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House War Post-Mortem So, the important thing to ask about all of this is was whether or not the game was balanced. Unfortunately, I'm sure that it was not. While disappointing, it's not surprising on the first run-through of a set of rules, particularly rather different ones such as these. However, I wouldn't have said that this unfairness was the direct cause of the Skaa loss here. Most of the leg-work was done by the Genealogist picking good targets, and while the Informant definitely helped them pick likely ones, it's quite possible this could have been avoided if played differently or the players had different Roles (such as Meta not being a Tineye). The Skaa were also somewhat inactive at the start, and were pretty much permanently operating with a man down with Wandrin's absence. This meant less information going to them and less misinformation could be spread. I also thought that people would lie a lot more than they did, and be a lot less free with their information. I suppose you can't really predict what the players will do in games like these though. But it does show that tweaking needs to be done here, as the Informant definitely gives away too much. Despite the flaws though, I think it showed that these rules have potential. It's important that each aspect is examined to see what did and what did not work. Even if this game is not run again (though it would be disappointing if it was not at some point), it's important that the flaws are pointed for any future new game ideas. The Informant mechanic was what punished inactives, because they had no defensive information. The problem here though was that it heavily punished Skaa who went inactive, but not Nobles, since they didn't have the same sensitive information available, i.e., their Skaa-ness. I might consider removing the Alignment from the Informant entirely, since ideally it should be practically impossible to discover this through the Informant. But then that removes a level of possible subterfuge, even if it wasn't used this game. So I'm not sure. Roles I am not really pleased with how Pewter worked, that game. Its current implementation is fine thematically and fits with how it works in the books, but it might be too complicated for a game like this. I got more questions about it than anything else. It also doesn't really work with Mistborn. Having 100% Roles also doesn't seem to work in a game like this. The metagame shifts dramatically to being able to cross Roles off and guess the GM, rather than working them all out from the information at hand. While this will always be a problem, simply because balance can always be guessed at, it is a lot easier when everyone has one. In addition, it makes it fundamentally harder to balance. So in this game, we had four protective roles, for instance, but the Skaa only had 1.5 kills. The Nobles had 1.5 kills floating around as well, but these were less used, of course. I had balanced the kills against the protective Roles, but the Nobles were a lot less bloodthirsty than expected, which led to an imbalance in practice, if not theory. In the future, I would probably maybe give out 50% Roles, and therefore non-Allomancers could be used to get a small amount of truths, or lie, or even use House Powers if they were House Lords and report that to the Informant. I would probably also remove atium from the Mistborn. It makes them too hard to kill other than in lynches, and three defensive roles are too many. With regards to the Skaa, I definitely think that there should have been 5, with two doubling up on one House. The distribution used in this game meant it far too easy to clear the other members of a House when a Skaa was found there. This is something else that should be noted with people hiding in factions. I am also starting to be of the opinion that 25% is about the right about for long games like this. I would probably also revert back to Coinshots being kills rather than injuries. It was a nice idea, but not one that would be wholly necessary if there are less kill Roles. If this happened, then Pewterarms could have the unique mechanic of becoming 'injured' on the first hit (as long as they burnt their metal), which would have the same negative effects. The House System This worked well enough, but the house war aspect never came into focus. People were rather surprisingly open to their House about their own powers and what they discovered, despite the possibility of a Skaa getting hold of that info. I don't think the 'Lesser House' idea worked, really. I should have stuck with 4-people Great Houses (or maybe 5), rather than split them up more. This would have allowed more of a balance within the current system, as I could have given a much more even spread to each House, with the four 'Role types' that I classified them as: Offensive Role, a Defensive Role, an Information Role, and a Voting Manipulation Role. It's not perfect, as Steel is the only Offensive one (I classified Mistborn as offensive as well to compensate) and there are three Defensive ones, but it's near enough. House Powers were used often enough at the expense of other options, but most of the time though, this was just Genealogy and Loyal Terrisman. Neither of these show that they were a more useful choice than the Informant though, since both were already 'better' than it in some or all ways. Genealogy is pretty much a classic example of a Deputy Cop Role. The