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OK, so one of the main plot points is that 16% of people affected by the mists Snap and that shows that the whole event is intentional. Except that a percent is 1/100 and the use of percents is inherently tied to the fact that we use base 10. 16% is just 16/100. And we know from other sources that Scadrians use a hexadecimal number system. In this base, 0.16 (16% or 16/100) would be 0.28F5C28F6… or roughly 0.29, or 29% (by "29" I mean 2*16+9, ie 41.). I know, Mistborn is an old book, and written before Brandon had tons of consultants, and it also depicts red leaves photosynthesizing using red sunlight, but maybe let's try to find some explanation anyway. Like, maybe they used hexadecimal for natural numbers but base-10 for the fractional part, because they learned decimal fractions from another culture… this mix would make fractions interesting. By "interesting" I mean "probably weirdly complicated and inconvenient", so I guess modern Scadrial uses 16 for everything, or maye 10 for everything (Harmony wanted to make it worldhopper-friendly) and the base-16 is like Roman numerals for us - old, official, nice for dates and such but not used for actual maths. However, if they still use base-16, and have money denominations like 4 and 8 of something… I'd really like to see a worldhopper trying to get accustomed to this. Or maybe the percents are not our percents, but pre-Catacendre Scadrians used "percent" to mean 1/128 and used those a lot. This could work too, I guess.

Sure, it works in English, because we've got weird, illogical rules about which vowels get pronounced and which don't and which get changed depending on which other vowels they're next to. But going by just the sounds? Unless Alethi just happens to have the same exact vowel idiosyncrasies, Ialai's blasphemous parents should have called her something like "Ilalai". For that matter, what about SA's overseas translations? Do the versions in, say, Polish, just say "trust us, this name is symmetrical in Brandon's native language", or do they change it?

I meant to bring this up like a few months back, but then forgot...anyway, let's talk music! (And speculation brought to you because a tumblr fan asked questions; also because she's made of awesome.) Source So, I'm a little grumpy about this. I know that jazz (and big band) popping up is awesome, but I'm not interested in the...awesome factor. I'm more interested in the "how", I'm somewhat familiar with the development of jazz (or big band) "proper" in the U.S. and (later Europe; Louis Mitchell and the Jazz Kings went to France and took Paris by storm) specifically in the 1910's and '20's. It's interesting, but deeply linked to African and African American history, the history of the African American church, African American music (and African music), the presence of New Orleans, and the history of slavery in the US; all of which were factors in its development (note that this list is not in depth, nor does it touch on everything). The thing is, jazz didn't just pop up because it's cool, it developed because of a number of historical and cultural factors that were unique to the history of African Americans and US history in general. What I'm getting at, I guess, is how could/did jazz develop on Scadrial? It doesn't have these factors, the closest thing it has is the skaa and skaa plantations, but unless they have a musical tradition similar to African American work songs and spirituals ("slave songs") we weren't made aware of in the books which is possible, I guess... Did the Steel Ministry influence or did the religious influence come later through the Church of the Survivor? And also, the plantations seem...harsher and even worse than those in the American South; to me, it didn't seem like a place where talking (much less singing, chanting, and music) was even allow (at least while working), but since we didn't see that much of the plantations in the books, it's possible, I guess... My point is, I'm not sure how jazz (as we know it) realistically development on Scadrial. I know, "rule of cool" and all, but the presence of big bands and jazz in these books makes me wonder where it came from and its history in Scadrial. I know this is pretty much nitpicking, and I don't expect a full historical explanation, but I would like to know its actual origin. Basically: how and why did Scadrial develop jazz (also, consider that Elendel and its surrounding territories are like France/Germany/the United Kingdom x the western US)? What are it's origins? Is it related to the history of the skaa, skaa plantations, and the Church of the Survivor and the link that those things might have with music? (It would also explain the slower development, because the religious aspects may have come later, I think). Is it (also) related to cultural developments in the "slums" of Elendel? What factors led to a jazz-like (or big band) music to develop and why? (Also, I agree that I might be being a bit too nitpicky about this topic, but I've always found the historical and cultural developments almost as interesting as the magic systems. I'm a dork! Also, written when I had caught a nasty cold, so if anything's seems off, that might be why...-.-)