What could possibly go wrong? Apparently, quite a lot. No one knows where the error began, and if somebody realized they were dead before they could do anything. A giant explosion shattered Sel in all three Realms... and that was the least part of the disaster. The shockwaves shattered and splintered most of the surviving shards at that time and brought the whole Shadesmar into one giant disarray. The surviving Shards were unfortunately Odium (who was locked away deep enough to be not splintered, but freed) and Ruin (who was ironically preserved by the the preservation part of Harmony). Also, in two instances the Ritual worked - Devotion and Ambition were restored to full power. All Shardvessels were killed in the process, and the surviving shards were picked up by some random people. But it got even worse. Some Splinters of the dead Shards were merged with the survivors, corrupting each other in the process. A giant perpendicularity of very bad nature replaced the place where Sel was. Incredibly, there were survivors. By the very Nature of the Dor, the land clung together (along the borders) and was sucked in the cognitive realm. Clever usage of the Dor and technology could save most of the countries, which became giant spaceships. Part 4: The Crusade of Honor, part II Scadrial and Roshar/Nalthis decided to agree on a ceasefire for the time being to investigate what had dealt such a blow to the whole Cosmere. They were kind of surprised to find themselves in opposition to four shards which apparently 1) declared war on each other and 2) declared war on all of mankind, and each of the shards had somehow amassed splinters which were several orders of magnitude more dangerous than unbonded spren. They were further surprised, that many of their own decided to go over to the side of the shards, because "they were the only surviving gods". Dalinar, being tired of this argument, decided to anihilate all Shards to create peace at least on this frontier. Part 5: The Listener Tragedy The shockwaves of the Selish Ritual smashed Braize out of the Rosharan system to somewhere far, far away. Together with them went a magnitude of splinters mashed together from an assortment of shards, dead and alive. Several new forms were discovered, and the new forms were apparently there for one reason - war. The skin got green, they got new muscles, brains were somewhat reduced in a sort of trade-off and a very real desire to go to war - everywhere. The other types of Listener were subdued and exploited by the new BigBoss!-Forms, Coooonquest!-Forms and Waaaar!-Forms. With crude spaceships and crude weapons they went to war against the whole cosmere, for no other reason than that it was fun. Part 6: For the Greater Harmony A radical element on Scadrial seized the upper hand in the ensuoing chaos. Attacked by the Shards, the Listeners, the Rosharans (although now somewhat more rare) and even the Threnodians on rare occasion the dream of a harmonious future was prevalent, and the Pathists got more and more members. So some pathists decided to create Greater Harmony in the Cosmere - by force. "Harmonists", they called themselves. Their idea was that everybody had a place in the society, and they were to decide it. Scadrian people were forced into guilds named after the 16 basic metals&alloys, ruled by three more guilds, which were named after Atium, Lerasium and Harmononium, with Harmonium always being the most important. Everybody was judged on their contribution to the Greater Harmony. Protests were eliminated, and the instigators "reeducated". Part 7: The shism of the Knights Radiant The four shards knew that Dalinar was the most dangerous foe at the moment - Odium's former vessel had dealt with the Blackthorn before and Odium was not happy with the outcome, so, while he was entangled in the war with the other shards, he also plotted together with them. They sent visions to Dalinars son, Adolin, who had resurrected his blade and was in command of Edgedancers (Lift did not want to be in charge) and built more and more doubt in his heart. They wispered in Shallan's ear and showed her more and more versions of themselves. They promised knowledge to Jasnah. They drove Kaladin once more to heavy depression. They made Szeth question his duty. Only Renarin they left alone. And so, through a complicated process, they made some of the orders rebell against Urithiru. Jasnah herself led the rebelling orders - Edgedancers, Elsecallers, Willshapers and Dustbringers. First they went against their loyal comrades inside their orders, then they went in force against Urithiru. Renarin tried to warn his father, but unfortunately too late and the Truthwatchers landed square in the lines of fire and were killed to a man. Jasnah was killed in the fight by Szeth with nightblood, and was soulcast to stone in turn. Kaladins windrunners were away and came to late and could only try to sort out the aftermath. Adolin, blinded by rage, stuck at his father and wounded him mortally and was in turn killed by his wife, Shallan. The rest of the Rogue orders fled and hid themselfes somewhere in the cognitive realm. Kaladin, close to despair, and Shallan, with even more psychological problems, tried to reorganize the remaining orders with relative little sucess. Navani, trying to resurrect her husband, locked him in a life-support-fabrial. Part 8: Aftermath Even before Dalinar's semi-death it was complicated to Navigate the cognitive realm. Now, it grew even more complicated. Fortunately, on Nalthis, an Artifact was built which created a clearly visible beacon from Nalthis to Roshar. Unfortunately, it needs about a hundred breaths each day to sustain it. While the number is still comparatively small compared to the population, there are often not enough volunteers to sustain it, and some people need encouragement. Dalinar's corpse is locked away on the highest level of Urithiru, and no one knows how to resurrect him. There is war everywhere. Welcome to Shardhammer 40k.