question here is whether the combination of it with another Role is too strong. The answer is probably no, if there are not 100% Roles. If there was only one Pewterarm, one Lurcher etc, then it should be alright. Pewterarm Cops might still be too strong, however. It would be difficult to say, as arguably it is just the same as a protected scanner. The difference here though is that you can't target someone else instead to try and take them out. So... It's difficult to say. Something for more experienced minds than me to think about. Broad Investments seemed to do its job of allowing players to be diverse, so it probably does not need changing. Blanket Soothing, I may just make target a player and cancel an action at random rather than a metal action by a player in that target's House, if there are <100% Roles. Metal Poisoning was a very flavourful mechanic, but it only really benefits the Skaa or a House trying to win on their own. It was very useful to discourage Coinshots killing the wrong person early on, but that was about it. Suggestions to change this would be nice. Overall, I think I would change it so that the House Powers, and the Skaa kill as well, could be used as either a Metal or Special (renamed Informant) Action. I was also highly disturbed by House Urbain, for the reasons I have already stated. Let this be a lesson to you, people who try this Faction Doc stuff in their games - try to balance the talkative people as well as the roles. The Informant The Informant was obviously a bit too strong. I expected it to be powerful at the start and weaker as it continued, but as mentioned I wasn't quite prepared for the sheer number of people telling the truth in this game - One person lied, and that was Asyr late on in the game when he had to lie about hitting Mailu. It was also unfortunate that so many people looked at Racine on the first night, though it was only 50% more than the average that could be expected if everyone chose randomly. Because of this, a lot more information was in the public domain, since people were freely sharing it all as well, due to the fact that it didn't implicate them as a certain Role in any way. This heavily punished the Skaa, as they visited him less due to their Kill (which as previously noted would be changed to allow them to Kill and visit the Informant), and they also could have their Special Actions and alignment discovered this way. As such, I think the best option to decrease the amount of information floating around and make lying more viable would be to make True Info return only one bit of information, making it half as effective. While Truths may still be more attractive, the main benefit here is that there aren't twice as many bits of info coming out each day as players. I would also consider giving out the same GM Information on a person to each player who receives some that night, to make it utterly indistinguishable from information put on that person by a player. In addition, because of the lack of lies, the Loyal Terrisman was almost 100% useless in this game. Under this set of rules, it would be the same as the normal Informant role, but still with the 'Truth-only' rider. The main benefit here would therefore be that you could use it as a Metal Action, getting twice the information each Night. Kandra The Kandra seemed to fall under 'a nice idea in theory, but not useful in practice'. The Kandra came up once, with Jain's vote on Day 5. The corpse-devouring aspect was never used as for the most part only Skaa Kills happened at Night, and I believe Theorymaker specifically didn't vote so the Kandra's House didn't become obvious. I would probably scrap the Kandra in the second version of the Rules, or make them into a House Power. As their own mechanic, they just add unnecessary complication to the game, and don't return enough to make them worthwhile. In summary: 100% Roles is very difficult to get right. 25% Skaa would have been right for this game rather than 20%, as House War aspect didn't come up at all. Larger Village Factions work better than smaller ones for balance purposes and causing people to think more about them. Metal Poisoning could probably be redesigned (I'd prefer to keep it mostly the same though, since it's really nice thematically) to be as useful to nobles as the Skaa. Would need extra testing though, to see how it would work with the other suggested tweaks first. The Pewterarm mechanics were confusing and should probably be rebuilt or re-explained somehow, particularly if injuries were done away with (injuries could be a Pewterarm-specific mechanic, perhaps?). Atium should be scrapped, or at least redesigned. Meta's a hell of a lot better at organising people than he is at killing them. Gamma Fiend, Kasimir and Renegade should never be in the same doc ever again. The Actions that can be taken each Cycle should be one Metal and one Informant, with Skaa/House Actions classified as either. Loyal Terrisman should be changed accordingly. The Informant should be half as strong as it was to decrease ambient information in the late game. I would also be less kind with it second time around - No asking if information is viable before deciding. Probably less ambiguous information as well. Kandra are complicated and don't add enough to justify their inclusion as anything other than a House Power. The link at the bottom of my sig has the current redesign of the rules. Is there anything else that the players think should be changed?

