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lezian: i’m going to kill you kaladin:

Good memes, but I feel the first and third could have done with the scene where Gollum is tied up (finding a screencap is a new quest altogether).

Also, I just want to say thanks to @Biplet for keeping me sane while I was running this, even though she was playing this and I made her wake up at 8 am everyday to be on for rollover. Plus she dealt with me having to do this while we were on our little anniversary trip a few days ago. And she put up with the stress that me cursing her as an elim put on her really well. She also made a lot of really funny memes both in thread and in the doc, so that was really fun to watch as well. Anyway, I wouldn't be here without her, so just a huge thanks to her. Love you Bip. EDIT: Also also, she definitely called and woke me up ten minutes before rollover at one point because I accidentally slept in, so yeah, huge thanks for that as well.

Thank you so much to everyone who played! It was a blast getting to run this game again! I loved getting to watch all of you play and it makes me really happy to know that you guys really like these rules and have fun with them. It's always so much fun getting to run these games, and it really warms my heart to know that you guys like them too. Just...thank you guys so much. And also a huge thank you to @Elbereth and @Young Bard as well. These games would not be possible without their amazing help, especially with the spreadsheet. Most of this happens because of their work, and I just take a lot of the credit for myself since I made the rules. Anyway, I'll eventually give more thoughts about how the game went this time, and what I think I could do to improve it for the next run (I've already started making a v3 of the rules), but for now I just want to congratulate @Ashbringer, @Biplet, and @Lotus for their win! And also @Araris Valerian and @Matrim's Dice for playing really really well as the Kandra. It got really really close at the end there, and Mat very nearly could've won if things had gone slightly differently, which would've been awesome. It's not often you get to see a SK win. Also, Araris, picking Mat as your successor was such a smart move. If you'd hit a villager, the game would've ended right there. Or maybe would've ended after D5, but it would've been much harder for your successor to try and win. @Archer Thanks for making a really fun character to work with, I hope you appreciate what I did with them in the writeup. It was always really funny seeing you RP with them. @DrakeMarshall I just want to congratulate you on earning the most boxings almost every turn of the game, and I'm only saying almost because I'm too lazy to go back and check that that's actually what happened. Plus it was fun seeing you and Lotus and Bip RP together for the short period of time at the beginning of the game before Lotus died. And I'm glad you and Bip continued that RP banter between your characters throughout the game. @Illwei Thank you so much for subbing in for @Ventyl, even if you died shortly after. You immediately came in and started making the elims sweat a bit, as if they weren't already before that. Also, if anyone's curious about what possibilities they had for their roles, you can look at the version history for the Role Assignment tab in the sheet and go to the version from May 29th at 8:37 am CDT and see what could've happened. Anyway, just a huge thank you to everyone who played. These games wouldn't be possible without you, and I appreciate you all so so much. Running games brings me a lot of joy and gives me something to look forward to everyday. I often need that, so just thank you all so much for playing. It really does make me so happy that you all enjoy my games.

HOOOOOOOOOOLY CRAP. Okay so I'm gonna start by saying that this was SO STRESSFUL. And here I thought the previous MR was hard. Two games in a row Mat and I were teammates! A lot of this game was me rambling in the elim doc trying to figure out the next best plan XD. Huge thank you to my teammates, I had a blast playing with y'all, even if you were a traitor Mat. And hey Lotus, we lived to the end for you! Drake: every single time you said no elim thug would speculate the existence of an elim thug on D1, I lost my mind. Absolutely hilarious thank you for making this one of the most iconic things I've managed to do. "It's a bad plan and it wouldn't work, no one would do it." Precisely! Here's a peak at what the elim doc looked like after Araris died: Edit: Mat in the Kandra doc: "Bip trusts me!" Me, about to submit a coinshot kill on Mat:

