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  2. HUGE STAR WARS SPOILERS!!
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  3. Night 3: Self Sacrifice Brightness Arisia had once again taken the lead in trying to find the Ghostbloods. Kenara and Itachi stood on either side of the arena. About to duel, they were ready to kill. Decked out in borrowed Plate, they shut their helms. Arisia was acting as the judge for this one, as she had been the one to reveal each one’s lies. “Stormfather bless this duel. Ready?” Both duelists nodded. “On my mark, then,” Arisia said. She lifted her arm, but Karnan began yelling. “Wait, wait, wait!” he said. “This is all just a big misunderstanding, I think. Both Itachi and Kenara were only trying to trick each other. I don’t think either is one of the assassins.” Others began to agree. The two duelists took off their helmets and looked at each other, not quite convinced, but deciding to lay off each other for now. A man with a Shardblade ran onto the dueling field. “I twiddled my thumbs for this?” he yelled. “No.” He lifted the Blade, the King’s former Blade, in fact, and rushed at the judge. As he ran, he tripped over a rock and dropped the Blade, it vanishing into mist. “No!” he yelled. Embarrassed and red-faced, he ran from the arena. Everyone looked on in confusion. “Who was that?” “Wasn’t that the guy who was trying to sell baby whitespines?” “You’re right. People actually bought those?” “I guess. He managed to make enough spheres to rent the King’s Blade.” The matter decided, the lighteyes decided to ignore the strange man’s interruption. They began again by accusing their suspects of being Ghostbloods. After Subadon’s death, they found the confirmation of the black, triple-diamond tattoo on his bicep, right underneath one professing his love for some girl named Murica. Eventually, a few began to narrow in on Luna Arryn. At first, it had just been the quiet Trel, but then Arisia was swayed, due to Luna’s sudden accusation on Star Thief the day before. Eventually, even Sani, Luna’s friend, was convinced. “I’m sorry, Luna. I really am,” she said. “But we can’t trust those assassins to change this. We need solidarity. I’m sorry.” Luna began to weep. When even her friends had turned against her, what was the point? Hellscythe was dead. There were traitors throughout the nobility. Now everyone had turned on her. Even her friends. Luna accepted her fate and walked to Dalinar herself. “Sir, I’ve been decided as the most suspicious and likely to be one of the traitors. Please make it quick.” Luna held her tears in, but just barely. Dalinar nodded, respect in his eyes. He made sure the swing was swift and sure. Sani came over to her friend’s corpse. Eyes wet, she checked for the distinguishing tattoo. She never found it. Luna Arryn(LUNA) was a Noble with a Painrial and an Emotion Bracelet.. Votes: Luna(3): Arisia, Sani, Yafeshan Kenara(1): Luna Mayelek(1): Karnan Karnan(1): Ace Trelagist(1): Kenara Kelen(1): Tintallë Player List:
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  4. Lucy Lockser blinked, then she blinked again in rapid succession. Consciousness finally managing to break through her stunned response as she adjusted to the newest element of madness to invade Doctor Games clinic. She sent the doctor himself a confused and mildly reproachful look as she was bombarded with questions and offers of photography, not sure who exactly this Lyla was but relatively sure that she should have been in a different kind of hospital. The kind with padded rooms and less excitement. Lucy was also somewhat surprised that the girl appeared to know her, even making use of the Epic moniker that Lucy barely ever used. Nearby the squid seemed to share Lucys startlement, small amounts of ink leaked out as it regarded Lyla with a wary eye and Lucy was briefly tempted to try to use the ink to enable the both of them to get out of the clinic immediately. But no, she had a job to do and she was going to do it. What's the obsession with photographs? I mean the only reason someone would want photos of Epics is if they were a spy. But isn't she a local? I swear I've seen her somewhere. And what's all that about friends? The faint sound of an explosion outside also brought Lucy's mind back to a larger problem, the protection of the clinic and its occupants from whatever was outside. Oh, maybe she's like a wartime photographer or something. That's a thing isn't it? And if that's it she must have gotten permission from the commander and HQ, I'm sure I've seen her around there sometime. Lyla finally seemed to be winding down as she made another request for a photograph and Lucy finally managed to still her rising panic and confusion long enough to speak. "A photograph? Well I didn't hear from- I mean I wasn't informed of anything but I guess if you need to?" Maybe it would help keep up morale and confidence in Vondra, and it was Lucy's duty to help the Dalles however she could, whether that was through fighting Pandas or taking photos. She stilled her tattoos that had been quivering across her skin, they had a tendency to do that when she got surprised or nervous, Autumn had called it an involuntary emotional defense mechanism or something like that, Lucy thought it was just her brain trying to literally make her skin crawl because it hated her or something. "Uh... ready when you are?" She half said, half asked nervously. Not sure exactly where this girl ranked in the Dalles' structure or what her orders were but trying to be polite anyway.
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  5. Hi All, First theory (YAY!) so let's dig in. I'm very much obsessed with Hoid. What is he doing on the Shardworlds, what does he want, what's his ties to the current (and past) shardholders and what Investiture does he hold. I'll start off with what I've discovered in my readings and then run into my theory. Note: My theory is central to the Chronology of the Cosmere and knowledge of all Cosmere books. As I mentioned, this theory is based on documentation from all books so careful for spoilers for all Cosmere books. On that note, I'm just going to spoiler tag the whole post Thanks for reading, I know this was fairly long. Let me know your thoughts
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  6. PSA: The Silent Gatherers have released this years Insurance information! The leading cause of death in Lighteyes is being declared the Heir of one Deathclutch! Be advised, in order to ensure your own safety, do not be declared the Heir of Deathclutch! [/humour] Well, I fell rather annoyed. I voted to prevent Reversers, and none were used.
