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  1. Hey all, and welcome back to our featured theories column. Today, I do not want to highlight any specific theory from the forums, but rather create a new and revised beginner's guide to the cosmere. For those of you that frequent 17th Shard, what I say here will not be news to you, but hopefully this will be helpful to those of you that are still trying to get a grasp on the scope of the cosmere. This will contain spoilers for many of Brandon's cosmere novels, (Elantris, Mistborn, Warbreaker, and Stormlight are the main ones) so read on with caution. Cosmere 102 Introduction The cosmere is a shared universe that many of Brandon Sanderson's novels, novellas, and short stories take place in. These stories take place on a variety of planets in a small star cluster in a dwarf galaxy. The cosmere works along very similar rules to ours, most of the time, but magic is built into it as well. The main stories of Brandon's that take place in the cosmere are The Stormlight Archive, Mistborn, Warbreaker, The Emperor's Soul, Elantris, and the forthcoming graphic novel White Sand. In the beginning of cosmere, there was one supreme being known as Adonalsium. To the best of our current knowledge, this god-like being controlled the powers of creation, a type of spiritual energy known as Investiture. Many planets existed that were populated with people, but one one planet in particular, Yolen, a group of people conspired to destroy Adonalsium. In an event known as the Shattering, Adonalsium was killed, his power split into sixteen fragments known as the Shards of Adonalsium. These fragments of power were taken up by sixteen individuals, called Vessels, who Ascended into what is essentially godhood. Each Shard has a drive, or intent, that it desires to act in accordance with which gives it its name, such as Honor or Ruin. When a person takes up a Shard, initially they remain themselves, but over time the Shard will influence them into acting in accordance with the Shard's intent, until they have little desire or will to take any action in conflict with their intent. These Shards settled on a variety of planets, where their Investiture gave rise to various magic systems, which are referred to as manifestations of Investiture. Shards may also themselves be split into smaller fragments known as Splinters. These Splinters often have a consciousness of their own. In addition to that, people that have at one point held a large portion of a Shard of Adonalsium and given it up are known as Slivers, their souls expanded by the spiritual energy. One of the Shards of Adonalsium named Odium wished to become the most powerful being in the cosmere. He has since traveled from world to world, Splintering and killing other Shards in his quest. The Shard Honor has managed to trap Odium in a single system, Greater Roshar for now, but it is unknown how long this will last. The structure of the cosmere is made up of three Realms, the Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual. Every object and person exists simultaneously in all three Realms, although typically it has a stronger presence in one of them. The Physical Realm works very much like our own universe, with similar laws of physics, planets and galaxies, and so on. The Cognitive Realm is the realm of thought. Ideas have power here, and every place where life, particularly sentient life, is present is represented in the Cognitive Realm. The Spiritual Realm is more mysterious, it is Realm of ideals, where connections between people and spiritual energy are crucial, and where time and location is far less relevant. Elantris and the Emperor's Soul These stories both take place on the same planet, a world known as Sel. There are two Shards of Adonalsium present on Sel, Devotion and Dominion, formerly held by Aona and Skai respectively. Both Shards were killed by another Shard Odium, long ago, and their power was Splintered, to prevent anyone else from taking up one of the Shards. Some of these Splinters are part of the seons and the skaze. The remaining power of both Shards is mostly present in the Dor, a reservoir of Investiture in the Cognitive Realm. There is technically only one magic system on Sel, but it is expressed differently depending on the region of Sel. AonDor, Dakhor, ChayShan, Bloodsealing, and Forgery are the known variations although others exist on the planet. Mistborn The Mistborn trilogy takes place on a planet known as Scadrial. There are two Shards of Adonalsium present on Scadrial, Preservation and Ruin. They were originally held by two men, Ati and Leras, who actually created the planet of Scadrial themselves. During the course of the Era 1Mistborn trilogy, Ati and Leras were both killed and Sazed took up both Ruin and Preservation. As Sazed holds both powers, they have commingled into a larger power that is called Harmony. There are three magic systems present on Scadrial, Allomancy which is derived from Preservation, Hemalurgy, which comes from Ruin, and Feruchemy, which is a balance system derived from both Shards. There are no Splinters of either Ruin or Preservation. As of recently, a third unknown Shard working under the guise of "Trell" has began exerting an influence on Scadrial, but this Shard is not on the planet itself as of yet. Warbreaker Warbreaker takes place on a planet called Nalthis, which is home to a single Shard named Endowment, held by a woman named Edgli. Awakening, the only magic system on the planet is derived from Endowment's powers. Endowment also chooses to call people back to Return, showing someone who has died a vision of a potential future and giving them the opportunity to Return to life and change that future. To do so, Endowment gives them a Splinter of her Shard, known on Nalthis as a divine Breath. The Stormlight Archive The Stormlight Archive takes place on a planet known as Roshar. There are several other planets in the system, including Braize, which will play a part later in The Stormlight Archive, and Ashyn, which will appear in a story called The Silence Divine one day. There are three Shards present in the solar system, referred to as Greater Roshar, Honor, Cultivation, and Odium. Honor was originally held by Tanavast and Odium is held by Rayse, but Cultivation's Vessel is unknown. Honor has been killed and Splintered by Odium, his power is present in the spren that form Nahel bonds with the Knights Radiant. Cultivation and what remains of Honor's power are on Roshar, but Odium currently resides on Braize. There are a variety of magic systems present on this planet, including Surgebinding, Voidbinding, and fabrial magic. Which Shard is responsible for which magic system