LG77: Aftermath Iden: alive Shara couldn’t get ahead of herself. She had one last thing to do before she could finally take out Iden. Dann: alive The meeting hall where everyone had gathered at Goren’s orders seemed especially quiet today. Mostly everyone was unnerved by Earl’s recent execution and no one was happy with being stuck in one room for nearly two full days now. Especially since Goren wouldn’t even explain why they were all stuck there. Well, Shara thought, I know why. They’d agreed that Shara would be the one to start it. There had been a...disagreement between her and Philico, but Shara had ultimately won out in that argument. And so she had the right to the first blood in what would be the worst massacre in recent history. She gripped the medallion hidden in her pocket. That had been a more recent find, and thank Harmony for it. The medallion had come in handy, especially after her secret powers as a Thug had come out. She tapped the stores hidden in the metal, walking so she could get a better sightline for Dann. She grabbed a glass of water, discreetly mixing in the bits of steel one of the others had gotten for her. She downed it quickly, her nerves seeming to rattle, her heart pounding. She hardly even noticed that her hair was falling out of her neat bun on the top of her head. It’s time. Shara grabbed the coin hidden in her other pocket, took it out, burned steel, and turned to where Dann was. And she stopped for a moment, everything fading away as she saw Iden standing there next to him. Iden, who she had worked so hard for for so long, yet he didn’t care to do anything to help anyone but himself. He wouldn’t even be there if it wasn’t for her. And so, she changed her plans slightly. Moving quickly, because there wasn’t much time and the others could be impatient, Shara moved to get a new angle on Dann and Iden. She needed to do this right. She didn’t have much power left in the medallion, probably enough for one shot’s worth to spare before she’d need the rest for the chaos afterwards. She flicked the coin up into the air, and then pushed it as hard as she could. It flew through the air, shooting straight through Dann and into Iden’s chest behind him. She didn’t see Dann’s reaction before he dropped, though there probably wasn’t much of one considering the shot had killed him instantly. Dann: deceased Iden however, seemed shocked, a look of pure confusion on his face as he clutched his chest and fell to the ground. Shara ran to him, tapping pewter to push others out of her way as people began to realize what was happening. She barely heard the gunshots from the rebel guards as they turned on the few Loyalist guards that were left. Iden was struggling on the ground, clearly struggling to breathe with the coin lodged in his chest. It was a pity that Shara’s shot had missed his heart for a bit. “Shara...why?” He said. Even those two words seemed to be painful for him, and he coughed up blood after. Shara could hardly make herself look at him, nonetheless talk to him. She forced herself to anyway, kneeling down so Iden could see her face clearly. “I’ve been wanting to kill you for so long. You’ve done nothing but help yourself, and help the others who profit off of the work of so many people below you. I worked up from nothing to get where I am now. And you wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for me. You couldn’t even spare a thought for my family, or for the countless other families out there who have been even worse off than mine. It’s finally time that we help people, Iden.” Shara scooted away as Iden let out his final breaths. It was finally over. Or at least, the first step in their grand plan was finally complete. She still had work to do. Iden: deceased ~ After what felt like an eternity of running and hiding from all the chaos, Yoden finally managed to find Goren in the confusion. The man didn’t even seem to be breaking a sweat. “We need to evacuate.” Yoden insisted. “There’s too many of them - your blockade isn’t going to keep the Sympathisers in, it will only lead to a massacre.” Goren returned a level-headed stare. “My job is to keep the problem contained. The situation is… unfortunate, but will be dealt with shortly. If we evacuate now, the Sympathisers will spread all over the city, spreading havoc everywhere they go. For now, it’s contained.” “Is this what you call contained?!” Yoden yelled. “It’s a massacre! If I didn’t know better, I think you’d want everyone here dead.” There was a pause. Slowly, Goren smiled. Yoden backed away slowly. “Goren… What is this. This… isn’t something you’d do. You’re here to help people.” No response. Yoden tried the door, opened it, and felt it slam shut again. Goren was almost on top of him. “We’ve had our disagreements, but we’re colleagues.” Goren smirked, and slowly started to walk towards Yoden. “You have no idea how long I’ve had to put up with your idiotic blathering. Your questions. Your pathetic attempts at policy. I’ve dreamed of this day, when I wouldn’t have to put up with it anymore. And it seems the Survivor has finally smiled upon my request.” And with that, Goren plunged the dagger into Yoden’s chest. Yoden wrapped his hands around the dagger in his chest, clutching it in disbelief, slowly sinking down against the wall as his vision went black. ~ Juno raced to hide when the screaming started. But they seemed to be everywhere, with nowhere to hide. If she’d been a little quicker, a little smarter, a little more willing to run when she had the chance… Nearby, one of the Senators screamed as a Boxing shot through his torso. Juno’s own Jacket should be able to protect her from the same fate for so long, but only if she found a way out first. Juno rounded a corner, and found Goren and Yoden standing by a doorway - could it be an exit? If anyone might know, it’s possible they did. Juno raced forward - maybe this was her chance - but something was wrong. Yoden seemed panicked, pleading, as Goren grabbed a dagger he was carrying and plunged it through Yoden’s chest. Juno stopped, but before she could turn away from the scene, Goren turned and Juno saw his dark smile. Running wouldn’t do any good. Time seemed to freeze. Goren’s awful grin, Yoden, clutching the dagger in his stomach with a look of disbelief and betrayal - dead, but still standing. Juno’s feet seemed frozen to the ground, until she noticed the thin sheen that seemed to lie between Goren, Yoden and herself. She turned, and saw Philico standing behind her, seemingly uncaring of everything in his surroundings. One of the traitors. Either that or something much, much worse. “Philico found your intrusions… troublesome, you know.” Philico said. Only, Juno could see now, it wasn’t Philico. Slowly his face started to shift and switch. First, Sweeper, then, faster and faster, a display of faces. AraRaash, Panini, Shara, his own face, for just a moment. Juno’s mouth was dry. “So you were the kandra all along. I thought you might be.” Juno tried to put more confidence into those words than she felt. “You’re a… Slider, though. I thought you were a thief. Or, the person you’re pretending to be was a thief. Whatever.” “A gift that came with this current body - he and his friends were great fans of playing with toys they didn’t understand. It’s… handy, though. I might keep it for a little while.” The kandra slowly collapsed out of a human form entirely and became translucent, revealing a nauseating mix of bones and, briefly surfacing, a spike, before it got pulled into the swirling mass once more. “Are you here to kill me?” Juno assessed her options - against a Kandra, they weren’t good. And even if she somehow won, Goren was still waiting outside the moment the time bubble dropped. The kandra seemed to consider the question - its faces moved between several emotions in rapid succession - joy, anger, fear. Eventually, it seemed to settle on an answer. “You humans attract chaos like a Koloss attracts flies. Any chaos I did, any that I could hope to do, was far outweighed by the chaos you caused amongst yourselves.” A rumble seemed to emerge from the writhing form. After a moment, Juno realised it was meant to be a chuckle. “No, you’re far more interesting alive than dead. Particularly with what’s about to happen.” Somehow, Juno didn’t feel comforted by that answer. But the kandra went on. “The Sympathisers are wearing green armbands so they can identify one another during the massacre. Acquire one, by any means necessary, and you should make it out of here alive for what comes next.” Juno paused. “Thank you. I think.” “Perhaps we will meet again someday, human. I would take great pleasure in adding your bones to my