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  7. When you write a multi-page essay on why Mistborn is a classic for your English class Edit: true story. We had to write a persuasive essay on what should be considered a classic after we spent a unit reading Shakespeare, etc. I chose Mistborn and got an A
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  8. Final Thoughts First off, this game was an absolute blast to GM, as the GM doc attests to. There were so amny crazy shenanigans and things going down that it was simply amazing, and Phatt and Kipper were both awesome. Props to both of them, definitely. We had a ton of fun this game, and I look forward to working with them again. Operation Windwhisper Operation Windwhisper... well. A lot of my thoughts are in the spec doc already, but I'll summarize. First off, if we ever reran this I would say that the GM PM counts towards Feruchemical tin, and niz it right there. But this game it was a clever use of the power, so we let it slide. The main problem with it wasn't really the plan itself, honestly. It was how early the plan was created. At that point in time, there had been two PMs. Two. So only four people couldn't be cleared. That's pretty problematic right there, for the eliminators. The eliminators could have bypassed the plan fairly easily. If they'd said they'd made PMs before the plan was announced, it would have been fine, in all likelihood. They also could have claimed Kandra (although they didn't know there were no kandra) and been fine. And once Yafeshan was going to be revealed anyway, it would have been easy to just PM everyone and nix the plan right there. So it's not like the plan was completely game-breaking in that sense. The other problem with it was that... well, everyone allowed it to happen. No one decided that they just wanted PMs and didn't care about the plan anymore. It's like... It was a plan that could win the game. But it wasn't fun. And when something's not fun for you anymore, it doesn't matter if it's the best strategy or not. Don't obey someone else's orders if you don't want to, regardless of whether what they say is the best strategy or not. So that's why I really didn't like this plan. Because it was intelligent, but it wasn't fun. Lynching The other thing that was very irritating this game was the lynch. You guys have 48 hours to lynch, and for the majority of the days you did not use those lynches. No one was even lynched until Day 3, and that was Yafeshan. Guys. I know that the mechanics and stuff are interesting, but seriously? The lynch is at the core of the game. It's how you catch the eliminators, even if you don't have any powers. But no one used it, and that was sad. Tangent to that. There was also very little analysis done this game. No one was killed because they said something suspicious or promoted the wrong person or whatever. Everyone relied entirely on the Seeker roles to figure out who to kill. Don't rely on others to figure out who are the eliminators. Figure it out yourself! Items and Chance The amount of luck that went into this game was ridiculous, particularly regarding items. Lopen searched 17 times in a row before he finally found something. Araris found three beads of lerasium, which basically allowed him to decide who won the game. The only reason the Spiked won was because he decided to do a double-enhanced Ironpull at the end. (Although I would argue that the eliminators had a good chance of winning had Araris not lynched Lopen out of the mistaken belief that he was the most active and dangerous Villager.) The outcome of the game was based on pure chance. Which isn't exactly ideal, in my opinion. Also, the sheer amount of lerasium in this game was insane. In theory, the 1 in 24 chance is supposed to deter lerasium from being found, so in this game lerasium had an equal chance of being put into a room as, say, a Wooden Shield. This would need to change, I think, if this were rerun. Lerasium should not only be more difficult to find, but more rare in the first place. Same with the Hazecrusher. LG11 This game was much less confusing than LG11, I think. Part of that was because we simplified certain things (not having Kandra, for instance, which made the game much less complicated), and part because there were three of us and we had the 24 hour dark period in which to set everything up. I would say that we didn't even really need that 24 hour period a good deal of the time, and some minor adjustments to the spreadsheet would make it even easier to get everything ready. So while the game was still confusing and complicated, I'd still say that it was an improvement. Eliminators/Balance The eliminators had the game a little bit balanced against them from the start, I'd say. A good deal of this was because I didn't have the foresight to see that Maill would immediately attack Hael, taking out the main strategist of the four. That was... problematic. The eliminator team wasn't completely inactive for most of the game, but it got pretty close at times. It didn't help that three Spiked were taken out within the first 3 cycles. There were conversions later on, true, and Lopen talked a good deal for the 48 hours he was Spiked, but in general that doc was very quiet. That was a big problem, in my opinion, and why they got so close to losing the game. Side note - props to Yafeshan. As an eliminator in your first game, you did very well. Nicely done. Regarding balance, though, this game is basically unbalanceable, because of the sheer amount of chance that goes into it, and the complexity. We did the best we could (and that was mostly Phatt's doing), but this game isn't really meant to be balanced. It's a sandbox. That's okay, though, I think. It's meant to be that way, and it's really fun that way. All in all, this was a very fun game to GM, and I hope you all enjoyed it. I have no plans to rerun it again, but it was fun while it lasted. Thank you guys for being so great, and I'll see you in the next game! A battered and bloodied man stood outside the village where until recently, Twinborn had lived together in harmony. Now it was collapsing slowly, buildings torn to shreds by metal ripping through them or collapsing due to the absence of supports. The epicenter of the ruin was a massive whirlwind of metal objects, swirling around and coalescing in the center into an enormous ball of metal. As Tilion watched, a bright light began to shine from the middle of the mess, and rose above all of the swirling metal. He couldn't make out what it was, exactly, but he guessed it had something to do with ArSel. The glowing ball of light brightened into almost a second sun, then faded slowly. The metal stopped spinning, and the buildings had all collapsed. All that was left was ruin and destruction. Tilion watched it all. Then, when day was drawing on into dusk, he turned and walked away. He didn't know where he was going, or what he'd do when he got there. But then, Laurelin hadn't known, either. And he'd killed her, accident though it may have been. The least he could do was try to make her death worthwhile.
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  9. Bah, everyone knows those people are not males, but ardents of masculine birth! ...right?
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  10. This is an old one, but it was my first SA fan art piece. Lots wrong with it, but it and a lot of the Kaladin doodles that followed it helped me get out of an art slump. I originally posted this on my art blog, which I'll gradually try to repost here.

    © Art is copyright Natalie Rodgers. Characters and quotes belong to Brandon Sanderson. This is my interpretation of those characters and is not a licensed work.

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  11. Hey all! So I had the chance to ask Brandon about Felt the potential Worldhopper (A quick search showed that the forum already has some speculation on him and can summarize where he appears pretty well there: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/51918-felt-the-worldhopper/ TLDR: Venture Cheif Spy in Mistborn Final Empire & Scout in Dalinar's army in Words of Radiance). Well, I had the chance to ask him about Felt at his Q&A at JordanCon and he confirmed that they were the same character! At his signing, I talked to him a bit more about it and he mentioned a couple other things about him: He mentioned that he's "been around." When I asked if I could find him in other books, Brandon responded, "You can try." Um... challenge accepted. I'm taking this to mean he's going by other names. Any ideas? He also said that if you read what he says in Mistborn - it contains some interesting tidbits. He specifically said it wasn't a huge deal, but he said it could be interesting to people. I think I've read the scene with him 4 times since he told me this less than 24 hours ago, and I'm not quite seeing anything between the lines. Anyone else want to take a whack at it? Yay! New Worldhoppers!
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  12. Looking at all of the books that have been released so far, future known books and their order of release, It to jme seems the Cosmere cycle is structured similar to the MCU Something along those lines: Phase 1: -Elantris -Mistborn first series -Warbreaker Phase 2: -Mistborn second series -Stormlight arc 1 -Elantris sequels Phase 3: -Mistborn third series -Stormlight arc 2 -Nightblood? Phase 4: -Mistborn fourth series -Dragonsteel
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  13. "I have finally found a mortal vessel capable of portaying my-" "Wait.. why are there? There are so many ships?! They're just everywhere! Oh god is that Draco and Geoffrey from GoT? Who would even come up with that!?"
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  14. So, did Y'all watch the Episode like you said?
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  15. How much food/water do you go through per cycle? If it's one of each then everyone will be sleeping/searching with all three actions rather than killing each other. Those with the backpack and/or caffeine will be the ones doing most of the killing.
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  16. I think the best analogy is about 70 Kg of Cells and an Human being.. they are both 70 Kg of matter made by the same raw materials. But one is a general purpose and indipendent set of Cells, the second is an overall functional entity. In the end the main difference is about a Splinter be a structured amount of Investiture
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  17. I avoided that scenario by never checking my answers. XD
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  18. So I was browsing around, and found this. http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3011
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  19. Sophia knocked gently on the door, preparing herself for another terrifying encounter with FuzzyBun. The Epic was minor in power- with only the ability to summon and control cute rabbits, but she was nothing like the cute critters she called forth. A mere week ago Fuzzy had gotten annoyed at a maid who had allegedly not folded her towels properly. The maid had been found dangling from Fuzzy's balcony, hanged by a towel and her mouth stuffed with rabbit fur. That said, Sophia shivered, Fuzzy wasn't any worse than most other Epics in Salem. Silence answered her knock. She waited. She knocked again, slightly louder. Once again, silence, and waiting. Sophia frowned. "That's odd...." Fuzzy always answered the door, smiling and chuckling as she petted a rabbit, dead or alive. She was about to leave when she leaned on the door and it opened. The maid started, but did nothing as the door slowly swung open. This is it, I'm dead, she's going to kill me, or feed me to her bunnies, or or or.... But nothing happened. Fuzzy should have been awake by now, it was mid-afternoon after all. Sophia saw two plates of food- breakfast and lunch, sitting untouched on trays on the table. What was going on? "Miss.... FuzzyBun? Are you there, m'lady?" Receiving no response, Sophia slowly went further into the apartment. "I'm the maid, I'm just here to gather your washing. Hello?" The curtains and blinds were shut, the room shadowy and ill-lit. The door to her bedroom loomed up ahead, shrouded in darkness and slightly open. "H-hello?" The maid approached, curiosity overwhelming caution. She gazed at the foreboding crack of darkness that led to Fuzzy's bedroom. "M-Miss Fuzzy?" She opened the door. Sophia screamed. .......................... Hotel security arrived shortly, seeing a sight that none had ever seen outside of the Dreamstate. A dead Epic. The Salem Police Force was notified, and Mouldbreaker was informed.