is still unclear. White Sand (forthcoming) White Sand takes place on a world known as Taldain. This planet has only a single Shard, called Autonomy, held by a man named Bavadin. Very little is known about this world at present, but more information will become available once the graphic novel is released in a little over a month. Dragonsteel/Liar of Partinel (forthcoming) A final, very important planet is Yolen. All of the original Vessels that took up Shards of Adonalsium are from Yolen. Brandon will one day tell the story of the Shattering of Adonalsium, but it will not be for many years. Shadows for Silence/Sixth of the Dusk It is important to note that not every populated planet in the cosmere has a Shard on it. Many may only have a Splinter on it, or may have no influence from a Shard at all. Two such planets are Threnody and First of the Sun. Threnody appears in the short story Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, and First of the Sun appears in the short story Sixth of the Dusk. These planets may still have magics though, they manifest out of background spiritual energy and are less powerful than planets that have Shards on them. Threnody has the shades, which enforce the Simple Rules, and First of the Sun has the Aviar, birds that grant their owners a variety of powers. Worldhopping While one day many of these planets will develop faster-than-light travel and meet one another, they are not yet at this technological level. However, a limited number of people have learned how to use magic to travel from planet to planet. They make appearances in multiple stories and are often participating in behind the scenes struggles that the main characters of the novels know little to nothing about. Many Worldhoppers make use of Perpendicularities, areas on a planet, often in the form of a pool of liquid, where a Shard's power concentrates. They use these Perpendicularities as gateways into the Cognitive Realm, where all the planets are arranged adjacent to one another, divided by mountains. As interstellar space has little Cognitive activity, it is much smaller in the Cognitive Realm, and Worldhoppers may simply walk to another planet. Several Worldhoppers are members of a group called the Seventeenth Shard, a coalition of Worldhoppers with unknown goals. There are several Worldhoppers of a variety of importance in the cosmere: Hoid - A man who often appears in the guise of a beggar, fool, or storyteller, Hoid holds immense power. He makes use of Allomancy, Feruchemy, Awakening, and Lightweaving (not the type of the Radiants, but very similar) and has other powers that allow him to dilate time and travel to other planets. Hoid is ancient, he is from Yolen and was heavily involved in the Shattering of Adonalsium. Hoid hates Odium, and is attempting to counter him. He also goes by Wit, Dust, and other aliases Khriss - A woman from Taldain (a main character in White Sand) that is the author of the Ars Arcanum that appears in the end of Brandon's cosmere books. She studies magic systems scientifically, seeking to explain how they work. Nazh - A man from Threnody, Nazh works as Khriss' assistant. He often collects first hand documents such as maps, and drawings that appear in the books, which are occasionally annotated by him. Iyatil - A masked woman that appears on Roshar, Iyatil is a seasoned traveler, who has been on a variety of planets in the cosmere. Mraize - A man from Roshar who is heavily involved in the Ghostbloods, Mraize is Iyatil's student, who has been taken to a few planets under supervision from Iyatil.[/background] Vasher/Zahel - A Returned from Nalthis, Vasher has traveled to Roshar because it is easier to get Investiture there. He is a master Awakener currently serving as a swordmaster for Renarin Kholin. His Awakened sword Nightblood was patterned after Shardblades and is also currently on Roshar. Demoux - One of the rebels against the Lord Ruler, Demoux has since joined the Seventeenth Shard and traveled to Roshar seeking Hoid. Galladon - An Elantrian and friend to King Raoden, Galladon is also a member of the Seventeenth Shard that has traveled to Roshar in search of Hoid. Felt - A spy in the employ of House Venture, Felt is now on Roshar working in the army of Dalinar Kholin for unknown reasons. There are several other Worldhoppers whose identities are still unknown. There is a third man, known as Blunt, traveling with Demoux and Galladon trying to find Hoid, but his name has not been officially confirmed. There is also a Terriswoman that has appeared in Warbreaker and a female kandra Worldhopper hidden somewhere in the books. In addition to the Worldhoppers, there is a dragon known as Frost that lives on Yolen. Frost is heavily involved in the Seventeenth Shard, although it is unknown if he has ever traveled to a different planet. There is an overarching story to the cosmere that all of these characters play a role in, but Brandon does not wish to bring this to the forefront just yet. Eventually he will write books detailing some of the behind the scenes events, but for now, since Brandon wants his books to stand on their own, they mostly serve as easter eggs and other random pieces of information. I realize that this is a lot to absorb all at once, and we've only really began to scratch the surface. A good next step, if you want to know more, is to check out the Coppermind, where many of these topics are discussed in much greater detail. New Information There has been a plethora of new information since the last article, mostly from a signing in San Antonio and JordanCon. Thanks so much to Paladin Brewer and Ruru272 among many others that reported information, recorded signings, or transcribed information. You guys rock! San Antonio Odium has a lot more knowledge that Sazed because he has had the power longer, and there are forces purposely trying to limit Harmony's knowledge. Kandra cannot duplicate Parshendi carapace Spren and seons can travel to other worlds, although they are more bound to their home planet The theory that Shardplate guards are made from aluminum may be, "on the right track" Sazed cannot communicate with Ati and Leras Hoid didn't take both beads of lerasium for himself because of his innate ability to tell him where he needs to be and what he needs to do Jordan Con Spren can be combined together Khriss knows too much for Brandon to say what she knows about the "red haze" on Scadrial Wax has seen the influence of a Shard that is not Ruin, Preservation, or Harmony Odium's plan always involved not getting stuck on one planet Dragonsteel will now be a trilogy Official cosmere timeline should be out sometime after White Sand is released Lift will have a POV in Stormlight