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Forgive me if I've missed a quote or passage, but why does everyone seem to be convinced that plating a metal with Aluminum would "shield" the metal from Pushes/Pulls? If that were the case, Miles could just have used electroplated weapons instead of making everything out of some solid through-and-through, rarer-than-gold aluminum alloy.

If you read closely through WoK, there are several places that imply that waves/sound is magically important. When we see Jasnah soulcast the boulder, Shallan imagines that she can hear a "single, perfect note" just as it transforms. Later, she finds some books that mention that humming can facilitate soulcasting using fabrials. Also - anyone notice how a basic soulcaster, that can do one thing only, has a single gemstone (the one we see the Ghostblood use to make the wall turn into smoke), while the greater ones have three gemstones that can be swapped out? And remember how Kabsal tells Shallan that to use a soulcaster, you just touch what you want to change and tap the gemstone? Anyone else think this sounds (no pun intended) like a musical instrument? For a single note (essence) you tap a single key/gemstone. For a more complex object consisting of multiple essences you tap a combination of notes, thereby making a chord. Of note, most chords in music are made from three notes. I just had to look all this stuff up on wikipedia since I have the musical knowledge and skill of a tugboat, but I'm sure someone with more knowledge will take up the thread.

Anyone else feel that a rithmatic game for mobile devices would be awesome? Just finished the book and I'd pay good money for that

I got the implication in Alloy of Law that Harmony, at the time of the Founding, changed the bloodlines of all the existing allomancers to make it such that from that point on, there would be no more Mistborn, only Mistings. Even though it's not stated directly, it seems pretty clear, because although many Mistborn would have died during the years of WoA/HoA, some would have surely survived if they bothered to lay low. I mean, they have a pretty strong survival advantage. And even if they didn't, we know that in the Final Empire, even though allomancy in general was getting weaker in the population, Mistborn would still be born, often to parents that weren't even allomancers themselves, as long as they were nobility. I mean, look at Vin herself. Also, we know that many of the Mistings in AoL were descended from Spook, so he presumably had several kids, and he was made into an original Mistborn by Harmony. For perspective, the ten original Mistborn made by Rashek provided the heritage for all the allomancers for a thousand years. How is it that not a single one of Spook's descendants is a full Mistborn? It seems pretty clear to me that Harmony tampered with things to make Mistborn go away. So - that brings me to the Keepers. We know that, even though many/most were killed by the Inquisitors, some must have survived, and in any case, once again we know from Rashek's time that the trait will pop up in Terris children even if their parents don't have it themselves. We also know that Harmony did something here, as well, since in the Final Empire Ferrings did not exist; you were either a full Keeper, or nothing. But did Harmony eliminate the potential for Keepers during the Founding the way he did for Mistborn, or is it simply that they are rare and keep to themselves? If so, is it the interbreeding with allomantic bloodlines that makes people into Ferrings rather than Keepers? Might it be possible to be a Keeper and a Misting at the same time? (We know Wax doesn't think so, but he could be wrong). PS - for purposes of this thread, I'm defining "Keeper" as a feruchemist with access to all 16 of the metals, rather than a Ferring who only has access to one; analogous to Mistborn and Misting.

Electroplating a layer of aluminum is extremely difficult due to the ultra-high activity of aluminum. It corrodes instantly during bonding which makes for a very poor bond to the metal being plated. I suppose that the idea of an aluminum coating protecting against pushing and pulling results from the aluminum lining in hats to protect from emotional allomancy, etc. Edit: Kurk is talking about your post where you said TLR should have sheathed his bracers in aluminum to protect them from the inquisitors.

I believe the source of Amaram's information is Taravangian. The support I could find for this conclusion follows. In the prologue Gavilar's first suspect about the source of his assassination is Thaidakar, followed by Restares and then Sadeas. In Chapter 51, Amaram is apparently working with Stormwardens and Restares and against Thaidakar and the Ghostbloods: This gives us two apparent factions: Thaidakar and the Ghostbloods, who include the passionate ardent assassin Kabsal and Shallan's father. Restares, Amaram and some stormwardens Now consider the Taravangian interlude: Taravangian seems to rely/trust a group of stormwardens to serve him. The simplest solution is that Restares is a code name for Taravangian or an associate and that he has organized some stormwardens. If different groups of stormwardens are serving different factions and Taravangian is not associated with Restares, then I imagine Restares is the likely source of information about voidbringers.