But...but...the House T-shirts! The bonding session! THE URBAIN INQUISITION

Retired physics professor from CALTECH. Reading more Fantasy lately. Really liked WHEELS OF TIME, STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE, RITHMATIST, ELANTRIS, and the first three MISTBORN series. Did not like STEELHEART. I feel THE EMPEROR's SOUL is one of best short stories (my framework of short) written. It compares to A RIVER RUNS THOUGHT IT.

Altermind heard an explosion from behind him. Whirling, he saw no one. The explosive Epic had been walking towards the hallucination of torn apart bodies, but now looked back at the noise. "Boom, what are you doing? They're over here!" A voice yelled from behind the shelves. A bullet whizzed towards Psy-Fi, but he jumped out of the way just in time. Heightened reflexes sure could come in handy. Altermind gave the new man a hallucination of black. Just a black screen to blind him. The explosive Epic, Boom, squinted towards where the voice had come from, looking for what the voice had been talking about. "They're dead over here, can't you see?" He called out. "I can't see anymore," the voice cried. Altermind suddenly heard a ticking like a countdown and dove to the ground. The voice chuckled, "It works every time." Altermind began moving towards the voice, around a shelf. Noises of gunshots firing pierced the air. Altermind ducked and saw only a bullet or two. Many more shots must've been fired. He had heard them. Suddenly, a high pitched scream filled the air. Altermind covered his ears. This must be some noise Epic. This must be what it's like on the receiving end of my auditory hallucinations. Altermind thought. It wasn't a pleasant experience. He countered the shriek with his own auditory hallucination targeted at the man behind the shelf. The man's shriek cut off and he began slowly stepping backwards, eyes wide. He was hearing the sound of snakes slithering towards him, and with a black screen to block his vision, he had no idea where they were. He bumped into the shelf and jumped, startled from the noise. Altermind grinned and stood upright. He saw an arrow on the shelf near the Epic. He telepathically moved the arrow, positioning it on the man's throat and pushed it forward. The man collapsed. He gasped for his final breaths as he lay on the floor. Altermind pulled out his knife and thrust it into the Epic's chest, finishing him off. The man ceased moving instantly. Altermind drew out his knife and cleaned it off with a rag he found on a shelf. ------------------------------- Psy-Fi had stayed where he was when Altermind snuck off towards the other Epic. The explosive one soon met his eyes. Altermind must've forgotten about the hallucination he had given this man. Psy-Fi realized he'd have to fight this one on his own. He plucked an arrow off the shelf and drew his bow. The Epic tossed a fingernail clipping at him. Precog kicking in, Psy-Fi rolled to the side. He drew himself up on one knee and fired quickly. The arrow took the Epic in the knee. He roared in pain. Two more objects, bigger this time, were thrown at Psy-Fi. He leaped forwards, the only direction left, and drew his knife in his right hand, the bow in his left. The twin explosions were bigger than he had expected and the blast hit his back foot. With a quick intake of breath, he knew his foot had been burned. He stood, his weight on his other foot and prepared to stab the Epic. -------------------------------- Electro had killed upwards of fifteen National Guardsmen. The Commander was dead, his wife and son as well, and the bus driver would die from the blood loss soon. Scorch was fighting the lady Epic with vines and plants. Electro decided it was time to check out the inside of this armory. Killing two more soldiers on his way, he dashed in the doors into a large, open room. A lady was sitting at the desk. "Hello there! Are you the Epic trying to take over?" She asked happily. Electro was confused at her optimism. Most people were frightened when their home was being overrun. She wasn't. He didn't answer her with words, but instead used his power cutter to cut the desk in half. It collapsed and she smiled at him. "Now, now, that was a nice desk. I liked that one," she said.