  14. According to this, they found a way around, though not in the sense I meant it.
  15. Nah, you'll need at least three more Shards. I vote for Ruin, Ambition and a very bad form of Devotion. Also, you need a not quite dead Dalinar. EDIT: and several traitorous orders of knights radiant, led by none other than Kaladin himself. (if this is somehow possible) EDIT secundum: And Spaceships which go through the cognitive realm.
  16. I'm not quite sure they're suffering from it - one human (maybe one Dahkor Monk) sacrifice is apparently a constant for teleportation, be it for about a kilometer in Fjorden for one person or for a mass teleportation Arelon-Teod. If the power decay would be as strong as for Elantrians, they would have needed somehting like "more Human Resources" or a short-step-by-short-step teleportation (In Teod, Raoden teleports for about 50 Meters when he planned a several-hundred-kilometer jump). An alternative interpretation is that Dahkor Powers in Fjorden are capital-t Terryfying, remarkably stronger than even those of an Elantrian. Also, there is no confirmation (that I know of) that Fjorden does not have a power amplifier, it just may be less flashy than Elantris.
  17. Noteworthy is that Elantrians suffer from "distance decay", be it from Arelon OR Elantris, but the Dahkor monks somehow have found a way around. Dilaf, far away from Fjorden, can still disrupt AonDor both in Arelon and Teod (O.K., in both cases it is not AonDor "on Rao-Steorids"), and they can teleport about fifty man from Arelon to Teod.
  18. Alfa

    Sky Colors

    Regarding the question of Darkside investiture it is worth mentioning that Khriss doesnt't mention anything about it in Arcanum Unbounded.
  19. However, the two suns present another problem. You see, Taldain should be far hotter than it is - a planet needs time to cool down, usually at night. A tidally locked planet with one sun should be more or less inhabitable in the twilight zones, because it is heated on dayside and radiates excess heat on the darkside. Taldain, however, doesn't have a zone to cool down, and should have been grilled a long time ago.
  20. Maybe it goes as far that each Knight Radiant is a rule and an exception on themselves. Dalinar has his kinda-shardblade, Kaladins Spren-Windshield, Shallan's "far-sketching"... Everybody - including the spren - says that "it should be impossible". But what if all KR do such "impossible" things when they really, really need it? What if each KR has such an "extra feat" in addition to their surges and their order-specific resonance (was that the right word?) abilities? What if the whole Rosharan Magic system is much more individualistic than we suspected?
  21. That makes it likely that "Purity's eye" is a visible feature of the gas giant's atmosphere, like a giant storm. I think the analogue on earth would sound slightly lamer: "by Jupiter's Red Spot":
  22. Maybe the "combat-oriented" orders (WR; DB; SW etc.) get their plate at Ideal Nr. 4, while "civil-oriented" orders (SB; LW; EC, maybe ED, TW) get theirs at Ideal Nr. 5? For all we know some orders might get their plate before their blade or not get plate at all. I mean, no two groups of Radiants think exactly alike, even the same surge works different for different orders, and the structure of ideals is completely different for WRs and LWs, for example, so why should Plate be consistent between orders?
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