Asmodemon caught most of what I did, so I'll try not to repeat. Mostly I was confused throughout this, by the lack of description, the awkward and passive sentences, and the innumerable "hads" I read the first paragraph twice to make sense of it, and was even more confused after the first page, almost enough to stop reading. I think because first section all happens in white-room. There's no desription of where or what Diro is. pg 3: Wait--Diro was a sea captain first? Then when you tell me about ships, now you're always going to have to clarify sky- or sea-ships. You're throwing out made-up names with no indication of what they are, and most seem not to matter anyway. Uliman Murn Riark Evridins yet you explain exactly how an Ibuin fruit works... How does a metal skull fly? Is it even aerodynamic? Are they using rocket boosters here, or hot air and fabric? pg 7: At chapter 1, I am more confused than when I started reading. The 3rd omniscient really threw me. I agree with Asmodemon that you should go with 3rd limited for a first book. Also, is his name Fistrid, or Fist? Were they the ones with the flying skull? I'm confused as to which side they're on. pg 11: Why was Diro trying to break through rock to get into a volcano? That makes no sense as to why it was the only option without some more explanation. Also, now you're talking about sea ships again. Which is it? pg 12: now you finally say the volcano is some portal to the demon world and that's where the skull sky ship came from. Tell the reader this in the first page of the prologue. pg 10 to 14 is an infodump explaining some of the things I've been completely confused about the whole time. It's unlikely I would have read this far to understand, and a 4-page infodump is not the place to explain. These tidbits need to be at the beginning of the book, as you bring in new ideas and words, to help the reader understand as he reads. I'd say take a step back, look at exactly where you want to go with this story, and start from the beginning, building up characters and descriptions of the new world you want to show us.

Admittedly I've yet to read Rothfuss, but I'd heard it had a lot of sex. Is that not the case? Mercedes Lackey is superb; I've only read Zoo City but it was sublime (good enough that I feel confident to recommend her as an author on that alone). Not much sex that I can recall (although there is sexual content in there) and I think a fair amount of language as it's set in an alternate modern Earth. So that one's probably no good for you, but look up her cleaner stuff as HearMonicaRoar suggested. I think Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere should be safe (I've read it often enough that I should be able to say for sure, but memory fails me now). It does have the odd swear, but not a lot, and I'm pretty sure no sex (although there is some sexual tension, no sex scenes on or off screen). DON'T read American Gods. One of my fave books, but definitely falls into the categories you dislike. I keep plugging it everywhere I go, but the Shadows of the Apt series by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a superb alternative fantasy setting. Swearing tends to be limited in-world sayings (Hammer and Tongs! for example). There are some very few sex scenes, far apart and pretty tame. I can think of one or two across the 8 book (so far) series. Hope any of that is useful

Haha! I really like this. The details of a beautiful night followed by the captain's musing of why it should be spoiled had a good effect. It drew me in, making me wonder why, and thus continue reading. The plot twist at the end is perfect. It caught me unaware and made me feel shocked at the choice made. The situation is not original in stories, but it is still good, especially for the length of story you composed. Keep writing, I want to see how you add to the skill you already exhibit in suspense.