collection.” “Next time, you could just say goodbye.” The kandra briefly materialised Philico’s face to smile, and deformed back into a blob-like entity once more. Then, faster than Juno thought possible, it dashed past Juno. She watched the bubble fall as all the sounds of the outside world came rushing in once more. The blob dashed at Goren, and before Goren had even taken a single step, a fist seemed to emerge from the mass, giving Goren a swift upper cut to the jaw. As Goren collapsed, the Kandra kept moving around him and the prone body of Yoden, leaking through the underside of the door, and was gone. In a moment, there was no-one else in the corridor beside the prone bodies of Goren and Yoden, and the discarded bones of Philico. Juno forced herself to walk down the corridor towards the scene - she felt Goren’s pulse - there was still a beat there, so not dead, just unconscious. She grabbed the armband off his arm and then left to find another exit. ~ AraRaash once again found himself in the midst of a bloody battle over the fate of the Elendel Basin. He had seen many things over the course of his lives, and once again this was one of the deadliest moments he’d found himself in. He was tired of being important when it came to this planet’s people, but well...he did what Lamentation told him to. And so, he found himself talking in the corner of a room to a man with a puppet while people died around them. It was a strange experience, to say the least. “You’re a Rebel, aren’t you?” Bagel, the puppet said. “Well, yes, I am.” AraRaash said. “If the gun I was holding to your head...or, well, to Panini’s head wasn’t indication enough of that, surely the fact that none of the rebels are trying to kill me should’ve clued you into that fact.” “If you kill me,” Panini said, his face grim, “Bagel will hunt you down and enact revenge.” “And how exactly will he do that? He is attached to you, you know.” “I’m right here you know!” Bagel said. “You can’t talk about me as if I’m not here. I’ll make sure that no one ever remembers you after this, mark my words.” “Well,” AraRaash said, “I’m the one with the gun, and because of that, you two are going to do what I say.” Panini quickly ducked under AraRassh’s gun, going for AraRaash’s legs. AraRaash sighed, bending his legs unnaturally around Panini so he just slid under AraRaash. He quickly rearranged his body so that his torso twisted around to face where Panini now was. Panini gasped, and Bagel beat him to speaking. “You’re a Kandra!” “We’re going to tell everyone that you’re a Kandra,” Panini said. “No one will ever trust you again. All your plans will be ruined. You won’t get away with this!” AraRaash rolled his eyes. “Of course I’m a Kandra! Do you think I care if people know that? I’m not even the only one here, though I think MarRiis was trying to keep their involvement here a secret. Anyway, everyone here will be dead by the end of the night if things go according to plan.” He paused. “You know what secret really matters, what’s really important?” He crouched down, and leaned his face closer to Panini and Bagel’s. “Bagel, you aren’t even real. If I’m fake, you’re even more fake.” Bagel gasped, starting to shake his head. Panini looked horrified, and went to cover Bagel’s ears, but nothing could seem to console the puppet. AraRaash stood up. “Yes, that’s right. You’re not real. You thought you could come here and blackmail me with all the little secrets you learned, but I had the greatest secret to blackmail you with. Your own unreality.” AraRaash nodded to himself, watching as Panini and Bagel slowly started to unravel, muttering to themselves reassurances about each other. “And now that that’s done, I can make my way back to….” He trailed off as he turned back to the rest of the meeting hall. There were significantly less living people left. They must’ve spent a lot more time talking than he’d thought. “Rusts,” AraRaash said. “He really did manage to trick me into wasting time. I missed out on all the fun.” AraRaash made his way through the melee, killing anyone who tried to stop him and wasn’t wearing the blood green armband the Rebels had agreed to start wearing once the massacre had started. Once he was outside, he began to feel the pull from Lamentation once again. His part here was done, and he was needed elsewhere. But that could wait until the murdering was done. So he waited. ~ As the sun began to rise on the next day, not even a week after the news of the rebel attack had reached Garmet, Goren and the rebel survivors made their way out of the building. Most of them were covered in blood, and they’d lost a few of their own, but the mission was mostly successful. Goren turned to look at the others. Some of them still seemed a little restless, as if they were almost disappointed that the killing was over. Most of them just seemed tired and ready to be done. There was still so much work to do. “Shara,” Goren said, turning to her. She had been an invaluable asset to the Rebel cause, and her discovery of the medallion had served them well. “I want you to draft up a plan for how to deal with this city. We’re taking it over.” AraRaash walked up. "I wish you all the best with that." Goren and Shara looked over at AraRaash with surprise. "Unfortunately, I have... other business I need to attend to." Goren looked at AraRaash. "You've been of great service - I don't suppose I could change your mind?" "Unfortunately not. You seem to have things under control, though." "Then go well, AraRaash. May you bring message of our victory everywhere in your travels, so that others may replicate our success." AraRaash nodded, and left. Shara paused for a moment. “We are going to do this better than they did, right?” Goren smiled. “Yes, we are. Work on making sure no one gets left behind in our improvements for this city. Even the poorest here will benefit from our coup.” “And as for the rest of us,” Goren said. “We’re leaving the most political minded of our team here, along with a healthy force of soldiers, to rebuild this city from the ground up. I want minimal casualties and minimal destruction. And I want to recruit anyone we think would be helpful to our cause and is willing to make a long trip soon.” He paused, mostly for dramatic effect. “Because our next goal is to make the very long trek to Elendel. We’ve got more work we need to do there.” Dannex was killed! They were a Loyalist Duralumin Gnat/Sparker Twinborn! And that’s the game! Congrats to the Rebels, Ashbringer, Biplet, and Lotus, for winning! And an honorary congratulations to Matrim’s Dice as well, even though he got Kandrafied shortly before the elims won. Oh, and a huge congratulations to Striker for running such a fantastic game. It was a blast getting to co-GM with him again. GM thoughts will come later. Player List: @Ashbringer - Rebel Soother/Skimmer Twinborn @Biplet - Shara, advisor to a representative of the third Octant, Iden. Rebel Thug @Szeth_Pancakes - Earl Euphemie, a journalist from the Elendel Daily, definitely not a highly trained assassin. Loyalist Nicroburst/Subsumer Twinborn @Matrim's Dice - Philico, here to steal Faleast's Kandra thunder. Rebel Thief turned Kandra with a Slider Spike @Lotus - Josephine, definitely not out of her league. Rebel Pulser/Pinnacle Twinborn @Araris Valerian - Sweeper, a lowly cleaner of the political chamber building. Kandra @The Unknown Order - Walker, who...walks. Yeah. Loyalist Slider/Gasper Twinborn @DrakeMarshall - Juno, member of the Board of Somethingorother, and an enthusiastic protestor. Loyalist Archivist @Jondesu - Myra, not witty or even particularly bright, but she’s honest. Loyalist Rioter Misting @Archer - The Great Panini, wealthy patron of the arts and amateur ventriloquist, accompanied by Bagel. Loyalist Smoker/Sentry Twinborn @Illwei Loyalist Seeker Misting and Hemalurgist @Experience - Zara, questionably loyal, but in extreme ways. Loyalist Tineye Misting and Investigator @Devotary of Spontaneity - Magrait, an amalgamation of Adomert and Inedze through their stored memories from a coppermind. Loyalist Spinner Ferring and Thief @Azmine_king Loyalist Hazekiller @Mist - Lumen, a secretary who's trying her best and wants to bring justice to whoever needs it. Loyalist Leecher/Soulbearer Twinborn @|TJ| - Loyalist Lurcher/Trueself Twinborn @manukos - Bill, Bill Door. Probably shaped like a triangle. Loyalist Augur/Connector Twinborn @Dannex - Loyalist Duralumin Gnat/Sparker Twinborn @Flyingbooks - Veren, assistant to the Elendel representatives, playing both sides to get the nobility less influence in politics. Loyalist Oracle/Windwhisper Twinborn! Docs: GM Spreadsheet Elim Doc Kandra Doc Spec/Dead Doc