Three, in addition to the novella Brandon is writing Hoid's ability to speak various languages is magical Expanding ones soul is sometimes involved in Worldhopping Kelsier has hazel eyes The Ire's use of the word "fortune" indicates a very similar concept to Feruchemical fortune Felt, the spy from Scadrial, is the same Felt that appears in Words of Radiance Rashek did not create lerasium, he had to "go and get it" Nahel spren and seons are very similar things If a kandra could get a Dakhor monks bones, it would not grant them additional powers, but is a step in the right direction to gaining his abilities All things of deific level power in the cosmere are related to the Shards Highstorms on Roshar predate the Shattering of Adonalsium Worldhoppers have three ways of obtaining immortality, time dilation, slowed aging, or true agelessness The entire continent of Roshar is not crem, there is a real continent with mineral deposits below the crem-covered surface Khriss is very in favor of freedom of information, and willing to share her knowledge with those working for the good of the cosmere Nalthians with a Breath have more Innate Investiture than someone born on a planet without a Shard, but those without a Breath would have less If Brandon writes a sequel to Secret History, it would occur in the time interval between Mistborn Era 1 and Mistborn Era 2. There is a place in the cosmere where a lot of Worldhoppers tend to congregate Arcanum Unbounded, the cosmere story anthology, will contain an introduction to each planet by Khriss and a map of the solar systems in the cosmere. The Coppermind There's a lot of new work going into the Coppermind lately, and I'd like to thank everyone that helps out. Even correcting a typo or adding one piece of information in is incredibly helpful, and we appreciate all you do. Featured Article: Dalinar Kholin Much of the work on this article was done by a Greywatch and Kynan. This article is beautiful, full of art and in-depth information, exactly what we want from an article. There's only a little bit of work left to do on it, and it's a great example of what passionate wikiiers can do with a little bit of hard work. Kudos to everyone who contributed to this awesome article! Featured Fix-Me-Up: Susebron The current article on Susebron, God King of Hallandren could use a little love. It's got a good start, but it needs more information and better division between sections. Portions that talk about important relationships in his life, quotes, trivia about him, and other information of that nature are always a good addition to the regular baseline history and personality descriptions. Random Little-Known Fact: This random fact comes to us courtesy of one of the most foundational Q&As we've had, the Hero of Ages forum Q&A from Timewaster's Guide. This is probably the first time that Brandon's ideas for the overall cosmere began to be truly apparent. Here's the fact! So Hemalurgy was at least a little bit known before even Allomancy was well-known on Scadrial. I wonder if Brandon will ever do much expansion on the Classical Era of Scadrial before the Ascension of Rashek in the eventual Mistborn Worldbook, or if it will forever remain a mystery? Hopefully one day we'll know!Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next month for a more traditional featured theories column!
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  2. Night 3: A Stick on the Sea Gon Freecs was boating in a brilliant ocean when he received the news. The letter had come to him, passed straight through the Cognitive Realm. Mr. Freecs, you are charged with treason to the Shardic Coalition. Your punishment will be administered to you at exactly two minutes past noon. It was the event he'd been dreading for weeks, ever since his Aviar disappeared. He looked at the sun. Almost high noon. Was it enough time to get away? He turned the boat around, aiming towards the near shore. He had almost reached it when the power struck, ripping a hole in reality exactly around him, transporting him bodily to the great Beyond. ---------------------------------------------------- It was early in the morning when Kelen awoke on Scadrial. He had been there for some time now, arriving accidentally after his first foray into Shadesmar. Mist had accompanied him of course, and was at this moment hovering above him, apparently waiting for him to wake. She followed him around his routine in the morning, getting out of bed. Stick. He quickly dressed in his clothes, his brilliant white hair contrasting the dark clothing he wore to avoid ash stains. Storm this planet and its storming ash. Storming annoying, it was. Stick. His breakfast had already been prepared for him when he arrived in the dining room, made by the cooks and served by the servants of the man whose house he was currently lodging in. It was a Noble's meal of course, Kelen expected nothing less, especially given his lighteyes heritage, and high dahn, though the people here didn't quite seem to understand how important that made him. Stick. He enjoyed the meal regardless though, it was well made, if anything. After the meal, he left the house, about to go about his daily business. Yet on the steps, it struck him. He was a Stick. Assuming his true role, he lay down, and then promptly vanished. Gon Freecs (DeathClutch) was lynched. He was a Worldhopper! Kelen Taldar (AliasSheep) was killed. He was Hoid, the Stick, and the Scapegoat! Vote Tally: Deathclutch(12): Nyali, Conquestor, Lopen, AliasSheep, Araris, Leif, The Young Bard, Alvron, Mark, Amanuensis, Arrenae, Deathclutch Mailliw(1): Mailliw Thanks to AliasSheep for writing his own death sequence. Day 3 is over! Night 3 will last 24 hours.
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  3. 17S has passed 400,000 posts which is kind of insane when you think about it. Keep on being awesome, guys and gals.
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  4. If you're going that route, it would have to be in reverse; play Vanilla's, prove activity, then get Epic's. Then repeat that process to get a High Epic; otherwise, it leaves the possibility to only have one High Epic character and not play anything else at all. Which is part of the problem to begin with, isn't it?
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  5. There was a fake bomb threat at my school today. Annoying. So the students were all evacuated to the football field and told to wait while Officers searched the school. Being the kind of person I am, I had a deck of cards on me. As did several other students. When the Faculty came to bring us back to class, they found a large portion of the student body participating in a poker tournament.