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  20. You should create a thread: You know you're a Sanderfan of you know you're a Sanderfan when when.
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  21. "Vaeria" is what my copy says. I'm holding out hope that we'll see it mentioned in the star chart that will be coming this fall in the short story collection.
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  22. The Stick is actually a Splinter of Odium. Proof: On Brandon's website there's a deleted Stick interlude that gives no worldbuilding or plot info, obviously serving to introduce us to a character who would become important later. It was removed because he decided it was giving away too much. Odium and Stick both oppose the Knights Radiant, and I doubt either of them are able to be soulcasted into anything (we don't have confirmation for Odium not being soulcastable however- perhaps Odium is actually a Splinter of Stick?) Odium refuses to take other shards because it would corrupt his pure hatred. Stick refuses to become fire because it would corrupt his pure Stick-ness. tl;dr The stick is the greatest villain the Cosmere has even known, Odium may be his splinter, and I strongly suspect Stormlight 6-10 and possibly Space Mistborn will deal with his rise to power and the conflict against him.
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  23. The problem with skateboards is that they have moving parts, the deck and the wheels, and a spren can only be one of them. Like with the Shardbows - the spren can either be the bow or the arrow, but not both. But Syl can be a snowboard or surfboard perfectly fine, and if Kaladin can lash himself to a surfboard, he would be a pretty crazy awesome surfer. Brandon says that Alethi are partially based on Hawaiians and Polynesians, so maybe Kaladin can surf like one. Shardsurfboard vs Jetski, who wins. :ph34r: I want to take this time to share something really stupid with you guys. This belongs in the "Silly stuff" pile. Gorgeous digitally painted portraits are one thing, but there is nothing that can quite beat stylised cartoons for quickly and effectively expressing my interpretation of a character and their personality. You know you did it right if you can look at a picture and see story or dialogue happening, without any words being written in it. CLICK PICTURE TO OPEN UP IMAGE TO ITS FULL AND GLORIOUS GLORY "Let's draw Shallan" "Let's draw Kaladin" "Let's draw Adolin" The things Shallan draws are slightly sparklier and more exaggerated than real life, while still having touches of realism and truth. The things Kaladin draws reflect his honest feelings. Shallan is cute and goofy, Adolin getting smacked down now and then would be deserved and pretty hilarious, and in his mind, Kaladin is still a slave. Adolin can't draw but he tries anyway. It's okay to draw because it's not reading! Fashion magazines are okay because they're just pictures, not books! On the character designs - I want every character to have a unique "look" because otherwise they all look the same when they wear uniforms. An artist has done a good job if other people can pick up who each character is after a quick glance, without having to read the annotations on a piece. In this piece, it's relatively easy to distinguish Shallan from the boys because she is much smaller than both of them, But I always wanted to be able to distinguish Adolin from Kaladin, and not just by their hair colours, as anime often uses in the shows where all the characters look the same and wear school uniforms. For this reason, I draw Adolin with even features, aka "conventionally attractive", and make him more expressive in terms of how his face changes when he talks or responds to people in conversation. He is described as "handsome" in-canon, but I use boyish, charming and cute handsome rather than set-your-ovaries-on-fire hot. Kaladin in canon is apparently rugged and masculine like a pile of rocks, with a chin that can lead armies. I draw him with no lips, no smiling or laughing, and a nose that is slightly too big, but overall his appearance is one that some girls might like, if they are into rocks and eyes so deep and dark and mysterious you will fall into them and wake up ascending into Shardholderdom.
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  24. Shame. Closest one is on another continent
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  25. So, among other things, I am a cosplayer. I'm quite mad as a box of frogs, too, as I've learned entirely new skills solely for the sake of making a good costume. That's how I picked up chainmail; I made a Legend of Zelda costume (I took Zelda and recast her in the hero's role, making her Zelda: Warrior Princess) and kind of hated the fake chainmail that I'd knitted out of silver rattail. Not wholly bad, really, but it wasn't realistic enough. So I spent a year of off-and-on chainmail working to make the tunic in aluminum. I threw in the Hylian crest on the front just for fun. The shield is made out of craft foam, single-layer cardboard, fabric, heavy-gauge wire, three different types of glue, sculpey, and, of course, paint. The sword is bought, but I repainted it to match the new Zelda color scheme, and wrapped the handle in leather-look duct tape. Here's the back of the shield. What looks like wood grain is actually crinkle fabric painted over with brown fabric paint. The handle is a plastic cabinet handle wrapped in the same fabric and paint mix. Fun fact: The year I wore this at Dragon*Con, I had no fewer than 3 different Navis run up to me and shout, "HEY! LISTEN!" Good times. One of them actually wanted a picture with me pretending to try to kill her. This wizard's staff is more recent; my husband wanted to be a wizard for Halloween last year, and wanted a really cool staff. We couldn't find a really cool staff, so we decided to make one. The wood piece was bought, but the rest we put together. He did the wiring bits and served as an extra pair of hands while I was busy burning mine with the hot glue gun. Underneath the "nest" is actually two pieces of PVC threaded joint. The bottom is screwed into the top of the wood, while the top has a selenite crystal hot glued into it. Husband rewired a color-change LED candle bulb to a thumbswitch, which I nestled in the moss. The selenite really picks up the LED glow; pictures can't really do it justice. The sticks are a couple of grapevine wreaths I took apart and affixed in various places to the outside. There are also three quartz crystals glued around in the moss, but those aren't so easy to see in the photo. And you can't see it in the photo, but I also wrapped the bottom of the staff in cloth and leather to keep it from scratching anybody's floors.
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  26. I am both honored and slightly alarmed.
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  27. It would be really fun to have a Sand Master pop in and make use of that easter egg sand mentioned in WoR.
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  28. Which is one cool thing about these books. One of the reasons Shardblades exist (real world-wise) is that Brandon wanted to justify the ginormous swords seen in fantasy art, RPGs and the like, hence everything about the setting that goes towards them and the massive creatures they're designed to be used against. And the same thing works to justify oversized hammers since people with Shardplate but no Blade actually can use something that heavy without tiring or worrying too much about opening themselves to attack.. Next up, Navani invents the 'Shardcannon' by finding a spren that replicates the effects of Division and we start seeing tropes from FPS games. BFG=Big Fabrial Gun?
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  29. Many of you believe that the “Powers of Creation” are just different words for “Investiture.” Blightsong, for example, has done an admirable job of dredging up WoBs in support of that view. The following is my attempt to reconcile this conflict and see if we can reach common ground. To review, the OP posits that Adonalsium was the consciousness the previously mindless Powers of Creation developed to wield them. Power without conscious direction will become conscious on its own. I believe that’s what happened here. Adonalsium was the “God Beyond” the Realms who “invested” in the Realms and created them. When the mortals who became Shards Shattered Adonalsium, they pulled the Powers of Creation into the Cosmere's Realms. Reconciliation: Because these mortals already existed within the Cosmere’s three Realms, each already had a mind, body and Soul that consisted of matter, energy and Investiture. The Shattering thus merged the Powers of Creation into the Vessels’ Spiritual Realm Investiture, their Souls. IOW the Powers of Creation became the Souls of the Shards, just as they were once Adonalsium’s Soul, but adapted themselves to the Vessels’ existing Spiritual Realm Investiture composition. The Powers of Creation BECAME Spiritual Realm Investiture. This explanation is consistent with the OP’s theory. There I stated “I believe that the Shattering caused the powers of creation to became part of the Shards’ souls, in the Spiritual Realm.” I just need to add that the Powers of Creation are now composed of Spiritual Realm Investiture. I still have a problem with conflating the Powers of Creation and Investiture. How do we distinguish between Divine Breath (a Splinter) and mere Breath (which is not) if both are made from Endowment’s Spiritual Realm Investiture? IIRC 2,000 Breaths approximately equals the power level of a Divine Breath, but they are still different things. If their composition is identical, and both come from Endowment’s Investiture, how is a Splinter any different from any other form of Investiture? Nonetheless, in the spirit of reconciliation, I offer this compromise. Regards all!