Let me just put it out there: I JUST turned in my final exam and final project for Spanish. On the same day this game ended I am now DONE WITH MY SPANISH 2 SUMMER CLASS

Apologies if any of these have been done before General Sanderson/fantasy books Final Empire WOR OB General Stormlight

Man, I don't even know how to feel about this I actually am kicking myself really really really hard because I was dumb and used the elim kill to try to kill Ash last night and not the kandra kill for some reason. I... don't know why. I'm decently annoyed about that but it's no one's fault and there's nothing I can do now :P. The fact that neither of Drake or Archer were Thugs makes it arguably worse but ah well. This game was really fun, before I was converted and after. I probably have more thoughts but they're also probably in my doc(s).

… everything went according to plan? Huh. On mobile right now so I’ve got more for later, but great game everyone! And Skimmer, Drake. I was a Skimmer.

It's exciting to post my own topic for the first time! Something I’ve wondered about for a while now is how Helaran appeared on the battlefield from behind Amaram’s lines. It’s been theorized for a while now that Helaran was a Surgebinder. Primarily, this is because of a quick line from Taravangian discussing Shallan as a Surgebinder. Taravangian clearly believes that Helaran has some Surgebinding capability. But he’s absolutely startled by the account of an Alethi bridgeman spontaneously developing Surgebinding on his own. What did he think Jasnah, Shallan, and Helaran were up to, then? Shallan is at the Shattered Plains, but though he suspects her of Surgebinding, she doesn’t apparently warrant activating their agents. He breezes right past her miraculous survival. He doesn't fret about her coming into contact with Szeth at all. But that makes sense if Taravangian knows that the Honorblades are no longer in the Shin's possession, and haven't been for years. He may be assuming Shallan's Surgebinding ability, whatever it is, is granted by a Blade that she was trained to use. In RoW, Szeth learns that his father, who had keeping of the Bondsmith Honorblade is dead, and that Ishar took back his Honorblade at some point after Szeth’s banishment. Taravangian reveals that he knew Szeth’s father Neturo was dead prior to this revelation. My guess is that Ishar recovered his Honorblade about seven years before it’s spotted in RoW. This would coincide with him coming into power in Tukar. Nale seems to have been in contact with Ishar seven years ago, the same year that Gavilar and Shallan Davar’s mother were both killed. Did Nale's concerns, perhaps prompted by his conversations with Gavilar and Venli, influence Ishar's decision to take back his Honorblade? That’s a little bit out of the scope of what I’m thinking but pretty interesting. What I'm suggesting is that Ishar may have also taken custody of the other Honorblades as well. Helaran returns home with his new Shardblade about six and a half years ago, from the current position in the timeline. The descriptions given to this Shardblade closely resemble the Lightweaver Honorblade, which is something I never noticed until I looked at the art for the Honorblades. That gemstone in the pommel is the only thing that doesn’t seem to fit that description. How hard is it to move and set gemstones on a Shardblade? It can be done to regular Shardblades, though I don’t know if that necessarily proves anything. Sunraiser, for example, bears a pretty strong resemblance to the Bondsmith Honorblade, in my opinion. Possibly Helaran’s blade is a dead spren in a form that strongly resembles the Lightweaver Honorblade. But with the Lightweaver Honorblade, Helaran’s miraculous appearance makes more sense. He’d have used a Lightweaving to hide the fact that he was a Shardbearer mounted on a horse in the middle of an enemy army. It also might explain something that has meshed poorly for me with Helaran's being a Skybreaker acolyte, which was specifically his weird glowing effect. Shallan or the things she holds sometimes seem to glow, particularly when it’s implied that she’s using the Spiritual form of her Transformation surge. Tien’s implied bond to a Cryptic also uses the symbolism of things glowing or becoming brighter. To me this is more evidence that Helaran had some Surgebinding ability in that direction. Shallan mentions that there is no history attached to Amaram/Helaran’s Shardblade, in a world where every Shardblade known is recorded and named. It’s not out of the question that Nale would have access to an unknown Shardblade, but if he’s in contact with Ishar and seriously concerned by an oncoming Desolation, he might have access to another Honorblade and the motivation to arm someone who "impressed him" with it. Taravangian therefore might be working under the assumption that the same source (Nale) that gave Helaran his Honorblade might be supplying Shallan. This means that Amaram would have had possession of the Lightweaver Honorblade. If he perceived it as an ordinary Shardblade, perhaps he simply never noticed he was holding an Honorblade. I think this would be pretty deeply ironic for the villain who lies to himself about why he does what he does and truly believes his own lies to have the Lightweaver Honorblade. Someone who would have known, Restares/Kalak, seemed mostly to be in contact with Amaram via spanreed from afar. I doubt he’d share that information with Amaram, who I think he must have been manipulating--but it’s impossible to say. Other people who would recognize the Lightweaver Honorblade would be Szeth, Dalinar, Taln, and Ash. Szeth, Taln, and Ash don’t ever seem to witness Amaram wielding the Blade in combat that I can find, although all three are present at the Battle of Thaylen Field. Ash spends her time looking after Taln, and never mentions seeing her own Honorblade or Amaram. Szeth, likewise, spends a lot of his time occupied by other concerns, and never mentions seeing the Lightweaver Honorblade or Amaram that I can find in the text. It’s either not the one, or they miraculously miss it every time. Dalinar also saw both Helaran/Amaram’s Shardblade, when he confronted Amaram near the end of WoR, and the Honorblades in his visions of Aharietiam. Dalinar also pitched the idea of Shallan doing studies of the Honorblades seen in the vision. Dalinar has published written accounts of the visions, as I recall, but no mention is made of drawings. Quickly reading through the rest of the part, it's not clear to me if Shallan ever gets around to doing that. However, when Dalinar sees Ishar’s Honorblade, he doesn’t have the same recognition he does for Jezrien’s Blade, which is the most familiar to him; this could be a continuity error, or maybe indicative of something else. And during the battle, when Dalinar does the tally of people with him, Amaram wields Oathbringer alone. As far as I can tell, Amaram doesn’t use Helaran’s Blade until he fights Kaladin. Finally, there is the matter of Honorblades' behavior. When Taln drops his Honorblade, it doesn't vanish. This is meant to be a big clue as to its nature. Amaram drops Helaran's Blade twice in his fight with Kaladin, and it vanishes. Szeth also drops Jezrien's Blade in the fight with Gavilar, and the “bond” so to speak doesn’t appear to be broken. Szeth is able to resummon the Honorblade after being parted from it. No mention is made of where it ended up or if it vanished as he dropped it. My only explanation for this is that perception could be at work here. Szeth believes that the Honorblade should take ten heartbeats to summon, and it does. Perhaps Amaram likewise believes that a Shardblade should vanish when it is dropped, and so as it leaves his hand, it vanishes. Ishar demonstrates that the Honorblade, like a living Shardblade, can wink out of existence for a second and return in a flash. To summarize: I think it’s possible that Helaran was given the Lightweaver Honorblade by Nale, who gained access to it when Ishar reclaimed his own Honorblade. It’s not clear to me why he would do that, although Mraize says that Helaran was recruited with “displays of power” and that Helaran impressed Nale. Could Nale have shown Helaran how it would be possible to Surgebind without bonding a Cryptic? Then Helaran uses it to position himself behind Amaram’s lines. Maybe as an enemy combatant on the field of war, the kill is “legal?” This is still a mystery to me. Helaran is then killed by Kaladin. Eventually the Honorblade ends up with Amaram, who is completely ignorant of what it really is, and somehow it conveniently hopscotches anyone who could identify it. The Blades are awarded to then Rock, who "insists that they cannot be used" according to his daughter. They "gather dust in their box" until he returns to the Horneater Peaks. I find this idea extremely interesting, but a bit tenuous! I've done my best to cover all the things I can think of on my own, for and against. I specifically like Helaran's Shardblade being the Lightweaver Honorblade for the thematic connection to Amaram's lies, and because it's a simple, elegant explanation for the things about Helaran that don't quite make sense otherwise. But it seems to rely on those who could see it for what it is to simply not be around, for certain lapses of curiosity, and for Nale to be totally okay with losing an Honorblade. The gemstone is also located in the wrong place according to the art, which I am not 100% is really usable as evidence, and when it gets dropped, it vanishes ... Despite all this, I still thought it would be a fun theory to share.