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  6. Gammax formed a little ball of fire, directing it into the pile of twigs and kindling he had gathered at his small campsite. It was really more or less just a blank spot where nobody else had set up yet, so he decided to plop down here for the night. He still didn't know who he could trust out there. Maybe it was the Traitors out there who had planted these memories in his brain. He would find them and make them pay for what they had done to him. Sadly, the small little ball of fire was the most he could manage before he exhausted the extent of his Ignus powers, so he let go of the magic. He still wasn't used to the idea of the elemental magic. He shook his head and took another look around the sprawling camp spreading out around him as people started to get settled in themselves. He could see small little clusters and groups of people whispering and secreting amongst themselves. Friends, or enemies who couldn't be trusted? He heard a loud commotion over behind his shoulder and turned around to see some guy starting to bark a bunch of commands and orders around, commanding everybody's attention. And apparently trying to dictate what everyone should do. He didn't outright tell people to listen to him, no that wouldn't be subtle enough. But put enough good ideas out there, and people get the habit of listening to whatever you say after awhile. Gammax remembered pulling a trick or two like that before. He just couldn't remember where or when. Blasted memories. Either way, there were a few people he decided to keep an eye on. At least to watch his own back. I suppose I'll put a tentative vote on Joe for now, mostly for old times sake. But also, I do remember the usual trick of being the center of attention as Eliminator, and trying to take charge of things from the get go as an Eliminator, so I'll be a little bit wary. Call me paranoid. Also, a list of priorities and targets almost always accomplishes nothing, as there's really no good way to even predict who the eliminators will even try and hit the first cycle. This game might be a little different, of course, as that public list of one of the Powers each player has is a very useful tool -- for both village and traitors. I am only lv 1 Fire also myself, so I can change a vote when needed. I can also neither confirm nor deny any other power(s) I may or may not have.
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  7. Welcome to the Shard! Elantris would be my next recommendation, then Warbreaker and then of course the Stormlight Archive. Stormlight is probably Brandons best written series but I'd recommend the other two first for some more background on the cosmere in general. Also we run a Reckoners Roleplay in the RP section of the Shard if you'd like to stop by and say hi. Or just check out some of the insanity
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  8. Ooh, ooh, I've got this.Step 1: Throw weasels and other assorted rodents in a circular fashion. This creates a 'weasel wall' she will be unlikely to attempt crossing. This also adds to an aura of insanity, thus lowering the chances of her remaining attracted to you. Step 2: Grin madly and quote unstable, murderous book & movie characters. I suggest Zane from Mistborn and the Joker from Batman as good starting points. Step 3: Begin yodeling loudly whilst brandishing a large weapon- preferably an Uruk-Hai scimitar. Step 4: Remain single for the rest of your life. Step 5: ??? Step : Profit! You're welcome.
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  9. Hello, I am DeadlyArrow and i like the mistborn books very much. My Friend (Destroyer_Yaxley) showed them to me, and since then, i can't stop with reading! Now, i am in the first book of Part 2 of Mistborn (The Alloy of Law). After Mistborn i want to read Stormlight Archive. I know, not very good english, i am from Germany. DeadlyArrow
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  10. Hey everyone!! I'm Andy, I love reading, and Brandon Sanderson is probably my favourite author at the moment I've read the first 3 Reckoners books before anything else, and LOVED them. Have Calamity to read, will probably crack it out over the next few days. But the entire Mistborn series, is by far my favourite set of books ever. Finished Bands of Mourning a couple of days back, and it blew me away! So I read Mistborn: Secret History yesterday, and I am now desperate for something more to read! I started browsing the Internet, and from what I can gather, Brandons other books, are based on other shards? Can someone help me on what to read next? I've tried not to read too much into the other books, in case I stumble upon spoilers, so I am really not sure where to head! Thanks all!!
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  11. Happy International Turtle Day!
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  12. Enjoy : Kinda a spoiler if you haven't seen last night's episode:
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  13. We have WoB, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QIgYB34Q4u1fHL-6tnEM8zqt-Eifq7did4mV0-zBmlk/edit?pref=2&pli=1, that Hoid does in fact have allomancy. [00:15:42] Questioner: Can you share any abilities that Hoid has accrued so far in the books, has he-- I can't even pronounce the L-word... Brandon: Yes, lerasium, he is indeed an Allomancer. That has happened. I haven't confirmed much else, but he does have that.
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  14. I'm curious that they, like the Worldbringers, are interestingly absent from the present time of the stories we read. Only the Worldsingers seem to be around, and even their numbers are small (so small that Hoid was the master to Sigzil). Hoid seems very interested in spreading awareness about the past. It seems like something (or someone else) doesn't want that at all.
