Trae Cooper

Hi -- The interpretation that I made when the symbol was shared with some of the beta/gamma readers a few months ago was this: The sixteen pointed central star represents the 16 separate shardic intents held within the intact Adonalsium, represented as a whole with the circle. The four pointed star symbolizes the shattering when the circle is broken and conjures imagery of distant twinkling stars as well as the jagged but regular abstract idea of shards. The surrounding arches both suggest the diaspora of the various shards throughout the cosmere galaxy, while they can also be viewed as two overlapping ovals representing how despite the distance between the shard worlds, that they still affect each other and cause interesting overlap at times. Trae eta: I do like the notion of arc / diamonds / circle representing the three realms. I might have to revisit my initial interpretation

I'm also vehemently anti-spoiler, and I feel like it would definitely spoil BoM in a way that would have reduced my enjoyment of it. I agree with Kaymyth

That moment when something you yelled out in the front row of a Sanderson Q&A shows up as a topic title on 17th Shard. Some good hypotheses here. Is it possible that an uninvested shard could be one who "just wants to survive?" and surrounds itself in worldhoppers? Ultimately, I think that wherever the restaurant is, or as some other con-goes referred to it "DS9 of the cosmere," I imagine the major backer is the recipient of the letter 'old reptile' or whatever we are calling him these days. I don't think that shardic intent would line up too well with the 17th shard, unless it was the intent of laissez faire. My bet is it was facilitated by some original worldhoppers, particularly those who survived the shattering/from Yolen. Particularly with the notion of prolonging one's life through judicious use of forward time travel, I could see having a stable, safe hideout being useful. Trae

You have my thanks. This doesn't necessarily answer my question as to whether Endowment is currently "hands-on" so to speak with selection of the returned, or whether she powers a mechanism that continues to produce Returned. I believe it is probably involved in the continual power economy of Nalthis. Potentially as one means to remove breath from those who have it. As they have to use a breath a week, and, in theory, there is a finite number of breaths on Nalthis, even if this number is arbitrarily large, there would have to be a mechanism to reclaim and endow successive generations on Nalthis. Just ruminating, so to speak. Trae

Oh yeah? I hadn't seen that WoB. Do you have a link handy? I'd love to check it out. Trae

Yeah, this was one of my two questions, I realized too late that I didn't specific exclusive-or, and had to live with the simple answer. There is some grumbling that wasn't transcribed. You win some, you lose some I guess. Trae

Mostly a lurker here on 17th shard, but I generally post if I have a signing report. I'll be at JordanCon, you can add me to the PM list Thanks edit: for clarity

I enjoyed the story. The world as presented has some interesting bits as a setting. The wild islands, technology swallowing up the wilds, the spacefarers above. Overall I liked it better than Shadows for Silence, but not nearly as much as Emperor's Soul. The narrative got a lot more engagement from me than Shadows for Silence, but some of the criticisms above definitely resonate with me. I would definitely like to see a more expanded amount of info involving the powers aviar bestow, including the common powers that are well known. It would be really good to get Brandon to answer when this story is set, during the Cosmere timeline. This would give us a better idea about the possibility of it being Scadrians. I doubt it is Iriali since it seems they were willing to visit any planet and possibly colonize. (if indeed they did space travel, rather than traversing the cognitive realm) Overall, I enjoy seeing manifestations of realmatic theory even in short pieces such as this one. Trae

@GreyPilgrim He said that anything related to bondsmiths are pretty much going to get RAFO'd since Dalinar's book is book 5 and he wants to save it for then. I didn't specifically get a rafo but over a game of Magic:The Gathering, we chatted a bit about the amount of information he had answered over tour, and beyond Bondsmiths, I think he is going to slow down information given about Stormlight in general. So ... superspren, bondsmith bonds, and all that. With regard to identity, I knew there had been speculation, but I hadn't been able to locate a WoB referencing it, plus I was curious about forgery vis a vis feruchemy. Regards, nalesean

Greetings -- I attended Jordancon and was able to ask Brandon a few questions that didn't get the RAFO. I kept the questions very small and granular to try to get some information, since he seems to be giving fewer and fewer answers. Jordancon Signing (Paraphrased) April 11th, 2014 Q: Suppose you had a feruchemist that was also skilled in forgery. If they soul stamped themselves, would they normally be able to still use feruchemy, and if they were able to use feruchemy after a soul stamp would they be able to access their own metalminds. A: (Paraphrased): Brandon said that you could do so, but it would require jury rigging in order to make it work. Since the soul stamp overwrites the current spiritual aspect of a person. He then said that the accessing the metalminds would also require some amount of jury rigging. Q: If a feruchemist using an aluminum metalmind stored their identity to zero, then filled a coppermind with all of their knowledge, would another feruchemist with an identity set to zero be able to access the first feruchemist's coppermind? A (paraphrased): I'm not going to tell you a definite yes or no, this is something that needs to be saved for future books, but you are thinking along the correct lines about how identity works regarding feruchemists. ======= I know this isn't roshar-shattering news, but I figured granular information is better than RAFOs Regards, nalesean

Thanks for the welcome Trae

Hey -- Just saying hi! I'm a long time lurker and finally had a reason to post, so I thought I would post an introduction while I am at it. I've been a Cosmere fan for a couple of years, and have lurked over at various WoT forums for many more years. Thanks! Trae aka nalesean

Hi -- Long time lurker, first time poster. While at Dragon*Con, during Magic:tG with Brandon, I was able to get an answer to one of the question on the big list of questions. Here is the question: Why are invested objects like metalminds and Hemalurgic spikes able to be Pushed and Pulled on, but Shardblades and Shardplate, which are also invested, are not susceptible to Pushing and Pulling? His answer was complex, I took notes, but didn't get recorded audio. I am going to try to explain as best as my notes and memory support. There were a few concepts that he outlined in answering this question. 1.) The ability to push/pull an invested object is predicated to the amount/power of the investiture 2.) Further, invested objects also gain resistance to pulling/pushing based on proximity to soul possibly via the soul. An example given is that A hemalurgic spike touches the blood of the person, and from there is now part of both the Spiritual Realm and the Physical Realm. This provides what Brandon termed a kind of "soul interference," based on its proximity to the soul. This further explains why Vin required more than normal power to push/pull the metalminds from the Lord Ruler, because of their proximity to his soul, via the Spiritual Realm. 3.) The amount of investiture is relatively low on Scadrial, whereas worlds like Cel and Roshar are pushing around "high power" according to Brandon. I interpreted this to mean that hemalurgic spikes and metalminds have low amounts of investiture compared to Shardplate and Shardblades. Brandon said that theoretically you can push/pull Shardblades and Shardplates but you would need to wield an incredible amount of power. One example he gave that could so such as a thing is that if you were a Mistborn wielding the full power of the Well of Ascension, you could push/pull Shardblades/plate I hope everyone enjoys the question I got to ask. Thanks, Trae