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  30. A couple of points: Hoid almost certainly uses Yolish Lightweaving, not Surgebinding and has likely had that ability for a very long time. He uses time dilation techniques so he hasn't lived through all the years he's been alive but he is also older than should be possible so a little of both. He definitely doesn't use Hemalurgy, Brandon has confirmed this. Forging doesn't have enough Investiture to bestow abilities like Allomancy without extra assistance, it's a pretty low-Investiture system. He uses Feruchemy to know where to go so I'd say he probably had it when he encountered Elend and just didn't want to reveal it.
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  31. Aside from Game the closest thing to a sane person in the clinic right now is Lord Dupin
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  32. When you spend your free time reading EVERY SINGLE PAGE of; "You know youre a sanderfan when part 2".
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  33. Hi all! As the title says, I was recently invited here at JordanCon, specifically at the MTG tournament where Brandon was playing. I'm a huge fan of Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive, and while I'm not as active online as I'd like to be, I do post a lot of fan art on my art blog. I'm excited to be here and be a small part of the community. When I can, I'll be contributing fan art. Aside from that, I may or may not poke my head into a discussion now and then, but mostly I'm content to draw and listen to audiobooks and play around with headcanons.
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  34. @ Ruro272, post #107 - Thank you for this transcription, which I combined with another along with some of my own notes to add to the Theoryland database http://theoryland.com/newanswer.php?i=1121 "Q: Could a Rosharan be Hemalurgically spiked with a gem or fabrial? A: (answer not spoken but girl’s response is a sound of exasperation and the artist next to Brandon laughs almost mockingly, so I sense that he wrote RAFO in her book, or something equally unimportant. Maybe somebody on the 17th Shard knows exactly what he wrote!)" This was RAFO (she asked the question for me, and I took a picture of Q&A)
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  35. I think your one step away from overthinking it, which means right now you're right in the right spot! Good luck, hope it goes well.
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  36. I’m not going to apologize for all the lies I told in the past 52 hours. They were all necessary to ensure the survival of myself, my 5 companions (Counting Kwaan and Rashek) and the world as a whole. Alendi would have given the power to Ruin, and thus destroyed all Scadrial. I too will give the power away, but it will be to someone far more benevolent. Beautiful Writeup Elbereth. Infinite possibilities spread out before him. He could scarcely tell which was which. He knew he would be able to fulfill any of them, bring about any vision he saw to pass. But it was not his choice to make. He knew what he had to do. He had not been picked by Kwaan, as the others had thought, but by another, far more powerful and knowledgeable. He carefully summoned a device he had hidden in his birth village. The man Jeno had called it a Fabrial, a Spanreed, capable of summoning her from where'er she was. He tapped his stores of investiture, from a specially prepared Nicrosil mind, and poured them into the Spanreed. It burst into a brilliant blue light. He held the power within him as he waited for the Lady to appear. He could feel it altering him just by holding it. His physical body felt stronger, and new power, something like Feruchemy, was filling him. He examined the changes, then looked back into the cave, where his companions shone like metalminds. The Lady surely would not mind his using a small bit of the power. He reached out, and enveloped the spirits of his friends, as well as those of his teacher and cousin, Kwaan and Rashek. He changed them, in the same way he himself was changing. The 6 of them would gods among men in this new world, whatever it would be. There was a flash of brilliant blue light, and a figure appeared before him, wreathed in power. A lady, imposing of figure, yet kind and curious of expression. She appeared amused, and patient, as if waiting for him to understand a joke. She radiated power and authority. He held far more power than she, but power was not wisdom, and any could tell which of the two could use the power better. So he bowed before her. “Lady Wilson, I have summoned you here to give you a gift, and ask a boon in return. I hold in my soul the entirety of the power of Preservation, and can fix this world. But i do not know how. I know of your exploits in worlds other than this one, and believe you will do great good by this world, if given the chance. All I ask is for a place at your side, as your First Disciple, and for my friends and allies, Rashek, Kwaan, Dfywyl, Kholwa and Talion, to be rewards as befitting them.” Happy belated birthday to little’Wilson, Brightness Ascendant and Bloodthirsty Goddess. I give you the chance to remake an entire planet in your image, including the people thereupon. All I ask is you let my companions, Bugsby, Lopen and Phattamer, rule over this new world in your name, if they are willing to do so.
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  37. She closed her eyes, so she could have sent herself partially to Shadesmar, and touched them there.
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  38. How's the pacing within the 3 chapters? Originally, I had chapter 10 and 11 as just one big chapter 10, and I broke it in two. I've slimmed the section down by 700 words, but I still want to know if there are parts that dragged or ideas repeated within this section.Pacing seemed fine. I kind of wonder if the dad really needs to meet the whole house full of men. My thought was that he would start with the man he had the best relationship with and talk it over first. How's the pacing feel in conjunction with the chapters before? This is my last 'set up' sequence before I start firing off all the guns I've shown the reader, but I still want to know how it feels in the broad scheme of things.So far so good. I tried to do a better job introducing minor characters by putting them in a broad sweep rather than introducing them one by one like I did with the relatives. Does this work better for you?I think always better to introduce one by one. Right now I don't remember any of them specifically. It's just the "male neighbors." Anybody ever kept sheep? I'm going to need realism/consistency checks. No sheep. Do the characters' reactions to Jennie's explanation feel organic and varied? Can you tell what Will is thinking?Will is the DAD! Okay, I was so confused for a moment. We're in limited POV so I'm not too worried yet. I'm still confused as to why Jennie didn't tell them the Snatcher said he wasn't a Snatcher. Even if it was dismissed as another ploy - it seems like it should belong in the full briefing. Anything that did work/didn't work for you?This is rather personal, but Jennie's exclamation points are starting to grate on me. Because she says "Snatcher" a lot - it kept making me think of the girl with a really high pitched voice from the movie Prancer. I don't think they all need to be cut or anything so dramatic, but I wanted to make you aware of it.
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  39. If Shiny wanted to fan the flames of passion, she couldn't have done a better job if she tried. The lights that sparkled around the pair were downright rapturous. And yet. The flame that burned twice as bright was notorious for burning only half as long, and for a moment, it looked like Lyla's flame had been snuffed out. The energy seemed to have sapped out of her body, the grin she wore replaced with an almost empty frown. "You're an epic?" Her eye twitched, and the wildfire started. "You're an epic and you wanna be friends and you have epic friends and you wanna introduce them and you're an epic and I kinda thought maybe you just changed your name to Shiny Sparkle 'cause it was cool but of course it's cool 'cause it's an epic name 'cause you're an epic and you're using your powers on me and that's so cool and your eyes are all shiny does that mean you have mind control powrs and are you using them and you're an epic and and and-" And it was a good thing they were in a clinic, because at the rate she was going, Lyla was gonna to talk herself into passing out. Sparks. It was so unfair. Why couldn't she even have 'not needing to breath' as a power? That was the only way she's be able to say everything she was thinking right now and- And breath. And for Koeschi's sake, slow down. Shiny was an epic who wanted to be her friend. If she kept babbling, she was gonna scare her off. Right. No ramble. Just be cool. What did cool kids say in situations like this? "Ly-Lyla. My name's Lyla." She paused, stammered, tried to think of something to prove to the pair that she wasn't just another, run-of-the-manilla "...Can I take your picture's now?"