After reading the prologue and the first chapter I’ve got the following points. Favourite hand: The first sentence really threw me for a loop. The mention that Diro’s favourite hand was cut off really made me pause – not something you want in a first sentence. I’ve heard of a dominant hand, but never seen anyone refer to a hand as ‘favourite’. Start: The first part of the prologue has some good visuals, like the skycraft falling on Diro, and the molten fire falling from the sky. Unfortunately it is bloated by confusing sections: did time pass fast or slow? It can’t be both. His memories are scattered but come back in flashes in one sentence. What’s the point of him not remembering then? The roundabout way of going about telling us Diro lost his arm didn’t really hook me either. I’d start with the second paragraph (minus the first sentence of that paragraph) of having the ship fall on Diro – that’s an attention grabber. Weird sentences: There are a lot of examples of overly long, overly complex sentences that only serve to confuse me. Awkward and passive: “He would have cried at that thought had he the ability in this floating void his mind now found vacancy within.” Awkward structure: “The orb indicating the Gourd-Smasher had turned belly up and the crystal that had given off a powerful emerald light now shone nothing at all.” Run-on sentence: “The deep darkness of a sky filled with stars that have been blanked out by the bright scar of red light bursting from the mountain fortress cast an eery silence from the vantage of the not-too-distant village that had once been known as Respid.” POV shifts: I wasn’t sure if you were writing in third person omniscient or third person limited with POV errors. The first chapter starts with a paragraph in Fistrid’s POV, then the next paragraph is Maren’s. You keep shifting it up through their sections. This should be tightened up. Unless you are writing third person omniscient. I’m not a fan of it and it is out of style(for a good reason, in my opinion). Aftermaths, a passive feel: You have a lot of references in both chapters to rather interesting things, but we’re never actually there when the interesting things happen. For instance, Diro’s perspectives are all about looking back at what has happened since he’s in some kind of limbo. To me that makes me feel like you’re skipping the actual interesting parts (the attack, breaching the mountain, things going south, the collision with the other ship) for recollections of those events during quieter moments after. We’re told what happened, but we’re never actually shown those events, which are what I would have liked to see. I’d like to have been there with those characters. It was too bad you put the focus elsewhere, that’s like taking the easy way out. Had: I counted close to a hundred instances of the word ‘had’. Now it’s a valid word, but its use turns the pacing down. Instead of telling what ‘had’ happened, show what happens. Speaking frankly: Maren asks permission to speak freely after she had already asked him if he had enough sleep. Seems like she was already speaking frankly. Info-dump: First chapter, Diro’s perspective, we’re treated to a lot of background information, such as how his ship got its name. At this point of the story, why should we care? The ship is gone anyway. You also describe the original plan that went south in the prologue. We’ve already seen the aftermath, why should we care about what led up to it and what their intentions were after the fact? The fact that Diro lost his son in the war isn’t particularly interesting at this point either. In fact, that whole section of Diro doesn’t advance the plot in any meaningful sense. It fills in some blanks left by the prologue which, at this point, don’t really matter anyway. Conclusion: Overall you could have some interesting things here, the sky ships, the opening battle, demons from the volcano, but it’s hampered by everything being an aftermath. We’re always told what happened rather than shown. I could like the characters when I get to know them better, though so far they aren’t really memorable yet.

It is largely academic. I doubt brandon would use the same plot device in a truly significant circumstance again.

Hey guys. I've been a lurker for sometime here. I've been thinking about the surges and how they correspond to the orders of KR. The attached table (what is that table called anyway?) is what I've come up with and I wanted to see what you guys make of it. I also have my own categorization system. It's a very simple one. Surges on the right side of the x-axis are physical and the left are cognitive. Seems the best to me since you can have either two or five categories because there are ten surges. Assuming, of course, there is no intersection and all categories have equal number of surges in them, which I do. You'll also see Honor and Cultivation there. The idea behind that is they made the Oathpact to defend against Odium. Each selected five men and women, respectively, to be the Heralds. Seems to be a fine historical basis for the Alethi tradition of masculine/feminine arts. I haven't actually figured out how the Orders tie into that, but I suspect they do, in some way. Though, I have to say I haven't put much thought behinds this and there is a lot of wild-guessery. Feel free to ignore this division. So, the surges and their orders. As you can see I used several colors designate the surges and the orders. Here's their meanings and why I placed what I placed where I placed: White: Things we know for certain. OrdersSkybreakers: Their place is Word of Brandon, as many of you probably know.Blue: Things I'm pretty certain of. OrdersJasnah's and Shallan's Orders: They are 5 and 6, respectively, because of the Divine Attributes. Learned and Creative fit just too damnation well. Lightweavers: Light = Lucentia. That's it really. Stonewards:The coloring. In Dalinar's vision, the armors of the Stonewards glow amber. The color of the 9th symbol is amber. SurgesLight: I feel strongly about this. It's a pretty good bet Lightweavers create illusions. Typically, there are two ways of doing it: a) you project it into your subject's mind, you manipulate light to create an image. I highly doubt it's the former. Yellow: Things I feel are likely OrdersDustbringers: Needless to say I think they are an Order, yes. They burn stuff so to Spark, they go. They have Heat and Light as their surges so in my mind they shoot beams of fire and the like. SurgesHeat: Well, if the Dustbringers ignite things, it seems to me they would need Heat as their surge. Somewhat tenuous, yeah. But I like it. Perception: This is obviously Shallan's Memory. Another obvious things is that her ability is more than a nice aid for an artist who paints portraits since using her ability, Shallan is able to "see" spren that are normally invisible. "Perception" is the name I like for this surge. Regrowth: This is somewhat tricky as we don't know whether the Stormward in Dalinar's vision used a fabrial or a KR ability. I think it's the latter because Dalinar doesn't think those people were pretty primitive and likely had no fabrials. I'd like to note, however, I think Regrowth is the name of the ability rather than the surge, like Basic Lashing and Gravity. Green: My wild-chull guesses. SurgesTravel: The surge exists according to Brandon. But why does it get the 9th spot? Honestly, simply because in Dalinar's vision Stormwards and Windrunners arrived together. The Windrunner simply fell out of the sky but the Stormward female Knight just seemed to appear out of nowhere. That's pretty much it. Time: Well, Travel and Time, time-space. I have no idea what that Order would be able to do. Sound: I dunno. Seems like the thing. It's what I'm least confident of. Well, that's it. I apologize for the poor presentation. My excuse is that it's 3 am local time and I'm kinda sleepy. I'll fix the text up a bit if need be but I hope everything is clear enough.