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  15. All right, I'mma put my two cents in now. Apologies if my feedback is a bit erratic. 1) I am opposed to the idea of making new players adopt an Epic to start with. Like Coma, I believe one of the big draws to this game is the ability to write about the character that you want to write about. Think of all the best characters in the RP today, how many of them came from in-the-moment genius that inspired or directly created the character? All three of my main gals did, for example. Requiring new players to adopt a character as their first character will likely push them away and turn them off to the idea of playing. I'd like the RP be inclusive, rather than exclusive. 1.5) With that said, requiring adoption for a subsequent character is not a bad thing. Again there will be times where this could work against us, as people will get ideas for characters while writing the story (Corvallis ex: Broadcast, Skinsaver (I think), etc.), and so I believe that this rule should be a soft one, essentially one that we are willing to break if the idea being pitched is a good one. 2) Intro town. I like the idea, for sure, and considering the speed with which this RP moves, having them post a few times in an intro thread won't actually cause them to miss much. To make this work, though, the town needs to be outside of canon completely. If it's not, then we have to deal with time discrepancies for travel, the fact that none of the characters can start as having been established in the city already, and the issue of getting an outsider involved in important events. I feel we should leave the character's intro into a city up to the writer, so if they want to be a new arrival that's okay, and if they instead want their character to have been in the background this whole time that's okay too. 2.5) Epic of the Week leading the intro town could be difficult. That means that the owner of the EotW must be more active during their period of leader. It also means that when choosing an EotW, you're restricted to those who have the time to lead the intro thread. For example, let's say that Lightwards is the next EotW. That would require Kobold to become much more active that he currently is, because he needs to lead that intro thread in addition to being active in his actual threads. I definitely like the idea of a rotation, but perhaps make it more voluntary (considering there will be ups and downs to the rate of newcomers). 3) High Epic/Powerful Epic restrictions; I like 'em. A lot. 4) Adoption, in general, I think is a good idea. In practice it's going to prove difficult. Different writers give different voices to each character, and the voice that a character's creator gave them will likely be different from the voice an adopter gives them. I feel we need a rule to encourage adoption over creation, but as I said in the beginning we shouldn't force adoption from the get go. In terms of doing my part, I'm considering using Gleeman's Mannequin for my own purposes here soon, if Corvallis folk are okay with it, potentially ToneDeath as well since he pairs with Broadcast nicely. As for ShatterShot, she sounds like an excellent victim for a villain if Corolla (was that her name?) isn't coming back. Shattershot is also an easy post to hide since she didn't interact with anyone. Speaking of hiding... 5) I personally feel we should only hide posts if they are completely self contained. In other words, if there is any little interaction with another player, it needs to stay. The last thing we want to do is make things confusing for people trying to read our threads (including future versions of ourselves). But when you've got posts like the single Shattershot post, hiding is likely the best option. I don't think I missed anything. If I did I'll chime in later as well.
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  16. Might as well share: Gender: Female. Sex: Transwoman. Orientation: Pansexual. Romantic Paradigm: Polyamory. Maritial Status: Married. EDIT: Science has fixed this. Same sex couples of two cisgendered individuals are now capable of having biological children, with the addition of some science. It's easier and significantly cheaper for two ciswomen, but their child will always be a girl due to how genetics works. I'll put the rest of this post behind a spoiler tag because some people are bothered by frank discussions of human reproduction:
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  17. Maybe "being rippen apart by the ravaging Dor" it's quite a hard way to leave Sel. Much more in Elantris after the Reod, because the Dor concentrated there have no release before the fix of city.
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  18. I doubt it's a lerasium alloy, just because that would cause massive problems plotwise. If people can extract lerasium from ettmetal, it wouldn't take long for them to try burning it.
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  19. I seem to have somehow arranged a date for myself. Excuse me while I hyperventilate into a paper bag.
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  20. I have been developing a theory on why bodies of water in the cognitive realms of the planets we have seen seem to manifest as solid bodies while everything else seems to be incorporeal. I think that Leras actually gave us the answer. When Kelsier approaches the lake where he meets Khriss and Nazh he is weirded out by the fact that the mists seem to "congeal" where the lake begins. Leras remarks that this is because of the way men think and "where they are likely to pass." I think that what he is saying here is that bodies of water congeal like this because of how we observe things and specifically how we perceive bodies of water, especially how we think of them in terms of how we move through them. I think that as humans we think of bodies of water as one entity. When I say "The Atlantic Ocean" we don't think of the individual atoms of water, or even individual different regions of the land, but rather we think of it as one mass. One entity. However, when I'm walking down a sidewalk I think of every block of concrete, every rock and blade of grass. So when human ideas shape these different things bodies of water are shaped into one mass, while land is seen as many different things at once. Let me know what you guys think.
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  21. This is... something... that I came up with. Its inspired by the Wheel of Time ISAM summaries. I'm sorry. PART ZERO: FROM SHINOVAR WITH LOVE Szeth: I don’t want to kill the king, but I must. Because Rock. Dalinar: I’m drunk. *Faints* Jasnah: I’m doing NOTHING OF IMPORTANCE Szeth: Gavilar! Why won't you kill me?!? (SZETH mostly kills GAVILAR) Gavilar: You must tell my brother he must get what he cannot have. (GAVILAR holds out PLOT DEVICE) Gavilar: Its dangerous to go alone. Take this PART ONE: ALETHI HISTORY X Cenn: I’m gonna die, aren’t I? Dallet: Friggin n00bs. Kaladin: I’m a squadleader! (A SHARDBEARER attacks. The KALADIN’S SQUAD is WIPED OUT.) FOUR MONTHS LATER Shallan: I’m on a boat! FIVE MONTHS LATER Kaladin: I’m a slave. Life sucks. Syl: Hello Kaladin (Looks away). D..don’t get the wrong idea. I...it’s not like I want to make you a Surgebinder or anything. Kaladin: How do you know my name? Syl: How do you know your name, bakka! Meanwhile, SOMEWHERE ELSE Shallan: I’m a young noblewoman from a quaint farming village. Jasnah: What do you want? I’m very busy. The narwhal bacons at midnight. Shallan: BLAM! EXTRA HERESY!- I mean, I want to be your ward. Yeah. Jasnah: Then jump off that cliff. Scientifically. (SHALLAN jumps off CLIFF. She survives SOMEHOW) Jasnah: You think you’re qualified to be my ward? Why is that? Shallan: I’m naive and inexperienced, have no formal training, and my house is in ruins. Jasnah: And you want to become my apprentice as an opportunity to gain the fiscal stability needed to gain the capital loan to open your own restaurant in order to raise the revenue to save your family. Shallan: Wait... what? Umm... yes. That’s it exactly. Jasnah: Shut up and take my money. Meanwhile, at the SHATTERED PLAINS Kaladin: Please let me fight again. Assignment Woman: You want to fight? Fight has five letters, which is one fewer than sphere! And one sphere is what a slave makes in a day! You want to steal our spheres! Send him to bridge four! (An AIR RAID SIREN sounds) Gaz: Time for a bridge run. Get in line, lordling! (HOURS PASS while KALADIN and BRIDGE FOUR carry the bridge) Kaladin: I can’t wait till we get there. Parshendi: (singing) Oh I just can’t wait to be king~ Gaz: We’re here. Cross and reverse, then charge the chasm! Parshendi: Dakka dakka. (The BRIDGEMENT CHARGE. It SUCKS, and MOST of them DIE, except KALADIN, who FAINTS) Syl: Wake up, Kaladin! You’re going to be late for the bridge run! Kaladin: Ugg... Syl: Not that I came all the way out here f-f-for you or anything! I just happened to be passing by. 3 σx= 1 WEEKS LATER (KALADIN is on a FABRIAL-TRAIN, clutching his FABRIAL-SDAT) Kaladin: Everyone else is dead. My life sucks. NINE YEARS AGO Kaladin’s Dad: This girl made one rude gesture too many, so we’re taking her finger. Kaladin: Is that even legal? Kaladin’s Dad: I’m a back-alley surgeon. What do I care? PRESENT DAY (KALADIN walks to a CLIFF to consider COMMITTING SUICIDE) Syl: I-I made one Blackbane leaf too many, and I was w-wondering if you wanted it. N-not that I made it just for you or anything. (KALADIN slowly grasps the leaf while EMOTIONAL MUSIC plays) Kaladin: I- (KALADIN turns away from the CHASM, which EXPLODES behind him. DRAMATIC MUSIC plays) Kaladin: TODAY, I’M CANCELING THE BRIDGEPOCALYPSE!