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  40. Notes while reading: I like that Jennie tells her father about the snatcher and doesn't try to hide it, as in most stories. However, her father does have her hide it...interested to see where it goes. pg 9: "counting out a pile nails." --missing a word. pg 13: Why didn't Papa see the tracks? Did Roamwald erase his tracks? I would think even if he swept his tracks, there would be something left. Something that big can't disappear without a trace. This entry flowed well. I didn't have a lot of comments except for the above. I'm still struggling with how a group of people that big are hard to find. As to your questions, I thought the last chapter dragged a little. We've already seen Jennie running out into the forest, and especially because she didn't find Roamwald again, it took away some of the tension for me. I wasn't too into her chasing the sheep. I want the family to get access to more food, but at this point the tension is ramped up enough that this feels like going backward (this sort of answers your first two questions). I didn't have a problem with the minor characters in the smithy because they're only mentioned in passing. I don't feel like they will be as important as family members. no comment on sheep... Reactions to Jennie seem good enough. As I said above, I'm glad she didn't immediately hide it, but there still was some hushing up so others wouldn't hear. I guess it's best not to cause a panic until the snatcher has been verified. I can tell Will knows his daughter and that she wouldn't just make up a story. I actually think the characters in the smithy might be more accepting. After all, they know Snatchers are real, so there should be some willingness to at least check out the rumor.
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  41. And if they ask why they should hire you "Because you're hiring"
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  42. Shiny felt a bit guilty, watching the unknown girl’s cute back hunched over her camera, with the bones of her shoulders protrude like they were meant to grow into beautiful wings for a celestial being, the way her face was full of dedication and strands of dark hair framing her head like a dark halo… Sparks, it took effort to just not pounce on her again. As she finished with her camera, the offer Shiny just made seemed to crawl itself into her mind. Eagerly she nodded at every word to reinforce their growing bonds, make them grow from a tender flame to a blazing passion that made happiness spread over their faces and streamed out of her new besties eye’s with all the sparkling of a passionate love. Then came the time for personal introductions and… a Regalia cosplay? Did she really look like someone trying to imitate Regalia? Shiny couldn’t help but pout. Then she took her besties hand and softly made her caress Shiny’s stomach. “Come now, does this perfect skin really look like it could belong to an old woman like Regalia? If anything I’m dressing like Skinnydipper right now,” Shiny gave out a wistful sight recollecting the fun the two of them had playing in the pool over many a night. “Actually, I should introduce you when I get the chance, I’m sure she’d love you just as much as I do. “But no my dear, I am the all-natural all-loving Shiny Sparkle, ally of all that is cute,” Shiny used her free hand to pull off her sunglasses and then pulled her bestie close by her waist, close enough that their noses were touching, Shiny’s eyes full of swirling color painting a canvas of passion staring directly into eyes of her new friend. The moment caused Shiny to sparkle, a red light spreading into the room from her bikini and a similar flicker of light originating from the girl in her arms. The light embraced them like a lover and Shiny knew again that this was indeed the start of a wonderful friendship. “That’s my introductions. What’s the name of my and Scribbler’s new adorable bestie?”
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  43. "I've sent the dispatch to Brightness Mahiri, as you requested," Karnan said. "Good," Terneas replied, but it was clear his mind was elsewhere. He rifled through several of the books on the shelf--he must've paid a fortune to have them translated into glyphs, Karnan thought--distracted, rather than searching. "Brightlord, should I leave?" "Hmm?" Terneas said. "Oh, no. Stay for a while." "As you command." "Have you heard word of the king's assassination?" "Yes," Karnan said. "The word's been all over the warcamps by now. It won't be long before every Highprince on the Shattered Plains fancies themselves the next candidate for the throne." "Mmm," said Terneas. And then, "It was not us. Do not fear." "I didn't think so." "But you did," Terneas replied. "It's obvious it was troubling you." Karnan shrugged, realised it was not the most appropriate response. Brightlord Terneas had had a bodyguard before Karnan had assumed the task: a grizzled old warrior by the name of Jalar. But Jalar had died, with an assassin's blade to the throat, and now it was Karnan's task to protect and to serve the man who had saved his life. Who had taken him in, freed him from prison, and given him purpose. Some of what Terneas asked of him...troubled him. But then, what did a man do when all paths led to dishonour? There was honour in service, in following your Calling. That was all. And he was a duelist, meant for the thrill of combat, of crossing blades with another. It was how he served. "What I think doesn't matter," Karnan said, at last. Terneas turned away from the bookshelf. "Oh, but it does," he said, with a raised eyebrow. "I could command you by the oath you swore to the Sons of Honor. I told you, on the day you were inducted into our ranks, that we would sometimes ask you to do horrible things--horrible indeed--in the name of the greater good." Karnan pressed his lips together. "For the Church," he said, at last. "To return the Almighty to the hearts of men, and the Heralds to the broken lands that remain. I remember. No deed is too..." He could not quite find the word he meant. Too abhorrent? Dishonourable? Would he, he wondered, have slain the king, if Terneas had asked it of him, in the name of the debt he owed the man, in the name of the Sons of Honor, of the Church and the Almighty? The things we do, for the greater good, he thought. For the Almighty. Terneas said, crisply, "Then I have a task for you. I've spoken to Amaram and I've been informed that we have reason to suspect that the Ghostbloods were behind the killing of the king. We've also discovered that Brightness Mahiri is a Ghostblood, and very likely one of the circle behind the king's death. You've sent her a dispatch informing her that we know about her allegiances. She will, of course, seek to silence me. But we can always live in hope. Your task is to shadow Brightness Mahiri, see if she leads us to any more of her co-conspirators. If she acts against us, kill her." "By your command," Karnan said, quietly. "I will follow your order without mistake." - Okay, I'm back. I'll start catching up by tomorrow as I just want to rejoice in having finished the very last term paper of my undergraduate existence D:
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  44. sorry for the double post but...