Voidgaze´s movement became more and more sluggish. Can´t breathe, I hate suffocating. The other Epic sneaked behind the shelves. Another dart shot at her and she only barely managed to raise her arm to block it. Dragging herself to a light blue wall she used her sleeves to cut a hole into it. She pushed the fraction of the wall out and gasped for the air. Air, I´ll always love you. After turning her half limb body back around she could see the Epic that blows aim his blowgun at her. Sparks, come on move body. As he was drawing in breath something hit him in the face, throwing of his aim. In the doorframe stood Big Al, holding up McMuffins and glaring at her opponent. This time he aimed for Al. Voidgaze tossed a sheet of paper towards the dart, keeping it from hitting Al. Still, she could already see his legs starting to wobble. I´ll have to deal with that guy quickly now. She heaved herself up and walked towards the attacker, she separated a string of cloth from one of her sleeves and moved it towards one of the knife shelves, in a way that caused her body to obscure it from the blower. With her complete sleeve she started to drag Al towards the hole she cut into the wall and the other she threw at her opponent. He stepped back, avoiding the attack but losing his balance. Voidgaze pressed the attack, threw the string that connected to a knife forward and rammed it into his side. The enemy Epic staggered away, leaving a trail of blood behind him. Taking care of Al comes first. Voidgaze carried him to her self-made hole and held him, so he could breath better. She herself could also use the fresh air. “You know that that was pretty idiotic?” She asked him “Nope.” He answered simply. “Worst thing that could happen to me is that I resurrect but I´m certain you would have in fact died.” “Maybe, but from how you talked dying still hurts. Sausage McMuffin?” He held one of them up and Voidgaze took it gingerly. “I suppose you win this argument.” A cute idiot it is then.

I'm trying to work out a message identity security system. It's a little complicated. =) Here's the basic step, that might be helpful all around. The fancy piece builds on this to identify the stated author as being the recipient of prior messages, but I've got a few more glitches to work out of that one before I share it. I'm also accepting feedback on whether or not people want such a scheme shared, since the eliminators benefit along with the good guys, except in the part where anonymity is no longer as useful, and snitching messages is rather more detectable.

Hi all, I recently saw Brandon at the London signing and got to ask him the following question: Me: "In Mistborn, we saw that Ruin was able to manipulate writings not written in Metal and essentially alter the prophecy. Has or is something happening to Taravangian's Diagram" Brandon: *Smiles* "Oh, here you go" *hands me a RAFO card*, "Let's just say that seeing the future...is not of Honour" I can't remember if that is the exact wording, he might have said "is not genuinely of Honour". Now the way he said originally made me think that Odium would have been the one who would have the most to prophet from providing a false diagram. But then again apparently Odium is locked on Braize without being able to do any harm. Maybe his influence is still able to affect others. However the other option, and perhaps slightly more likely is that as the Nightwatcher gave Taravangian the power to create the Diagram, and I think that the Nightwatcher is of Cultivation (or even Cultivation itself), so the Diagram is designed to suit Cultivation's purpose. Now if you type Cultivation into google it comes up with 2 meanings striaght away: 1.the action of cultivating land, or the state of being cultivated 2.the process of trying to acquire or develop a quality or skill If we look at what Taravangian is doing, the Diagram is leading him to shape the land or cultivate in it in some way. He also mentioned the possibility of killing off everyone below the average intelligence, which ties in with the 2nd meaning. It got me thinking about other times we have seen the future, and I thought of Atium and how it provides you with a breif glimpse. This is of Ruin who is the main antoganist and I have the feeling from what Brandon said that seeing the future is supposed to be a bad/evil thing or at least related to evil. This would make sense if the Diagram was of Odium but if it is of Cultivation, maybe there is a purpose that we don't understand that perhaps is quite that compasionate to human race. The other mention of seeing the future that I found was in Warbreaker where The First Returned, Vo, saw the 5 visions. I can't remember if we've seen all these visions yet and maybe they're not even related but I'm just throughing it out there for speculation. So to Summarise: We know that the Diagram is not of Honour, and we can pretty much guess that is either being altered or was orginally designed to manipulate. However it's still uncertain which shard it comes from. Would love to hear your thoughts.