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  22. http://kirrys.tumblr.com
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  23. Hey, all. Brandon here. With the release of this book, there have been some minor updates to continuity that I think some of you will find relevant. The big one has to do with Hoid's visit to Terris in The Well of Ascension. For those unfamiliar with the backstory, this little behind-the-scenes action has been a source of some consistent problems. The outline, and original draft, of Well had Vin and Elend traveling up to Terris, then into the mountains, to find the Well itself. This was a huge momentum killer in the story. Having your cityscape-focused book suddenly turn into a traveling quest fantasy for a few chapters felt very out of place, and required too much strange time-jumping to make it work. In revisions, I set about finding a way to repair this, and to overlap the Well of Ascension discovery with Vin's return to Luthadel. The end result worked much better, but I was forced to cut Hoid's cameo. (In the form of footsteps in the snow and frost leading to the Well, hinting that someone had been there just before her.) I knew where Hoid was, and added in the cameo of him with the Terris people—with the plan still being that he visited the Well sometime during the days after Vin's return to the city. Well, in working on Secret History, I found that this had a problem with it. Hoid had to already know where the Well is, because after the destruction of the Pits, he'd need to use the Well to return to Scadrial after leaving in the middle of book one to attend to certain other events. If you've read the story, you know this is how I proceeded. Official continuity is that Hoid went up to Terris after visiting the Well, as he had things to do there. He did not go looking for the Well. This doesn't change continuity for any of the books, though it does render one of the annotations for Well obsolete. Otherwise, I'm quite pleased about this novella. I wasn't certain how it would go, writing something using threads I'd left dangling ten years ago. (You should thank the beta readers, who are all Sharders I believe, for their continuity help. They made me aware pf several things I needed to make much more clear from the original draft, so that canon would be more crisp.) I know there has been a lot of discussion regarding which times when someone appears to hear Kelsier's voice were actually Kelsier. The story offers the official canon for this as well. It's nice to finally be able to give the answers to some longtime fan questions, such as what spooked Vin during her inspection of Hoid and what was up with Preservation and the Mist Spirit. It's entirely possible that, despite our efforts, we slipped up and made some continuity error here or there. If so, I'm terribly sorry! This one has been particularly challenging to do. Thanks, as always, for reading.
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  24. The way Tumblr uses it, it means, "because of an accident of birth, you belong to one or more classes that have traditionally been afforded more advantages (male, cis, white, etc.) and so we are choosing to dismiss your opinion as regressive, self-serving, and ill-informed, unless it aligns perfectly with the one we ourselves express." The actual definition is a bit more nuanced, but as you may have guessed, the popular Tumblrian use has left a bad taste in my mouth.
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  25. Everyone else thinks Wax looks like Tom Cruise on every cover, right? It's not just me?
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  26. Joe, that really seems like you saying "I'm playing like an eliminator on purpose even though I'm not one, so don't worry at all." I also really don't believe Phatts claim of at least 4 powers. That seems absurdly unbalanced. Random Fun Fact That I Just Learned: A process called stenoincremental casting allows you to remove the first set of earthly impurities from one metal and keep the rest unmelted even if they are in the same ore.
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  27. So after I saw something that said that the gemstone in a sphere affects the light color, I started thinking about Gavilar's sphere. I always assumed that it contained investiture from Odium as opposed to Honor. My new conclusion however, is that the gemstone could have corrupted the stormlight, producing the same effect as nightblood's corrupted investiture. We have a WOB that the investiture that fuels nightblood is not gone, simply unusable. If Gavilar had figured out how to manipulate this type of investitiure the possibilities for its uses would be huge, because that investiture would not be influenced by a shard.
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  28. Actually to create a medallion you need F-Nicrosil, F-Alluminium and every powers you want to put in the medallion. But probably you may use another medalion to provide yourself with the needed powers, for example a Medalion with F-Nicrosil (well every medallion have this) and F-Alluminium. With this "Alpha Medallion" a Coinshooter may in theory create another medallion with A-Steal powers. The "limit" we saw with the Medallion's power are probably caused by some Interference between Spiritweb from different Sources.