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  45. [bands of Mourning and Secret History Update: Appended to the end of this post. I have not edited the original text of the post, so no one can infer anything about SH based on what I cut, add, or change.] I just finished re-reading the Mistborn trilogy (got the hardcovers for Christmas), and it really jumped out at me on this read-through just how good Vin is at everything. If it had been my first time through the series, it probably would have bothered me how quickly she picks up Allomancy and other tricks. (I read it several years ago, and I don’t recall it sticking out to me, then.) As she’s learning Allomancy, all the Crew members comment on how naturally it comes to her – Marsh, especially, thinks she has already been practicing. Even mundane things, like how influential she is on Camon’s crew or how quickly she adapts to the nobility, stuck out. However, having read (and re-read) everything in the Cosmere, it seemed more like a clue. Mentions of how Vin was a quick learner or trusted her instincts were slipped in about as often as mentions of her earring, Reen’s voice, or how Sazed wore his copperminds on his arms. It made me wonder… what was the secret behind how quickly Vin learned? In the last epigraph of Book 3, Sazed speculates on Vin: Sazed speculates was special because she was chosen by Preservation as a child and possibly drew in some mists. But he doesn’t stop there; he says that there is something else special about Vin, something he doesn’t understand. So, what could it be? Can we figure it out? I kept this thought in mind during my reread, and some thoughts began to coalesce. The crystallizing point for this theory came to me after Kelsier’s death in Book 1, when Vin went back to Kredik Shaw and fought two Inquisitors. She prepared two tricks: arrowheads with rings on them (basically, the same thing Ranette would invent as anti-Coinshot bullets), and pewter dust to blind the inquisitors. It’s one thing if Vin has an affinity to learning how to use Allomancy because she was chosen to take Preservation or because she drew in some mists as a child; but I didn’t see how that would give her these kind of tactics. So, it occurred to me that maybe Vin had these experiences from a previous life. I know reincarnation isn’t a common thing in the Cosmere, but there have been instances of the dead not staying dead (in Warbreaker, obviously, and Kelsier hangs around even if he doesn’t take on a new body). What if an experienced Allomancer who died during the Final Empire hung around like Kelsier did, but instead of sticking around and meddling, she (assuming it’s a lady Allomancer, as I will go into more detail below) bestowed her experiences upon Vin? Before I dive in to the specifics, I’ll include a brief Table of Contents of the theory. Vin’s Unearned Experience: the instances of Vin’s surprising aptitude Vin vs Valette: Vin views herself as a combination of two or more people Déjà vu: the pieces required for a reincarnation are already present in the series Guess Who?: speculation as to Vin’s previous identity Hoid: maybe this explains what warned her away from him Kelsier: the ramifications on the future of the series Part 1: Vin’s Unearned Experience So, Vin obviously picks up Allomancy very quickly in TFE. Not only does she burn pewter and zinc on instinct, but she learns all of the metals extremely quickly. Other areas of her training, like acting like a noble or even her time on Camon’s crew, come to her naturally, and her instincts guide her. Instincts became the keyword that I looked for; anywhere Vin trusted her instincts (or, even better, her instincts told her something, an active-voice sentence with “instincts” as the subject). I also looked for instances where the word “instincts” wasn’t expressly name-dropped, but people remarked how Vin learned very quickly. (Or I thought she learned too quickly.) Basically, any place that her past life could be manifesting. See the full list below. It’s roughly chronological order, not by importance. I’ve italicized the points that are more circumstantial; the good examples are all un-italicized. On the first mission Vin went on with Camon’s crew, this quote jumped out at me when Vin first became suspicious: Ooh, an internal voice. We haven’t seen those before. Later on, she thinks something along the same lines: Two active voice verbs, where Vin is the object, not the subject. As if something else is acting upon her. Is this Ruin’s influence? I don’t think so. Her earring isn’t in at this point in the novel; she starts wearing it after they get back to the lair, and she prepares to sneak out. These “instincts” can’t be Ruin’s influence. So, to summarize, Vin’s instincts tipped her off to the Ministry’s tactics, even when Camon, an experienced crewleader, was falling for the trap. Experience beyond her station. She responds surprisingly well to Kelsier using zinc on her when he first meets her. “Somehow” is a squirrely Sanderson word for when there’s something behind the scenes. (Okay, not every time, but it’s still a red flag.) Vin could have recognized this from her previous life experiences. When it’s just just her and Kell and Dox, she also resists his Soothing: After resisting his soothing, we see another interesting sentence: There’s that dang “instinct-as-a-subject” construction again. Pushing her to stick with Kelsier and learn Allomancy. That last point aside, the main takeaway from this point is that Vin has experience in recognizing and resisting emotional Allomancy. Vin picks up being a Noblewoman very quickly. She sums up her experience during the first planning meeting with the crew: However, when rubber meets the road, she knocks it out of the park. A sampling of praise: And she keeps getting better. According to Sazed, in Chapter 24 of TFE: Maybe because she’s a reincarnated noble? Vin acknowledges in Hero of Ages how she took to the nobility naturally, because it was a part of her. I won’t quote that in-depth at this point in the theory; see Section 2 for a more in-depth analysis of what this means for her character. Just a quote of interest from when Vin trains in steelpushing. Circumstantial evidence; doesn’t support reincarnation, but takes on new meaning. The coin pouch trick is more substantial. Vin teaches Kelsier a new trick after only a few months of training, the first (of many) times she displays her Allomatic tactical ability. In fact, in Kell’s words: “Fantastic progress”… maybe because she’s remembering skills she had in her past life. The push-match also struck me as uncharacteristic of Vin. She had always avoided direct confrontation, but here, she throws her weight directly at Kelsier, getting in a Push-match. Maybe that’s an instinct from her past life, where she may have been larger and it was an effective tactic. Again, not supporting evidence, but something that takes on new meaning. The evidence from this passage is how Vin learns super-fast. As she thinks to herself: Kelsier is speaking with Sazed later. That last line is Sazed. Sound familiar? (It’s because he calls her special in the HoA epilogue epigraph.) So, yes, her instincts (*cough* past life experience *cough*) make her special. When Sazed is quizzing her as she gets her hair cut, he says: Add another tally mark to the “Vin, you’re so good at everything” comments. Remember when Kelsier said Vin only was good at the physical metals? Soon after that, she sits in on one Breeze session where she realizes how to Soothe subtly. She follows Kell as he goes to find Camon, and sooths him. He catches on, but only barely. His thoughts: I know how! It’s her past life experience coming through! Learning the spikeway quickly was another example of her Allomantic tactics. I won’t do the full quote, but the narration does say “She got the hang of it quickly.” When Sazed rescues her from the Inquisitors, he gives her some of Ham’s pewter to heal. He says: Vin was unconsciously burning pewter when she was on Camon’s crew – she recognizes it when Kelsier gives it to her for the first time. Her body has been familiar with Allomancy for a long time. As Marsh says later: Again, we learn that… Vin is special. “Instincts” pops up again, but in an interesting context, after Vin has gone to a number of balls. An interesting take on her part, since it doesn’t seem she’s losing instincts, but gaining new ones. Also, “Valette” is natural because her previous life experience was a noblewoman. (See the next major section.) Training with Marsh. A huge clue. Marsh gives the spiel, gets her burning bronze, and asks her what she feels: What takes practice comes naturally to Vin… it’s been the story of her life as she learns Allomancy. Again, I suggest that this is because she actually does have prior experience. This doesn’t really have anything to do with anything, but I suspect Vin unconsciously burns gold in Chapter 24. She just came from a ball, where I suspect they had gold-plated utensils (I looked over the chapter, and I didn’t see any mention of anything), and she’s sitting with the crew, having a good time. She imagines she sees herself out in the shadows, as she was before she met the crew. Sounds a lot like the gold shadow she sees of herself later. Anyways, it’s of no substance to this theory, except maybe showing she can unconsciously burn more obscure metals. Allomantic tactics. When fighting Shan, she extinguishes her atium a few seconds early, tricking Shan into thinking that she had run out. When she turns it back on, she confuses Shan, and Vin kills her. A nice bit of trickery for someone who has thus far only burnt Atium against other Atium-burning Inquisitors (and she got subsequently steamrolled by them). Again, unearned experience; tactics she may have learned in her previous life. Kelsier notices how good she is: He goes on to tell her that directly: Allomancy is nothing but tricks, and Vin comes up with new tricks time and time again, things that Kelsier and even the Inquisitors (coming up in another bullet point) don’t have figured out. Ah, the Inquisitor fight in TFE Chapter 36. The place where this theory came together for me. I won’t quote the passage directly, but Vin uses rings on arrowheads to launch un-Steel-able projectiles to shred one Inquisitor, then uses a cloud of pewter dust to blind another. These don’t come from being