On day one, I posted to complain that no one was talking. I suggested that people consider the options present in the messaging action since for about 12 of the people in the game (assuming the 5 radiants and 2 henchmen model), that was the only thing to do on day one. Among my suggestions were two schemes for baiting people. My first message falls into that category, in my opinion. Another suggestion was to use it mostly for PMing, and that seemed to be the popular view among responses. Given that, I decided to give further consideration to my idea for adding security to the Messages. Excessive and overblown, completely unable to stop message stealing, but useful in various small ways. I've already replied once to Mallaw's remark of "better on day one", but I didn't start designing it until late in the cycle after I got off work. The Number scheme was easy enough to debug, but it still went through three drafts before I posted it. The Signature scheme had some big holes, and I didn't get that debugged until less than six hours ago. Sure, the system might have been easier to design with the more direct feedback of a doc, but I have a programming degree, and it was a fun exercise. In summary, I did start this on day one, but I had limited real life time for rapid development cycles. And besides, the system is designed for just tossing it in if you want to. There is no harm done by adding it to a conversation five days down the line. The key benefits are that it becomes hard to insert a fake message into an existing conversation, and it is a little easier to catch the timing of a stolen message. The slow feedback of the Message system means that public discussion is far faster, but at the cost of revealing more information about your activity. And if deploying it discourages liars from trying to send dishonest messages, excellent. ----- Now that I've turned the message system inside out, and now that voting is a potential action, I am more than happy to move the conversation to people's content. As I said above, my message was a straight up ambiguity. That was a design feature. The reader has to make assumptions about my meaning, which also conceals my intent. If people want my intentions, I am trying to use this kind of approach: *emphasis added* I wrote to Gamma, offering information (obscurely), to see what manner of reaction I would get. I believe that his reaction implies "good guy" alignment. I'm currently offering a huge amount of information in this post and in my other ones. I'm also asking for information in regards to feedback on my message system and on other people's reactions to Gamma's reaction to me. Things I am analyzing include who is seems to desire more PM security (they might be feeling the lack of doc access), and who talks down the system (they might have plans for the Reverse Lashing and feel threatened). I only promote the messaging system as an oblique method of reading people. (Now I'm daring people to move on to other topics under threat of subtle self-exposures. Mwahahah! Ahem.) The third tool I threw in a waste bin many years ago, in another lifetime, and I'm not going to try finding another copy. You can question this if you wish, but the proof is in my play history. Am I laying too many cards on the table? Maybe. I'm still rather new at this. But I have a pile of index cards handy, so I can make new cards if I need to. =D Tomorrow I'll be busy until just before the end of cycle. I might place a vote before bed though, if I see something interesting enough. Oh, and Theorymaker? Gamma still has a vote placed on me up there. Post #22.

It also might be that people like engineers and computer scientists often spend their days in front of a computer with an internet connection.

I do believe this couple is, as the youth doth say, "totes adorbs."

There's nothing that says Mraize was not born in Thaylenah then abducted by the Seventeenth Shard. He then spent his life wandering around the cosmere and did not speak Alethi, thus explaining his accent. He has now returned to Roshar and adopted the previously mentioned traits of the Thaylen.

An interesting side-effect of spam bot containment measures: instead of the mobile browser randomly deciding to double-post, the second post is blocked because it's too close to the first one. This is cool.

Well, this time it looks like it's only the introduction boards. Say we introduce them to the banhammer while they're there?

So the skaa coinshot, lord tuy, saved the coinshot that killed the last member of the skaa rebellion from being killed by a coinshot. Steelceptiom!