We do know that at the very least medallions and normal F-nicrosil do not function the exact same, though we do not know the differences.

The limiting factor is probably how many Metalborn they can make disappear without people asking questions. Most Metalborn powers are incredibly useful and so their owners would be missed if they got their soul ripped into chunks and stapled to someone else. It is also possible that the decay factor that affects every spike based on how long it sat unattended messes with Compounding's effectivity. Or...it could just be that they don't want to waste good powers like that on grunts and reserve it as a promotion bonus for their higher-rankers.

Starsight (this one's kinda crem but it's funny)

I WAS VERY VERY CLOSE TO KILLING YOU Lol I had that bribe ready to go I was absolutely going to get you exed and claim Kandra in thread and convince the villagers to help me, should you have lived and the game continued.

Psh a traitor only in name wait actually Because I did an oopsie >> WHICH I should probably explain. Cause I figured out why the heck I used the elim kill instead of the kandra kill, and I have a half-adequate reason :P. So, once I was converted I figured out that I needed a misexe, one of each alignment killed, another misexe, one of each alignment killed. And that would be 0-0-1 and my win. Looking at the roles and the lack of a Thug I'm fairly certain that could have worked, making this worse, especially since Drake apparently didn't Blackmail me to target myself which was the other thing that could go wrong. But anyways. On D5 when I worked this out, I figured that since Bip had a Coinshot Medallion (How there were 2 kills plus Araris' death N4) she would try to target 2 villagers, and I needed only one to die otherwise the whole thing would be jeapordized. So right then and there midway through D5 I determined I needed to sabotage the elim kill, which in that scenario is actually exactly what I needed to do. But then I managed to convince Bip to double-tap Dannex, not connecting those dots and inadvertently sabotaging my own plan. If I had used the kandra kill, or if Bip's last-second action hadn't gone through, it would be D6 and Ash would be dead. Which I guess if Bip was gonna exe me anyway there wasn't a whole lot I could do (:P) but if I had convinced her to exe Drake somehow I could have killed her and Archer fairly easily for the win, or maybe she would have beat me to the kill again idk. But it does kind of bug me how... well this could have gone. It always looks that way in retrospect, I feel. Anyway, it was my own fault and I still had an absolute blast playing, thanks to my wonderful (former) teammates @Biplet (who outsmarted me in the end), @Ashbringer (who shares my title as the only players to be all three alignments in the two runs of this game) and @Lotus (who my predecessor slayed N1) and of course @StrikerEZ and @Young Bard, the dedicated and amazing GMs. Do run this again, and again Edit: And I hope @Araris Valerian forgives me for messing this up after he brilliantly set me up in such a good position. You did well.

I was actually surprised at how many other answers I got. I mean, how many rulers conduct ethically questionable experiments with a research partner? Apparently a lot more than I though, lol!

There are many different planets. Scadrial. Roshar. Threnody. These are all a part of one universe, the cosmere. But these planets are in one small piece of a galaxy within an, as far as I can see, infinite universe. The first layer. There are other universes. The various Earths. The land of the Epics, the world of Rithmatists, many others. But the key is that there exist universes governed with different laws: the speed of light, ratio of mass to energy to magic, the… permeability of the universe in question. The second layer. This is where things get complicated. Each of these universes in the multiverse is quite different. The world of Shadowblaze is quite different than the world of Radiants. But there are more. Imagine a Rosharan who enjoys breaking Vorin customs rolls a six-sided die. They have a one-in-six chance of rolling each value. In one universe, they will roll a value at random. In the multiverse, the one universe will split into six, one new universe for each potential result. However, the Rosharan is clumsy, and a third of the time their die falls of the table. A third of the time it lands on a nearby rug. A third of the time it stays on the table. Suddenly the split into six becomes a split of eighteen. An additional die will turn it into thirty-four universes. Of course, the small colony of bacteria growing on the die creates millions of times that number as they grow, divide, and move. The third layer – for every action, a universe will exist for a result. Every. Action. Even with the power I hold, comprehending that is plainly impossible. Fortunately, I do not need to. I no longer exist within a universe; I simply sift between them, a... spider on the threads of the multiverse. Peering in, searching for ones where the die was cast in a favorable manner. They are few and far between... but there are things to look for. Eventually, I will find a timeline that is useful to me. That is where my Harbingers come in. I used to think I was fated to rule the world, to create a peace throughout the universe. But the universe is far too small for my... ambitions. For now, I am lost, pouring through, looking for weaknesses I can exploit, powers I can manipulate, anything that acts as a lead. I have yet to find one. But I have made quite a discovery in my current venture, aided by AraRaash. Not one of the multiverse. Not even one that I should have needed to discover, but my intent has been elsewhere. So it is quite something. Solemnium.