strong in Allomancy; these are tactics, tricks. Vin comes up with these all the time. Why did she think of these when others didn’t? She even thinks that she wasn’t sure how their eyes worked, but she knew a perfect way to block out their senses. How did she know? Here, more than anywhere else, when her soul is damaged by Kelsier’s loss, her past life begins to creep in the cracks, giving her the training and experiences of her past life to help her with her battles. Oh my, I’ve got this many examples, and I’m only starting WoA. Hoo boy. Anyways, we start off with some more talk about Vin being “special,” this time from Elend as she spars with Ham. She winds up beating Ham, a good thug. Vin is a quick learner when it comes to fighting, too, not just when it comes to Allomancy. He also remarks on her strength in Allomancy; she might have her Allomatic strength determined by her previous life’s strength, during a time when Mistborn were more powerful (not as powerful as Elend, though). She gives OreSeur dog bones. That’s another new tactic – no kandra had used animal bones before, as we find out in Book 3. Vin really does come up with these all the time. I wonder how she does it… She instantly picks up Duralumin-Steelpushing herself. She first uses it to go rescue Breeze, and she lands at just the right spot. A brand new skill, and she does it perfectly the first time. I think she might have past-life experience with duralumin. She wasn’t the only one to discover it; the Lord Ruler mentioned it in one of the storage caverns. There’s another very powerful clue for me when Vin was researching the Deepness. She starts the chapter being barely trained in writing: A very clear picture: Vin has little experience writing, and is not good at it. But, apparently, she can write very well anyways. Vin, of course, brushes it off and starts talking about the Straff’s army. But it seems a little heavy-handed to me. Perfect penmanship? What an odd thing to mention. The only thing more Mary Sue-ish would be… …oh, no, she’s also the most graceful person in a dress. When Tindwyl takes her and Allrianne shopping: *gag* I certainly hope this is indicating she spent a long (previous) life as a Mistborn noblewoman. Because otherwise, this is getting out-of-hand with how good Vin is at everything. And then, we have The Big One. Taking down Zane. Beating someone burning atium without your own atium. And what word shows up in the narrative? Instinct: that word keeps popping up. She let her body do what it wanted to. This is a crazy technique, and, again, it’s one she does perfectly without practice. It reminds me of the way she resisted Kelsier’s Soothing when she first met him. She has experience resisting Allomancy; mental metals, and now atium. Techniques I think she learned in her past life. Vin doesn’t think she’s the first to figure it out: If it was a technique she had done in a prior life… then, yes, Vin, you were the first to think of it. And the second to think of it, as well. Maybe someone else can take bronze… (that’s a reference to Olympic metals, not Allomantic metals.) Oh, and don’t forget the flying horseshoes trick. The annotations say that she is the first one to pick up that particular trick. So, that’s not one tactic that’s definitely not from a previous life. Oh, good, things are going a lot quicker through the rest of the trilogy. I’m on to Hero of Ages, now, and I’m 30 chapters in before Vin does something surprisingly well. It’s when they crash Yomen’s party. She dives in from a position of power, something she had never had in her previous ball interactions, and she instantly takes to it. Elend notices: So, there are three main categories where these examples fall in to: Learning Allomancy quickly, learning Tactics and Fighting quickly, and learning Nobility quickly. If it were just Allomancy, I could believe it was enhanced intuition provided by Preservation. Even the anti-atium and anti-Inquisitor tactics, on a good day. But all three categories? It seems too much of a stretch that being chosen as Preservation’s hero would give her penmanship and the mindset of a noble. So, I think these experiences come from a past life as a noble. Part 2: Vin vs Valette One major theme of Vin’s character arc is reconciling her two different personas. She wonders, is she Vin the street urchin? Or is she Valette the noblewoman? Eventually, she determines that her true self is a combination of the two. She needs to incorporate both the experience gained on the street with the noblewoman who goes to balls. This conflict is presented from the beginning, from Kelsier’s first training session with her: When she was thinking of how “Lord Renoux” adopted his persona: She begins to realize that she isn’t actually either of them, but something else entirely. From WoA, Chapter 35: She tries to push the “Valette” persona off as an act, but her conversation with Tindwyl when they were dress-shopping begins to change that. Vin says she sees a problem with wearing dresses because it wasn’t really her; Tindwyl asks, “And these can’t dresses be part of who you really are?” More pointedly: This conflict continues, somewhat, into HoA, Chapter 27: She eventually realizes in Chapter 32 that being a noble is an essential part of her: Since I was thinking about the context of reincarnation, this took on a different meaning to me entirely. Vin isn’t just a combination of her two sets of experiences… what if she is a combination of two different people? Vin the street urchin represents her current life experiences. Valette the noblewoman (and Allomatic experience) comes from a previous life. As she struggles with these two halves of herself, she’s actually trying to merge her current and previous identities, to create who she truly is. Oddly enough, combining multiple people into one is a concept that is presented elsewhere in the Mistborn trilogy. Koloss and Steel Inquisitors are both described as being multiple people combined into one. Steel inquisitors first, by Noorden, the friendly obligator. Immediately afterwards, Elend realized how koloss were created: I thought it was an odd way of characterizing the change; Hemalurgy has been presented more as stealing someone else’s attributes, not combining multiple people. But it gave me some insight into how Vin could be the combination of two people. Marsh was still Marsh, even though he had other people “combined” into him. Same with Human the koloss; the annotations give his backstory, so he is a real person. The reincarnation isn’t a Wheel of Time kind of reincarnation (like the Heroes of the Horn being spun out into new identities), but someone who has already died giving up her experience to Vin. I don’t think I’m saying Vin is a Hemalurgic creation; the experiences of a past life spiked onto an orphan girl. But I think it’s a similar concept, not necessarily carried out using that magic system. Part 3: Déjà vu So, conceptually, it’s a bit of a stretch to say Vin’s experiences belonged to a dead person. I get that – there isn’t a single hint of this kind of previous lives in the trilogy (or even in Alloy or SoS). But I think all the pieces are there in the trilogy itself. Dead individuals stick around. Kelsier sticks around. Vin’s previous incarnation could have stuck around in a similar fashion. Combining multiple people into one. I discussed this in Part 2, so I won’t go into detail here. The gods made Vin special. According to Sazed, Preservation chose Vin after she was born, because she snapped so early. Ruin also made his mark on her when she was young, spiking her with her sister’s Bronze ability. A third individual, “meddling” like Kelsier, could have also imparted past life experiences onto her. Souls can return to bodies. Sazed says that he didn’t figure it out in time to resurrect Vin and Elend, but WoB says it’s possible. http://theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=727 Minds can be used to power magic. I’m not sure my Realmatics are quite right, but we saw Preservation turn his mind (soul?) into Investiture to imprison Ruin. It wasn’t his body, his Shard’s power; it was just his mind. The mind of Vin’s past life could be the power behind this reincarnation of its experiences. So, while the way I’ve assembled them may be novel, I think that it is a natural progression of what is presented in the novels. Part 4: Guess Who? I strained my eyes looking through the pages, trying to figure out who could have been Vin’s previous life. This person had to be dead before Vin was born (duh), and they had had to be born after Allomancy was discovered (because Vin knew tricks against both Steel Inquisitors and atium burners). And, lastly, this person had to be a Mistborn (since Vin had good instincts in all metals). I also think that her previous incarnation needed to be a noblewoman, because of how her internal conflict played out between orphan and noblewoman. I guess it could have been a nobleman, but Vin always sounds secure in her femininity. She’s a combination of Noble and Urchin, not a combination of Man and Woman. Now, gender and status aren’t deal-breakers; if I could find a character who met the previous three conditions who was a non-noble or a man, I would consider them a strong candidate. So, boil this all down, compare it to characters from the books… and I’ve got nothing. Gemmel is the only Mistborn who’s dead before the series begins, but he was still alive after Vin was born. (Also, not a girl.) Alendi crossed my mind, but he was only a Seeker, and he never fought Atium burners. Other than that, we don’t know much about the history of the world. So, I can’t point to an individual who I think was Vin’s previous life. But I can describe what I think she was like: a noblewoman Mistborn. Part 5: Hoid Now, the part where this really got fun was when Vin decided to avoid Hoid (hmm, that might be the Cosmere name for Tag. Avoid Hoid. It’s got a nice ring to it.) Uhh… let’s try this again. When Vin decided to avoid Hoid (stay on target), she trusted her instincts. Remember, Instincts = Past Life in this theory. So, something about her past life told her to stay away from Hoid. But what could it be? All Vin heard was humming. She didn’t even see Hoid. Just heard him. What was he humming, anyways? I wonder if Vin recognized it. Could it have been a song she knew in her past life. Has Hoid visited