Day 2 - The Calm before the Stormfather The morning after his announcement, Reginar looked out from Telmont’s pier, at the glimmering sun on the horizon. It helped to calm his nerves. As there was, indeed, quite a lot to be worried about. The Skybreakers were a threat, yes. A very great one to this town. But he had heard the Stormfather’s voice, and knew its truth. A Desolation would come. YOU ARE DOOMED, the Stormfather had said. YOUR BEST HOPE WOULD BE TO FLEE WHILE YOU STILL CAN. Flee? Flee where? Nothing on Roshar was safe from a Desolation. Reginar knew that much. The Stormfather, for all his infinite might and glory, was rather unhelpful. Reginar sighed, looking out at the sea. Were those clouds gathering? There wasn’t supposed to be a highstorm anytime soon… was there? He squinted out at the sea. Yep, those were definitely storm clouds of some sort. “How odd,” Reginar said, before turning around, towards the center of Telmont. A Desolation, Reginar contemplated, shaking his head in despair. A storming Desolation. Are the Skybreakers really an issue here? We should be focusing on the real threat… Reginar continued walking, quickening his pace. It was still early, and most of the town hadn’t woken up yet. It was actually rather calm, considering what the town would have to face very soon. No, Reginar decided, the Skybreakers are a legitimate concern. In this town, at least. If they continue their purge of the Surgebinders… what will we have left to defend ourselves? Yes, first we must remove the Skybreakers and save the other Surgebinders. Only then can they be properly taught. Reginar nodded to himself, rounding a corner. Up ahead stood the town square. And off to one side of it, in front of the town courthouse, the Justice Platform. Reginar reeled at the sight of that horrid structure. Why? Reginar thought, angrily. Why must the Skybreakers be like that? They should know that some things are above the law. Law is not perfect. Nothing is. And yet, that is what they expect of everyone. Total perfection. Reginar stopped in front of the platform. It was a symbol of everything he hated about the Skybreakers. He kicked it, for all the good that did. Then, he left, heading for the Eye of the Storm tavern. -------------------------------------------- Reginar entered the Eye of the Storm just after Madame Quismet had opened it up for business that morning. None of the other patrons had arrived yet, which Reginar had expected. He sat down at a table, waiting for them to arrive. The calm before the storm, he thought, chuckling to himself. And, indeed, as Reginar looked out the window, a storm did appear to be brewing on the horizon. It seemed larger than before. Definitely seemed like a highstorm. After returning to his seat, Reginar heard the tavern’s door open up again. Aladdin burst in, holding his signature lamp and falling to the floor. Reginar stood up. “What is it?” he asked, surprised. “Were you attacked?” Aladdin looked up at Reginar, his eyes wide. “No,” he coughed. “The Stormfather… he answered me!” Reginar looked confused, then returned to his seat. “Yes, of course,” he mumbled. “The Stormfather seems to be talking to quite a few people these days. I wonder what his deal is.” Suddenly, the tavern shook, a loud voice booming: THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING. THE DESOLATION WILL COME. SEEK THE PATTERNS… FIND THOSE WHO SURVIVE… Finally, something useful, Reginar thought. “Wait, Stormfather! What-?” I AM SORRY. I MUST LEAVE YOU NOW. THAT IS ALL I CAN SAY. “Stormfather!” Reginar yelled, half as a curse. Aladdin just looked extremely dazed. Well, we’d better – what is that? Reginar looked at the far wall of the tavern, noticing several marks scratched into the wood. “The Desolation Comes!" the message said. Was that the crazy doomsayer again? Or… Reginar looked below the message, where there were a set of marks. Three scratches etched into the wood. Three scratches. Three days. “Oh, this is not good,” grumbled Reginar. -------------------------------------------- Day Two has begun, and will end at 10 PM EST on Monday. Voting may now commence (as well as all of the other actions)! Player List

Much more dangerous than Fruitochemy or Seedomancy.