Not magic system but please turn down the metaphors, it feels more like a political statement than a story.

In espionage, a "sleeper" agent is just someone who has successfully infiltrated the target country, but is not actively doing anything (gathering intelligence, performing operations, etc). I suspect Taravangian's sleepers are just regular men & women who are loyal to the Diagram or Kharbranth.

This has been bugging me a lot. We know Hoid - Wit - goes where Fortune tells him to, and often without knowing the reason. We know he is terrified of Odium - of Rayse - and while he sought him out, he also avoided him. We know that he has been very careful to keep himself hidden. And we also know he had been planning for his meeting with Odium, who he clearly thought was Rayse - though perhaps he deliberately dumped his memories of knowing it had changed to Taravangian before going to the meeting (pure speculation and possibly wrong, but let's not rule it out). So, with all of that, any meeting he intended to go to with Odium - and it seemed Odium hadn't been expecting him, at least the first time round - would be one which was of significant importance. And from our perspective it was, showing that Wit naturally is invisible to the shards - assuming Endowment is just blustering in her letter in Oathbringer, or due to Wit's connection to Endowment due to that shard tempting him she can see him? But that is besides the point - and that Odium is now something to truly be frightened of if it can pull one over on Hoid. But what has Wit's goal? He didn't give any information other than a few quick taunts to Odium. That's it. So what was his goal? What, in setting, was the reason Wit risked making himself visible to Odium, other than to thumb his nose at him, now that he is safe? And those hardly were outstanding insults. Or was that the point, to give poor insults because he could? What do you think the reason Hoid did this? What did he hope to achieve?

I think in the Kandra doc I mused about this... settled on AraRiice, I think AraRaash admittedly has a better ring to it. Or sooner, sooner works too

I was kind of banking on that, but I thought once I got further along it would be more evident than it was.

Honestly I didn’t even consider Spook because I never associated him with the Lord Mistborn since that’s all off screen

Don't worry I'll never be able to pull it off again

Well, it was 3-2-1 for N5. One villager died because Bip double tapped Dannex with the elim kill and the last coinshot kill she had from the medallion. Mat was trying to be the last one to submit the elim kill so he could hit Ash with it and prolong the game, but Bip got the last submission in. So with that, it went to 2-2-1. Keep in mind that the Kandra doesn't count towards parity. So at this point, since both you and Bip bought a Bribe last night, the votes would've been 1-1, ignoring the Kandra since they don't count to parity. Which means the elims won. Even if you'd tried to redirect someone, it would've been randomly redirected since Mat was Sliding you.

This is so valid. It was literally a war. Moash is just on the other side at this point. I think this could be true for a lot of people, although I do like some of the comments from others here. It feels to me like (I hope that guy doesn't come back, but) Catelyn hate in the ASOIAF fandom; they just like Tyrion so they were pissed she falsely accused him, and it was...basically personal and then they tried to make the logic for their hate of her form there. So...I could say that be the case for Moash as well for a lot of fans. Something I've always felt too, is they keep saying Moash betrayed Kaladin, which in a way he did. But in a way, Kaladin betrayed Moash. He agreed to Moash's plan. He went along with Moash's plan. Then he essentially backed out last second and fought him. Moash could have certainly seen that as a betrayal, although since we have his PoV, I guess he didn't.

I was thinking it works in a similar fashion to a cognitive shadow controlling a vessel. Since spren are just investiture, they should theoretically be indistinguishable from cognitive shadows. As we see with Radiant healing, a person's view of themselves alters the way they appear (e.g Kaladin's brand, Reshi king transformation). We also know from the BoM Kelsier memory that his new body bore his old scars. So my suspicion is this: Ishar forces spren into vessels (humans) and then they start to take the shape of the spren, however it's pretty hard for a human skull to morph into a cryptic one, so the most successful attempts are with those resembling humans the most (honorspren) as the change isn't too drastic.

Hello there! I'm Roody. Man, this place hasn't seen posts in a while. I really enjoy writing as a creative outlet, and I recently decided to put scattered ideas and daydreams onto actual paper. My hunt for a proper writing group and decent feedback led me to this forum, where I hope to get useful critique. While writing is only a hobby for me, I do hope to publish a novel by the next decade. Right now, I plan to post short stories from the world I am building, to further flesh out ideas and also improving my skills as a writer. Oh, and lastly, my favorite authors are Steven Erikson, L.E.Modesitt, Neal Stephenson, Isaac Asimov, Terry Pratchett, Scott Lynch, Robin Hobb, Robert J. Bennett, Andy Weir and of course, Mr. Sanderson. See you guys around! I hope to get to know more members of this community in my journey.

Who be. Edit: also where does Fortnite Kelsier fall in this layered multiverse.

I actually have a very good argument for why you should all trust me! I would be very sad if you did not

*noisemakers* It IS the long-suffering Wyndle Hit us!