Okay, I'll bite. Have you read any of his other books? Oh yeah, and also, welcome to 17th Shard.

The dawnshards were actually vuvuzelas. Due to a small translation slip, the fact that voidish creatures are all giant bats was lost. They see through echolocation, so a dawnshard actually can BLIND any voidish entity.

We have a Parshendi Shardbearer who says "It is you. I have found you at least," to Dalinar. And this happens after he shatters Dalinar's helm and bends down to take a close look at his face, therefore it's safe to conclude that he recognizes Dalinar's face. Also he must have been looking for him for a while to have "found him at last". Later, when Dalinar's army escapes he comes back: As Dalinar watched, a figure in cracked, silvery Shardplate and a red cape stumbled to their forefront. The helm had been removed, but it was too distant to make out any features on the black and red marbled skin. So we have a Parshendi who knows Dalinar's face, has been looking specifically for him for some time for some unknown reason, but Dalinar doesn't get to see his face clearly. It would be quite logical to assume this Parshendi knows Dalinar from way back. It might also be possible that Dalinar could remember him if he had seen his face clearly. It had been all very logical up until this point. Then I had an idea. Which ended logic right there. I've always been not good at logic anyway. From this point on, the "theory" (if you can call it that) is completely illogical and mostly speculation, whose chief weapon is surprise, surprise and drama. Two! Whose two chief weapons are surprise and drama and baseless assumption... Anyway. The aforementioned idea was this: That Parshendi Shardbearer is Gavilar. Such a weird idea could only continue: They had him assasinated because they wanted him to become one of them six years ago. And it just had to became a theory: Parshendi are the people who were particularly close to Honor in life that came back after death. Now when you have a theory like this, you look for anything that could remotely be an evidence for it. I am aware that actively looking for things that can support a preconceived hypothesis does not work in life. But this isn't real life, it's fictionland. And a fictionland created by such a meticulous planner. So, Exhibit A: Parshendi don't seem to care too much about their soldiers dying but go berserk when corpses are touched. Exhibit B: Parshendi don't leave Alethi survivors. Exhibit C: Parshendi wanted Gavilar to die. Exhibit D: There's a Parshendi Shardbearer who wants to find Dalinar for some reason and knows his face. Exhibit E: Dalinar doesn't get to have a clear look at that Parshendi's face. Exhibit F: Parshendi features and eyes are exactly like humans. Exhibit G: We really don't know anything Parshendi. Exhibit H: Parshendi seem to be hearing songs coming from somewhere and sing along. Exhibit I: Parshmen don't have songs, as pointed out by Parshendi. Exhibit J: Kaladin feels that Stormlight inside him pulses with a rhythm that's almost like Parshendi songs' beat when he's fighting them. Exhibit K: Syl doesn't like Shardbearers. Exhibit L: We don't have any real proof that Parshendi "Shards" are identical to Alethi Shards. Exhibit M: Shards (of Adonalsium variety) can transform humans into something else. Exhibit N: At least one of those Shard can bring back the dead. Exhibit O: Parshendi are a whole lot more honorable than Alethi. (not that it's a hard thing) Exhibit P: There's a lot of parshmen on Roshar. Exhibit Q: Parshmen don't talk to people. Exhibit R: Sanderson loves foreshadowed twists. With all these at hand, one can ramble quite a bit. Semi baseless speculation that keeps getting more ridiculous: Parshmen are empty host bodies that gets filled with the returning spirit. They always obey humans and don't do anything if not ordered because they're more golems than truly sentient creatures. When parshmen "die" and are "left in