I find this offensive :D

From Reddit, with love: Credit: /u/Aethy (post)

Hi! What a brilliant site you all have made here! I view fantasy and sci- if (well, the good stuff, obviously) as modern philosophy, and as the driving force in literature at the present. I've read some stuff besides Brandon's, of course, most notably the Dune- series by Frank Herbert, may he rest in peace. I find it very refreshing to read awesome theories that you guys all cook up, and I might sometime contribute. We shall see. Anyway, the way I view the world, I am not likely to find facts or tidbits of info that no one else has spotted, I am more of a ideals- driven person, and tend to view the world- or the cosmere, as it were- in broad, sweeping motions. I found Sanderson through WoT, and I'm looking forward to the one thousand or so next book the man has in the pipeline. Hope to read more rom you guys!

Dinosaurs are cool I used to love them as a kid and I was bummed to find my daughter was still to young to go see this live Walking with the Dinosaur live show that's currently in town (not recommended for children under 5) It looked really amazing! And my company has discount tickets http://www.dinosaurlive.com/ They better come back in a few years Last time they were here was 5 years ago I have read Micheal Crichton's Jurassic Park and the Lost World. I have spent some time on the BBC website section on dinosaurs. I am not an expert nor even a refined connoisseur, but I am looking forward to built a volcano with at least one of my kids and I did buy them a whole lot of books on dinosaurs My son has a stuffed volcano with tiny dinosaurs in it....

On the bright side, carrot inquisitors see better than any other Invested creatures. Carrots are essential for healthy eyesight.

Most of the mines are protected by some stuffing he found, they won't be set off by stepping on them, unless it's a particularly heavy dinosaur who finds the right place But yes, expect some action when NH and PP meet up next, I'm thinking after LW, Funtimes and PP have some discussions with TT, we can PM about it if you want to set up some conflict.

Buy, because that's almost brandon's catchphrase. "Well.....the effects would be very interesting" At some point in time, Kobold will try and impress a girl by bragging about his rep

I'd say no, because you just won't have time to process it. Unless you were a full Feruchemist and were drawing gratuitous amounts of mental speed.Use the Surge of Friction (if this is possible) to set yourself on fire and stay alive using Progression. Use the Surge of Friction to make yourself slick while walking in ice to activate Hard Mode.

Teaching a parrot to speak in High Imperial. High Imperial is totally a power. ... Yeah.

Did someone just make a comparison between Divergent and SA? My eyes are bleeding No seriously, despite my growing hate for anything written by Veronica Roth , to answer the original poster, I would say Dustbringers would fit better within the Dauntless. They are the reckless ones (brave), they have red as their color (and matching eyes when drawing stormlight), they have the bad reputation among the Orders. Skybreakers appears like the goodie-doers of the Orders, always upholding the law to the letter. Dustbringers seem to have a somewhat looser interpretation of morality which fits well with Dauntless who have little morality whatsoever.

Side Quests: Collect all the Hoid items (Moon Scepter, Lerasium Bead, Flute, Etc) Beat Lightsong in Tarachin Whack-a-Lifeless Squirrel Lashing through a Highstorm Bond all the spren. Food snatching with Lift Beat Ham at arm wrestling Bring Breeze a drink (This will be a recurring quest, each vintage being both more rare and more difficult to find liberate) I Spy with Spook Allomantic tag with Vin and Kelsier Taming the rogue bands of Koloss Stop a train robbery with Wax Aon Da skeet shooting Forge and replace a masterpiece

If the next series was about Jasnah, I wouldn't complain.

My first was Dragonsteel. I didn't read Elantris until maybe years later.

Do you speak from experience?

If you can storming do multiple sentences then I storming think that Words of Radiance wins by a stormslide.

It was TenSoon masquerading as Brettin at the end. We know that the Ars Arcana are all written by the same person, so unless that's the same source as that book, than this isn't the case.

What did the casanova say to the Ferring? Hey baby, I'd Tap that.