Overall definitely a lot of confusion, but once you trim this chapter down and clear some things up, it'll be a great chapter! I really loved the ending when B told Or that E was looking for her. I also liked that Or got to see alt At, but that part could probably be trimmed as well. I was a bit unclear on the stakes when Y had said Or would get shot if she loitered because when it seemed like Or was in a place she wasn't supposed to be, the people at the end were like "oh no, you saw too much, huh? we'll give you a refund and discount at the shop! :)" as i go: pg 3 -i read through these first pages really quickly. Good light humor! “that she could feel in her throat but hear” not hear? “Should i go over there? Buy her something?” i was a bit confused about some of what Y was saying. I assume this is supposed to be humorous but it fell a little flat for me “Excellent. now, i cant hear you” she didn’t give Y any response tho. Why’d they say “excellent”? Edit: oh was it something on the readouts that Y took as an indication that Or could hear? pg 4 “This is a touch less terrifying” more terrifying than something called the void/mirror universe?? She must really be afraid of Ard lol pg 5 “Loitering can get a being shot” didnt Y just say that Or would be loitering in the lobby? I guess… loitering in the wrong place would get you shot? pg 6 “Something wiggled and itched” eeeeee pg 7 “Upper-level bird meeting” you dont hear that everyday pg 8/9 -you could probably trim some stuff on these pages, with the door not opening and whatnot -also im not quite sure what her goal is here. The doc wasn't too clear on that. I feel like if i was in Or’s shoes, i would be confused as hell. -maybe mention the map more, i actually forgot that she was following a map. wait, she is right? the one on her palm? -confused about the steps on page 9 “That meant time to go” but i feel like she didnt do anything… maybe she didnt need to tho. Y only wanted her to visit for like samples orrr information? I cant remember >.< “The dome melted” wait like the ceiling?? pg 10 -im confused where she is at now, is she viewing all this in a mirror or is it actually happening? “Voids. Mirror.” ohh it is a mirror... i think pg 11 “Or ran into the young forest” confused about whats real and whats not, very trippy pg 12 “Y should have given her some cliff notes” yeah, they really shouldve “At” oooo juicy pg 16 “I dont know dave” lmao the sass “No one is willingly going to swallow fungi, dave” yeah, dave, jesus -i love the bird names pg 20 “Like the N people” doesnt Or know this? Since she is N… pg 24 Awesome ending with E!

I graciously accept this defeat, my journey continues Does @Szeth_Pancakes want to do round 2 against Harmony?

If only I had the writing speed capability to support my wordiness. I only managed to write 9k words during NaNoWriMo and I actually was trying pretty hard... I'm personally convinced that Brandon is either a zinc compounder or has some sort of factory for unkeyed zinc metalminds in his basement. I still haven't figured out how he handles the hunger side effect or drawbacks of presumed savanthood on his tours though.

Medallions are interesting that way, and it's probably because of what's mentioned here: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/316/#e11247 So Medallions store Invested abilities like copperminds, where you take them out, use them, and put them back. I don't think normal F-Nicrosil works this way, if solely for the reason that compounding it for a Mistborn would be most busted thing in the Cosmere and I don't think Brandon would allow that. That the Bands run out somewhat supports this--the Bands use normal F-Nicrosil, which is filled and tapped just like Iron, Steel, and most other metalminds. This would make the compounding more balanced, since a Mistborn with F-Nicrosil would be able to briefly become stupid powerful, but not permanently and infinitely. Edit: Btw, if it turns out that normal F-Nicrosil does work this way, I'm dropping everything and immediately giving Scadrial the win. Being able to compound anyone's abilities to stupidly-high maxed-out levels with just a couple spikes/a single A-Nicrosil/F-Nicrosil Medallion trumps basically everything. (Imagine a Pewterarm that essentially maxing out Tension on themselves all the time and basically does not feel pain, or a Coinshot that can sense and manipulate trace metals. Nuh-uh.)

I know this isn’t exactly what you’re looking for, but I recommend The Chosen. I think you will not be disappointed.

-Bands of Mourning, ch. 28 So affecting metals inside someone seems to be a distinct possibility with the Bands, though seeing as Marasi notes how quickly the stores are used up a few seconds or so after she starts tapping you probably couldn't sustain that level of power for long. ¤_¤

DatS 12:

Step 1. Ask if the number of words in a Stormlight book can be counted Step 2. Tell the community you're looking for the word "money" Step 3. ??? Step 4. Profit

Per very brand new information (last livestream on youtube), capturing mists into gemstones is theoretically possible (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A67G4ObX7CM&t=6600s). Since clearly no has yet noticed it, it is most likely not as easy as on Roshar (i.e. leave them lying around and they will fill) but maybe if you pressurized the mist and put the gemstone nearby maybe?

I'm inclined to agree with Frustration here. And this sort of seals the deal, does it not? If the BoM, which, per WoB, don't have enough investiture to be a shardblade can't be affected/sensed by allomancy then it stands to reason that shardblades can't either, so pushing on them, in whole or in part, is essentially out of the question. It might be possible with the Bands and Vin could probably have done it while she was ascending, but I wouldn't be suprised if even Rashek at baseline super-mistborn (no nicrosil shenanigans, just baseline strength) couldn't sense a blade, let alone affect it. I'd rate that a maybe, I could also see an augur becoming indecisive from their understanding that every choice would close off so many paths and I don't know if they'd be that much more self-aware than a particularly introspective person. But you're also left with no more aluminium reserves after burning it. Either it burns incredibly rapidly, it wipes itself when burned, ot both and I see no reason to doubt its given rate of burn. So I'm willing to grant that you could burn away a lashing applied to you, or a single "jolt" from a painrial (though you'd still get hit by every "jolt" except that one if you remain within its influence) as these are foreign investiture imposed on you, but I'm not willing to grant that you could continually burn aluminium to be investiture immune, as I have no reason to believe that it doesn't burn away practically instantly. Ah, then I've misunderstood you, I thought you had interpreted the suppressors to use tones. If I may be very pedantic, by this logic we've actually only seen anti-voidlight and anti-stormlight and we can't infer anti-life-, war- or towerlight. To me it seems clear that any investiture manifesting in the same way (gaseous) could be flipped to anti-x with the right tools and knowledge. Now, we don't know of any way to store, say, Preservation's mist, but that is to me the only hurdle, we know a method that works to flip it once you can do that. I don't see why they need to be able yo do that, we see fabrials all the time that can do things that seem outside the skillset of any radiant and we can easily infer functions that we haven't seen. For instance the battlefield dehumidifier (water attractor) used in WoR, where Navani worries that they might have tuned it wrongly and that it might suck the blood out of their soldiers, we've never seen this happen, but we know it's a real possibility and you could deliberately make a blood attractor to, say, drop on an enemy position like a bomb. I frankly think that a Rosharan industrial revolution is possible on the backs of pairing fabrials and waterwheels and a bit of engineering, heatrials and soulcasting could see them have bona fide steam turbines, with the ability to turn stormlight into mechanical work. Yes, there are far more possible combinations of metalborn, but they are also not reliable powersets, every windrunner gets the same powerset, reliably, but not every metalborn gets a power that's useful in a fight, let alone two, or two that interact in such a way that one of them becomes incredibly useful. I'd also be cautious of claiming five powers for a twinborn, as Allik has only seen one medallion in his life that does three, IIRC, and he talks about the ones that do two as absolutely wonderful devices, though they're obviously common enough to outfit an entire airship crew and they have at least one that does another power combination as well. So personally I'm sticking to two per medallion, as that seems to be, if not common, then at least not rare. This is not to say that having a reliable powerset is inherently better than every possible twinborn + medallion interaction, but the static powersets of the radiants might still beat most ability combinations possible for metalborn and radiants are far more common than any given twinborn, even the known possible number of bondsmiths matches the number of known crashers, ever. Sure, a twin gold, twin steel is incredibly dangerous, but you need one of two very rare combinations to start with, and such a person would still need to eat and sleep and might be vulnerable to adhesion (glued to the floor) and abrasion (sliiiiiiide), as well as more traditional things like caltrops and they'd presumably not be immune to pain, unlike Miles, because they've not been doing the infinite healing for forever. I'm also not sure if you'd get resonances off medallions, but I know there's a rough threashold where you stop getting them because you have too many powers. Ah, I misunderstood then. ¤_¤