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  29. yes. Shen is Darth maul. it all makes sense now.
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  30. Jeez, that write-up was terrifying. I did not think that was going to turn out to be a dream. :/ I was thinking about killing Araris, just for the name, but then I decided he'd waited for this game too long. He, apparently, has no such compunctions!
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  31. You're right. I just automatically assumed that most Sharders would be interested in sf/f. If you have suggestions that aren't in that genre, but think that Sharders would be interested, then by all means they can be reviewed as well. I'll fix up the OP now.
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  32. Seems rather complex to set up, and difficult to play casually (although of course we are talking Metalborn players, there's a minority of them to start with). In addition, depending on the size of the field, the maze-like home bases and the misty areas, much of play could be visually impeded by those obstacles. (hard to develop a pro scene for it when spectators can't see play)
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  33. It took a bit longer to get back to Astoria than Corpsemaster would have liked, what with the broken windshield and all, but he managed. Within two hours' time, he found himself passing the outermost diamond structures in the city, and was greeted by a handful of soldiers. They waved him in after a quick verification of his identity. Corpsemaster's peripatetic tendencies were well known to the border guards, and the howls and moans coming from the back of his truck didn't seem to make them too eager to linger near him. The sentiment was understandable, though unenlightened. Mortals never seemed to get how much more interesting the human body became post-mortem. Corpsemaster didn't have far to drive before reaching his territory. The entrance to The Catacombs was located in the higher portions of Astoria, built underneath an old, pre-Calamity golf course. There weren't any buildings there, so Lucentia had simply created a large, hollow diamond sphere above the only exit to ensure that anyone venturing into the tunnels would be reminded of her authority. Though Corpsemaster ruled most of tunnels that made up The Catacombs, he couldn't claim to have created them. That honor went to Gorgon, an Epic whose wounds spewed out a corrosive acid. Even now, eight years after his work began, Gorgon was still down there somewhere, melting away the stone underneath Astoria in some sort of insane, creative binge. The Catacombs stretched down hundreds of meters now, and even Corpsemaster didn't know where some of the deepest, darkest, ones went. Monsters creeped around down there, Echidna's spawn, and some of those possessed strange, eldritch powers to alter the tunnels' properties. You never really knew what you'd find in The Catacombs, if you explored long enough. But all of that was in the deeper portions of the caverns. The older, shallower sections belonged to Corpsemaster, and he liked to think that his usage of the space was a bit more enlightened. Thanks to Lightwrought and the Financier, Astoria was never short on food and/or random garbage, so he had taken the opportunity to just sort of corral vanillas in there and see what happened. Food, junk, and captives went in, some semblance of civilized society came out. The best part was that it was his civilized society, not to mention that he had an easy supply of corpses,should the need arise. It was a system that worked for him. Every Epic needed someone to rule, after all. Corpsemaster smiled wryly as he reached the structure built above The Catacombs' sole entrance and his corpselings dragged the vanilla out of the truckbed and into the tunnels. No explanations. No threats. The other denizens of the tunnels would fill him in on the rules soon enough. All Corpsemaster had to do was sit back and patrol, and his domain would flourish. Now, time to relax and watch some television.
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  34. We had a similar problem starting out with Mistborn: The Inquisition with Mistborn characters--both with there being too many Mistborn in proportion to other characters, AND with people creating a Mistborn and taking up one of those valuable spots, and then leaving. How we ended up dealing with it officially is by saying that people cannot make Mistborn as first characters, and an unofficial policy of not letting people write a Mistborn (or Inquisitor) until they write at least three characters, and show an intention to stick around on the site. We still have a lot of Mistings as first characters in comparison to regular people, but I think that's okay. How I've dealt with it in my head canon is by saying that although we have more Mistborn player characters than we should in proportion to other Mistborn characters, that number is still under 20 total, which is realistic for the number of Mistborn in the Final Empire. Because in the books, most Mistborn are tied to Great Houses, it makes sense that many of the Mistborn in the whole empire would be in Luthadel. So, my head-canon is that we are just RPing most of the existing Mistborn in the empire. Anyways, for the Reckoners RP, the issue I see is mostly with high epics. What I would say is that new players cannot make a High Epic as their first character. It would be a little unfair since others among us have done this, but I think part of managing a growing RP is creating rules and restrictions as the story grows and starts to become more difficult to manage. I would say adjusting our Head-canon to say that we are RPing most of the existing High Epics in Oregon could help with the plausibility as well (though we still might be over capacity). Hopefully restricting high epics will also encourage people to be more creative with their power-sets when making first characters. For the purpose of this restriction, I would include Epics like Regalia, who don't technically have a PI but are extremely powerful, as a High Epic. Such epics can be reserved for players who show a commitment to stick around and continue to play in the RP. For regular epics, it might be difficult to restrict people from making them first, since epics are what a lot of people come here to write about. Perhaps a rule saying that, if your first character is an epic, you must make a Vanilla before making more epics might work? These are just my opinions, so feel free to disagree.
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  35. If this is what you're talking about, the color is important because it affects soulcasting the 10 essences. I see SL loss as a function of half life. A good cut increases half life, size does not. I don't know how color affects it, independent of size and quality.
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  36. I think this WoB just says he doesn't know how to do it not that it is impossible.
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  37. A cello cover of the Muse song "The Resistance" by 2Cellos.
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  38. We have a couple of WoB (but now I have not time to search) that say that a perfect cut gemstone doesn't lose Stormlight and that also that gemstone will Glow because the Glow isn't related to the Stormlight leaking out. Like you said a bigger gemstone may keep more Stormlight, and probably the lost can't grow more faster than his storage capacity... much more if the lost is something "imperfection related"... it's possible that a bigger gemstone may have less than a proportional number of imperfection in his structure.