What's that, Feather? You want more Stormlight AUs? Well, how about a 007-inspired spy tale? The leads name? "Smith. Bond Smith."

Why did the Windrunner join Boy Scouts? I'll be here all week. He wanted to learn some Basic Lashings.

I'm sorry, there was a joke there?

Did you think all that out before or after making the thread? ....you realize this could start a whole new branch of old jokes re-interpreted to Cosmere? Why did the chicken cross the road? What's a chicken? All hail the wet piece of slime and the disgusting crab thing with 17 legs!

I think it has more to do with a "trump card" theory of magic systems. Lerasium, being of Preservation, is the trump in it's magic system, allowing consumers to use all metals. Atium is a "trump card" in Hemalurgy, being of Ruin, allowing users to steal any power. Atium spends its Investiture on an active effect in Allomancy, acting as an Ace in this analogy. I'd speculate that Lerasium does something similar in Hemalurgy, being fairly powerful. I'd speculate that lerasium alone, whatever it steals, is remarkable in that it does not lose power, and maybe even augments it in the process.

Vivenna disagrees. I agree that Kaladin, despite his deep backstory and awesomeness, isn't that intriguing of a character. He's a lot more intriguing for what he does than for who he is. He's mostly just obsessed with hating Lighteyes. Dalinar, however, is badassery incarnate. Retired warlord trying to learn ancient magical religions so he can effing UNITE people, even though they all think he's crazy. Guess how many craps Dalinar gives? ZERO. The Blackthorne could take any of his haters ezpz any day of the week except during a Highstorm, when he's too busy having AWESOME PROPHETIC VISIONS and chatting with the Almighty. Oh, people say he's only hardcore when he's wielding a shardblade? Np, he'll just trade one for some slaves, and while he's at it, give some plate to his handicapped son ('cause you know that awesomeness runs in the fam). He'll just go pick up another pair from the lifeless bodies of his enemies. Speaking of enemies, even THEY'RE forced to acknowledge his uber sweetness (see: giant Parshendi shardbearer). King sends him on a wild goose chase? The Blackthorne slams him against the wall and makes him piss his pants. Did I mention that he made a pact with the Old God? So between all this badassery, what does he do for a break? Nothing -- he just cuts giant rocks with his sword and lifts the chunks out with his own hands. Oh, and in his spare time, he has a train of chicks coming to his tent all day to read ancient scripture to him, so he can live by an ancient moral code that nobody else believes in. Dalinar is a Sliver of the Awesomeness Shard.

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Well, I don't think Spook is that bad. He's pretty fun though, I'd have Wayne better. For date and for any other thing At least he'd make me laugh.

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I like it. Now, you know me. I'm not big on theories. It says so in my signature, after all. But the absence of math and high-level physics kept me reading, and it feels very well-thought out. I have long been a proponent of the idea that people were considering Dominion in the wrong light - there doesn't need to be a 'good shard' and a 'bad shard' (and really, I don't think there is such a thing). I have my own theory on how Dominion and Devotion interacted in a different way, but that's a tangent I'm not going to go on right now. Anyway, I like this idea because it feels very cohesive. But even more so, I really like the implication that magic on Sel comes from a mix of Dominion and Devotion, rather than one or the other. It's a fresh take that I'd been thinking of myself, but you actually put in the effort to gather information and stuff to back it up. If I espoused theories, I'd consider espousing this one. This theory gets the approval of the High Anti-Theorist.

From each series, my favorite characters are: Elantris: Hrathen. His personal struggles were one of the most engaging parts of the book. Mistborn: Sazed. I like scholarly, intellectual characters. Warbreaker: Vivenna. Her growth as a character, and the contrast between her early chapters and the later ones, was very interesting to read. Alloy of Law: Wayne. He's probably the snarkiest character Brandon's written so far, and that's saying something. Way of Kings: Jasnah. For the same reasons as Sazed, plus it's rare for a religious author to write an athiest with such obvious moral integrity and depth of character, and I was very pleased to see it.