The white clothing was a Parshendi tradition, foreign to him. But he did as his masters required and did not ask for an explanation. He sat in a large stone room baked by enormous firepits that cast a garish light on the revelers, causing beads of sweat to form on their skin as they danced and drank and yelled and sang and clapped. Some fell to the ground red-faced, the revelry too much for them, their stomachs proving to be inferior wineskins. They looked as if they were dead, at least until their friends carried them out of the feast hall to waiting beds. Szeth did not sway to the drums, drink the sapphire wine, or stand to dance. He sat at a bench at the back, a still servant in white robes. Few at the treaty signing celebration noticed him. He was just a Shinservant, and Shin were easy to ignore. Most out here in the East thought that Szeth's kind were docile and harmless. They were generally right. The drummers began to beat a new rhythm. The beats shook through Szeth like a quartet of thumping hearts pumping waves of invisible blood through the room. Szeth's masters - who were dismissed as savages by those in more civilized kingdoms - sat at their own table. They were men with skin of black marbled with red. The red is what I got wrong from writing it down. I'm generally better at reciting it. This is how you know you're a sanderfan

That does make a lot of sense considering the titles start that way. He Who Transforms, He Who Quiets, now he’s just “He.” I do think it’s a bit interesting that the Fused have titles so similar to that of the ardent’s title for Honor.

He told you his goals while walking to the meeting. Misdirection. My new pet theory: He sent Design away to be "corrupted" by Sja Anat, while he kept Odium's attention on himself.

I don't think he had a goal. I think he wanted to go taunt Rayse because he believed he was protected from anything he could do. I think Taravangian was the one who made the mistake here. First, he acted out of character and Hoid began to suspect something. He then covered it up by erasing the recent memory. I think Hoid is going to discover that fact which will lead him to figure out what happened to Rayse and who Odium is now. But, I think it will be too late to warn Dalinar that Odium is not who he thinks he is.

it's only going to be about 20 more years.

And this shows bias. You are giving the benefit of the doubt to the names you know but given your comments, it seems less likely that you will be equally forgiving to newer members because you haven't established that they also are likely not trying to give offence. So then we see newer members get public warnings because they go past the line, but older members may get PMs because they probably skirted it or at least because they are given the benefit of the doubt are perceived to have skirted it. This whole idea that as a newer member you feel comfortable reporting someone "older", especially if you have seen them defended elsewhere in the forum. How often does that actually happen? Probably not that often - new members post less, lurk more and likely try to avoid rocking the boat until they understand the lay of the land (pls forgive mixed metaphors!) I wasn't present for this event so I don't have first hand experience of it, but simply from your own words this seems very flawed. A member came into a thread and proceeded to break the rules. Was she put on moderation? Was she banned? We have no idea that any real discipline was carried out and she wasn't publically shamed like a new member would have been in the same circumstance. And why did this happen? According to you it is because she is your friend. You just had a chat. How is this ok? This proves that there is bias again. Indeed, it is even worse than I thought! Why wasn't a post made by a moderator at least acknowledging this - can it not be seen that this has the effect of making people feel like as long as you know the mods, you're golden? So the problem here is that most people avoid confrontation in all walks of life. Confronting someone is hard, especially when you look at someone's reputation and see it is something like yours - "God of Colour" which suggests your posts are well liked by the community as a whole. I agree with you that we need more openness between each other but I genuinely don't see how it would work for most people - most of us see criticism and get defensive which then locks us up to improving things (storms, I know I do!). Indeed I can think of several examples where such discussion was attempted but then ignored by the original poster. I applaud you for accepting blame for some events in the past ( I don't know what they are, but it is big of you to accept responsibility). Personally I think public shaming is not useful - it causes defensiveness which then prevents a change in behaviour. A PM with an explanation about why the post is a problem is going to be more effective with more people (you can even have C+Ped sections in to make them quick to write!). Additionally, having dedicated mods for each sub forum or even each thread (mods that can only post as mods, and not with personal opinions) will also help because then the rules will be applied more consistently within a specific thread/sub forum rather than the way they are at the moment where sometimes someone steps in publicly and other times something seems to happen offscreen which is presumably from a different moderator and the problem resolves with less fanfare. It doesn't matter if the rules aren't consistent between threads, as long as they are consistent within them - you'd get used to the rules in the threads you tend to use. Currently mods post personal opinions as moderators. This makes it appear to be an "approved" opinion. It can sway opinion massively - authority is a huge factor when it comes to holding opinions, even in something so unimportant as opinions on a work of fiction - indeed if authority can make people "torture" people (they believed they were, but it was just a lab test) then it can definitely make people rethink their ideas and start conforming to the mainstream with a book.