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  39. We're not entirely sure of how it all works, but we do know that larger gems and/or cut gems hold stormlight longer. Also, larger gems glow brighter. If we assume that emitting photons is correlated to stormlight loss (which might not be true since it's invested light) then we can take that to mean that larger gems lose light faster. Anyway, as you increase the size of the gem the volume increases faster than the surface area. If stormlight loss is proportional to surface area and stormlight capacity is proportional to volume, then the larger gems will be brighter, but also go completely dun later than smaller gems. The idea here is that when light bounces around the gem some of it will reflect back into the gem and some will pass out of it. A polished surface will reflect better, and if cut properly you can get a lot of the light to reflect back completely when it hits a given surface. The concept of storing the gems together to prevent loss is a good one, but might not improve results much. If the cut of the gem holds in more light because of total internal reflection (TIR), then that same TIR will keep light from entering at the correct angle to keep it inside. So light from one sphere probably won't get stored in the neighboring sphere, in which case it's just bouncing around your shielded container. But what is it shielded with? Metal is highly absorptive. If we had modern tools and chemistry, I wonder if it would be possible to cover the spheres in a high-reflection coating designed for their specific wavelength range. There was some work at my university where they dipped things in a solution that created self-assembling high-reflection coatings and the solution could be tuned to all visible wavelengths.
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  40. I'm currently trying to figure out exactly how I ppicture Saze, and this is definitely my best attempt. Everything about his face always seemed soft, rounded, and long from Brandon's description.. So here I tried to convey that. Saze has an oval head, elongated ears, is tall, is skinny, is bald, wears traditional Terris robes, and is very strange for a Terrisman. And this is pre-Assention Sazed. To be clear.

    © Character is Brandon's, but my interpretation is mine.

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  41. Is this another cameo? Is Brandon trying to tell us something more about this enigmatic character? What more is hidden in this post!? Just kidding. Thanks for the story, it was an absolute delight to read.
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  42. Pffft. Perhaps this sounds insensitive of me, but I find the whole gender debate just a tad bit silly. I have twirled around in the middle of a rainstorm, belting My Little Pony songs at the top of my lungs before skipping through a field of wet flowers. If you doubt my sincerity in that statement, ask any of my family members. They'll collaborate my statement. The point is, I carry a purse, watch ponies, skip when I feel like it, and am not above batting my eyelashes and making my cousins feel uncomfortable by asking if they think I'm pretty. These are behaviors that are generally categorized as female, but as Skaa astutely observed, social constructs do as social constructs do. I was born male. As far as I'm concerned, being male is my birthright, and I get to choose what that means. If I decide that skipping through a field of flowers is male, then it is. If I decide that carrying a pink floral purse in public is male, then it is. I don't "identify" as female because to me, changing the way I identify myself is conceding defeat. It would be admitting that their definition of being male is unarguable, and that the only way to act in the way you like is to change your gender. I'd rather make my own rules about what being male means than try to sort myself onto the expansive gender-queer spectrum. I'm not really male, I'm not female, I'm not really transgender or asexual... I'm Kobold King, and that means exactly what I say it means. Nothing more, nothing less. EDIT: Disclaimer, the purse I carry isn't actually my own. It's my mother's. While my father always holds it at arm's length as if he worries it will bite him, I feel no qualms about wandering across the supermarket with it slung over my arm beside me. Just thought I'd avoid giving the impression that I am a purse aficionado, because while purses are neither male nor female, they're not really Kobold King either. I prefer deep pockets.
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  43. This is the spitting image of Dalinar in my mind. You've got this pinned down.
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  44. I'm actually of the mind that the cast of this movie should be new people, not necessarily famous, but still good actors. Part of that is because I'd like to audition for Spook, but that's beside the point.
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  45. I have an idea and i want to run it by you guys real quick. So our current plan is to have the seekers (i honestly believe there are two) seek me tonight, then someone else the next night to use as a spokesperson, then tell that person that I'm clean and then the spokesperson tells the thread. the problems with this are 1) it delays everything a day and 2) an intelligent inquisitor would target the spokesperson to convert, thereby gaining the identities of both seekers. My new plan is the after the seekers seek me, they start a chain PM saying "seekers say that peng is clean. (or an inquisitor if that's the result of the seeking) send a copy of this message to two other players." everyone PMs this message around, and everyone learns the results of the seeking and no one will know who started it. Thoughts?
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  46. Aw, how cute. You guys think that I gave the Inquisitor the same abilities as established roles. I love it. Windrunner: It's mostly just for fun and identity building. Besides, why place it within a setting if you didn't get to play with that setting a bit? Play it up only as much as you want. Thanks for being a good sport about it though!
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  47. Vin will be played by Lindsay Wagner, the title will be changed to The Allomantic Woman, and everytime she Steeljumps they will play the sound shananananananana....
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  48. Mine is procrastination. I put everything off till tomorrow. Including things like serious wounds
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  49. Way late... But Deus Ex Biotica had the best picks EVER for AOL, as for mistborn, I saw somebody mention Liam Neeson for Kelsier, which is cool, but I think I'd rather him as Clubs. As for Kelsier, I like the guy who played Faramir/spartan guy from 300. I can't see anyone playing Vin the way I pictured her, and I love Chloe Moretz, but only in comedy roles. She was awesome in kickass and 500 days of summer, and looks good in dark shadows, but I didn't really like her in let me in or Hugo, her more dramatic roles.
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  50. since when was Sazed supposed to be black, cuz tons of you guys are proposing black guys to play him? was he described that way in mistborn?
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