wilderness", it means they're about to be filled. When the spirit returns, it becomes a truly sentient creature: Parshendi. Probably parshmen prepare "corpses" in some way and humans handling them is bad because of that, which is why parshman are so insistent about their dead. Since this is an instinct hardwired into their bodies, it passes on to Parshendi as well. Their face changes to match the one they had and they either remember their lives, or have some memories. Or maybe parshmen faces are already identical to the person for whom they'll eventually become the host of. Or something along those lines. The songs can hear is actually Honor's power and Kaladin feels Stormlight pulses almost like Parshendi battle song inside him. And Stormlight is also tied to Honor. Seems like Parshendi can naturally hear the Honor's power "pulsing" and they sing along with its beat. Quasi idle make believe: They respect Stormlight, Parshendi archers at chasm and others who watched Dalinar's duel become unwilling to attack Kaladin when he showed his Light. But they did fight back when he attacked them at chasm, which kinda puts a damper on this "theory" without some more contrieved explanation. Since this "theory" is already so off the wall, I won't attempt to explain that irregularity away. Also since an honorspren is extremely likely to be somehow related to Honor, and Syl despises Shardblades so much, Parshendi ties to Honor could explain their suicidal crazy rushes against Shardbearers. Who in their right mind would willingly go against a Shardblade? Hundreds of Parshedi die during the book while attacking Dalinar or Adolin. Parshendi try so badly to defeat Shardbearers so they can destroy their shards. Maybe Parshendi can come back to life in their bodies, which would make their casual disregard for their lives and berserk fury for messing with corpses very logical. It does look like they see Kaladin as some sort of holy thing due to holding Stormlight and since Light is likely to be Honor's power itself, someone holding Stormlight would be holy to Parshendi. They don't interfere with his interference of Shardbearer duel, they even shy away from him when he goes for Dalinar's horse and they seemed rather confused during all that because of the contradiction in seeing a holy man protecting Dalinar, who holds unholy items. Fully empty claim: "The enemy" takes over all those empty parshmen during a Desolation. ... For a theory that was made up from rule of drama only because a Parshendi knows Dalinar's face and Dalinar doesn't get to see his, it has bits and pieces that look suspiciously possible. This is the sort of twist that wouldn't look at all out of place in a Sanderson book. OTOH, it has more holes than a sieve. The only reason I felt compelled to write all this is because, on the off chance that it's actually true, I'll get to say "I knew it!" in an extremely smug way. Then again, isn't that the whole point of speculating on anything?

So you admitting that you read it means you conveniently ignored it in your last post to make a jab at my integrity? I find that offensive. Given that this is verbatim it's very plausible to relate Brandon's restriction to the Atium and Lerasium alloy. Only you interpreted it the way you have, are you saying multiple people all arriving at the same conclusion independently are wrong? The fact is we don't know what Brandon truly intended with that statement. But we know that some of the characters that have understood the Realms have never been in a position to hold a Shard. You can make unsupported claims that they were touched by a Shard's mind but there's no evidence for it, so we're free to assume - by logical deduction - that Realmatic Theory has the possibility to be understood by normal people. Most. Referring to the theories of alloying Lerasium with Atium, a complex subject in Realmatic Theory that you'd need to be a Shard to understand. Why is that interpretation not valid?