Scadrial before? Did he work with Vin’s past life, someone who knew that song? That’s a very Hoid thing to do; hum a song from a bygone era that no one living knows (except Vin has a vague memory of it because of her past life). And, hey, let’s go down the rabbit hole. Hoid was looking for the Well of Ascension to get a Lerasium bead. Vin’s previous life might have thought she was the Hero of Ages as well, looking for the Well of Ascension, even though the thousand years hadn’t passed. After she died, she stuck around, and saw who Preservation chose to take her power and use the Well of Ascension. And she (old Vin) decided to grant her experience and skill to the new Vin. Mad speculation, of course. We know precious little about what Hoid has been up to. I have no idea what Vin’s previous life was all about. So, please disregard the previous paragraph. (I’ll stand by the rest of this section, though.) Part 6: Kelsier So, this is a fairly complex undercurrent for Vin’s character. If Brandon was writing something like this into her arc, how is he going to get it across to the readers, now that the trilogy has been concluded? What are the ramifications on the future of the series? He doesn’t have plans for flashback books, so how would we ever learn about Vin’s past life? I’ve compared Vin’s previous life to Kelsier a number of times throughout the theory. That’s where I think it becomes relevant: not in learning about Vin, but as a key trait of a character in a future trilogy who Kelsier reincarnates into. He would grant his experiences, his motivations, to a new character, to aid them in… well, whatever a future Mistborn trilogies would be about. That way, we can learn about the circumstances of reincarnation, without going back to Vin. We learn it all through new eyes, and then someone like Harmony says, “I’ve seen this before. Although we didn’t realize it at the time, the Ascendant Warrior had the experiences of another to aid her. What you have is what remains of Kelsier, the Survivor. You can trust it.” Except, probably in much more epic language. That also would let us see some of that hinted-at Hoid/Kelsier animosity! Vin was known as the Heir to the Survivor. I don’t think she inherited anything from him, though; I think she was the Heir to someone else’s experiences. This hypothetical future incarnation of Kelsier, however… he would be the true Heir to the Survivor. Another mythical Hero who we thought was Vin this whole time, only to have the rug pulled out from under us. Again. Summary Okay, here’s the gist: Vin is so good at what she does because a dead person has passed along her experiences and skills. That is why Vin learn so quick and come up with her tricks, and it also contributes to her “identity crisis” between skaa and noblewoman. This might become relevant in the future if Kelsier reincarnates himself in the same fashion. Also, sorry for direct-quoting 30% of the text of the Mistborn trilogy throughout this post. Bands of Mourning/Secret History Update:
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  46. Maybe I'll get it right this time. Assuming you start with an unkeyed nicrosil metalmind that has F.Nicrosil and F.Aluminum, and give it to a Brass Ferring: 1. Ferring Taps Nicrosil. Gains F.Nicrosil and F.Aluminum. Now has three F. Abilities. 2. Ferring Stores in Aluminum, storing Identity. Doesn't matter what in. From now on, whatever he stores will be unkeyed. 3. Ferring Stores in Nicrosil, storing unkeyed F.Brass ability. Creates the Nicrosil part of the medallion. 4. Ferring Stops storing in Nicrosil. Regains F.Brass ability. 5. Ferring Stores in Brass, storing unkeyed heat. Creates the Brass part of the medallion. Those initial medallions would have come from the Sovereign. Also, Step 1 is the second question in your original post; I don't entirely get how it's possible, but it definitely works. It's how we have seen the Bands and the Medallions behave. Anyone can tap unkeyed Nicrosil; however, it is the only metalmind that behaves that way. So, at no point do you need to tap identity to do this. A nicrosil ferring doesn't need F.Aluminum to TAP someone else's metalmind, but to STORE in his own, so that he can store unkeyed Investiture. Did I finally understand what you're asking?
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  47. Those are really good questions, hoidhunter.. I wonder if that involves perception somehow.. So if you can shift completely into the cognitive so your physical form isn't here physically, what does that look like to someone standing next to you in the physical realm? And then, can you do the same in reverse -- shift your cognitive aspect so your cognitive "you" is completely in the physical realm?
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  48. Sorry, I know this is kind of an old thread, but I've been thinking about this recently. I like skaa's thoughts about always being in all realms, and simply perceiving one realm more than the others at a given time. I also like this: I'm still trying to visualize (if that's the right word) how physically traveling / moving your physical body would work, but it feels like these thoughts are going in the right direction. But now it's confusing to think about what Brandon posted on the recent AMA on Reddit: ________________ Q. is Hoid's home base a place that can only be accessed through Shadesmar? A. Hoid has a home base on Shadesmar, yes. ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ...So is Hoid "going" to the cognitive realm more than "shifting" to it? And if so, can someone's cognitive aspect visit the physical realm like their physical aspect can visit the cognitive realm?
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  49. Hello fellow Rithmatics nerd :-) I showed up to the signing with a binder full of rithmatics notes and asked more questions than was really reasonable, but I had decided to start with the more basic things (solid foundations are important), so I didn't get to lines of silencing. I also haven't really thought about how Lines of Vigor would interact with Lines of Silencing - that's an interesting theory. I did get it confirmed that LoV behave like light. Different things affect light and sound, so I'm not sure if I would expect it to work or not. I'll have to think more on that. Unless we can make circles using something other than the 9-point circle construction, those are the only options. (There is another theorem known colloquially as the Mystic Hexagon Theorem - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_theorem - that feels like it is in the same spirit that might be able to lead to other things. I haven't really explored it much in this context. The statement of the theorem is straightforward enough geometry, but the proof requires algebraic geometry, so it isn't particularly widely known even though it is really nifty) You can definitely use the 9 point construction to produce hyperbolas (though this doesn't guarantee that they can be LoW). Start with a triangle. If you use the orthocenter to form the quadrangle (see the first post I made about ellipses) you get a circle. If you pick any other point inside the triangle you get an ellipse. Extend the legs of the triangle. If you pick a point in one of the sections that is not adjacent to a side of the triangle, that new point can be used with two of the original points to form a triangle containing the third, so you get an ellipse (or possibly circle if you are tricky about it). If you pick a point in one of the sections that is adjacent to a side of the original triangle, then the three vertices and your new point form a convex quadrilateral and the 9-point construction produces a hyperbola. If you pick the fourth point actually on one of the sides (or side extensions) of the original triangle, then the 9-point construction leads to a pair of parallel lines - which is a degenerate conic. I'm fairly certain this covers all of the cases and that you can't get a parabola from the 9-point construction, but it's late and possible that my brain isn't functioning at full capacity. (Also, my scanner is being dumb right now, but I'll add pictures to clarify things when I get it working again.) Note: Non-degenerate conics can be a : circle, ellipse, hyperbola or parabola Degenerate conics can be: two lines (which can be intersecting or parallel), a single line (when the two lines coincide), a single point, or the empty set. Crazy theory time: What if LoW are closed conics and LoF are open conics? This would mean that Circles and Ellipses can both be LoW, but that other conics on their own can't. You might be able to do something funky piecing parts of curves together to get other LoW. I tried to ask about the Blad defense at the signing and got a look that fairly clearly seemed to say "you expect me to know that off the top of my head?" I'll have to try again armed with a sheet of possibilities for piecing together LoW rather than asking about Blad specifically next time he comes to Atlanta. [on that note, I like your idea for smoothing it, but it doesn't fit with the description in the book where we are told that the Blad defense is formed of 4 elliptic curves. Getting bind points to line up properly is going to take some serious work though.] There's also something funky going on with curvature and the strength of LoW, but I haven't quite thought that part though enough to explain my thoughts yet. Now, LoF. I got it confirmed that a LoV behaves like light and bounces off of a LoF like it is a mirror. Since a line is a degenerate conic and *much* easier to draw accurately than other conic segments, it would be easy to believe that someone discovered that straight line segments work as LoF and that since then everyone has just assumed that is the only option. However, in real world physics, elliptic, hyperbolic, spherical and parabolic mirrors are all legitimate and useful things. It would be amazing if we could have conic segment LoF. This would open so many new strategies for working with LoV... Also, I really want there to be Lines of some sort that behave like lenses when they interact with LoV. They likely wouldn't be practical for dueling, but they could lead to other interesting applications of rithmatics (we know they use it for at least some non-dueling things).
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