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I realized that this happened a little while ago, but I hadn't posted it here (what a terrible oversight!) In my degree program, the last 8 months of courses before you graduate are spent working on a huge ending project (known as a Capstone project). A month or two ago my team and I went to talk to a prof, and we got accepted to work on his project. His project is a lower-limb exoskeleton. Yes. That means I'm gonna spend Jan-Aug 2017 building Iron Man's pants. I am so excited about this

I paid off my car and the last of my debt accrued from moving to Utah three years ago. This means that the only debt I have left is $800 of my student loans, so that will be paid off by March at the latest, which makes me insanely happy. I started taking iron supplements to help my iron deficiency and now I don't feel drained all the time. I learned how to manage stress (something I'd never had to learn before because stress usually just bounces off of me). I took back control of my life. I confronted someone who used me for over a year, manipulating me, and I told him exactly how I felt about what he'd done and decided I wasn't going to let him or what happened hold me back anymore. I learned how to stand up for myself, at least a bit. And lastly, I told a guy I like that I liked him, and it didn't end terribly (didn't end with roses and butterflies either, but at least it didn't go poorly, which is how that usually goes for me).

RIP Carrie Fisher, drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra.

Mistborn Edgedancer

I've been a cosmere fan(atic) for a long time.... and I've decided to let the cosmere books ruin my internet history even further! Hello cosmere people. I'm mostly active on tumblr, but I'm excited to be joining here on the site. ;p

XD I thought of this one while listening to the Kaladin and Szeth fight. Szeth kept seeing what Kaladin was doing, like Syl becoming a spear/shield/halberd and so on, and kept yelling impossible!!

Every Scadrian, being of Preservation and Ruin, has some tiny theoretical latent potential ("seeds") in the Metallic Arts: But for most people, this is never enough to actually manifest (except possibly if the Mists get involved). For those whose potential is strong enough, though, Snapping is possible. I'd suggest that every Scadrian specifically has some degree of Allomantic potential in each metal. Usually, when someone Snaps, damage to their soul creates a "crack" allowing the power of Preservation to flow through - turning the latent potential into an actual ability. Thus, probably, a person has (by random chance - there are Allomantic bloodlines, but there don't seem to be specific lines of Coinshots or Thugs or Soothers) one metal's potential just slightly stronger than the others. At the moment of Snapping, that "point in the spiritweb" hits its critical threshold and activates first - and all the power flows through it, so none of the other metals' points activate. It's like pouring water into a cup with a hole in the bottom, so it flows out as quickly as in. In very rare cases, though, there's just so much Preservation coming through that that first point can't use it up, can't keep up with the inflow. In that case it's like using a garden hose to fill a cup with a pinhole in the bottom - the water can't get out fast enough, and just sloshes around. Then all the metals' points are pushed past the critical threshold, and they all activate practically simultaneously - and the person becomes a full Mistborn. (Savantism, then, is the widening of that "pinhole" by pushing too much water - Preservation power/Investiture - through it.) Originally, it seems that Feruchemy always came with the full set of metals. This makes sense, since Feruchemy doesn't draw on an external source of power and doesn't involve a Snapping event. But in Era 2, the spiritual DNA has mixed, and the Feruchemy access mechanism has gotten "stuck to" and largely overridden by the Allomancy one, creating Ferrings.

So I was just at my friends wedding. After all the serious ceremony is done and dancing has started, she pressed a button on her plain white shoes and the rim of the soles lit up multicoloured. Awesomeness.

I was hoping for one more day to spend with the siblings....and lo and behold, my flight was overbooked. So I'll be leaving tomorrow.

I think the whole Nale's point wasn't about the Listener but instead of the Voidspren. To him the Voidbringer Szeth saw, are the Voidspren stucked on Roshar from the last Desolation, with new Listener host...but nothing new on Roshar's History (as some Dalinar's Vision showed)

OP has been updated with the writeup and eratta'ed information. Normally I wouldn't draw attention to it, but Elb says I have to since I did the writeup, and she wants a place to put the upvotes. (I think that you should upvote the OP, since she did all the work this rollover)

LG29: Day Three - Cataclysm Farallen Oniz walked carefully through his garden, watching his menagerie. Perfect pieces, frozen in time, each in the middle of whatever action had been most important to them. Preserved, all of them. He again breathed in a sigh of contentment. For a thousand years he had maintained this garden - a thousand years of protecting it against change and the power of entropy. With proper care, it could easily be kept perfect until the heat death of the universe - provided the Shards hadn't figured out a way to prevent that from happening. With the combined power of all sixteen, it was almost an inevitability that they would figure out that problem eventually. And so, with a little bit of luck and attention, his garden could last forever. Not just unimaginably long times, but forever. Perfectly Preserved. A little fire blossomed near one of his figures - a mortal. Frowning, he bent over it - someone was trying to interfere with his work in the Physical Realm! This one was a worldhopper, involved in...something or the other. It all seemed to blur together when he was here. He pushed a little more of his power into the worldhopper, Preserving it more. The fire winked out. Satisfied, he stood up again. Dark laughter sounded behind him. "I should have known you would occupy yourself with something as...sentimental as this." The voice was mocking, hateful. Farallen shivered. "Ah. The Lord of Hate. What brings you to visit?" He attempted to keep the fear out of his tone. He wasn't sure whether he'd succeeded. "Finishing what I started - all those years ago." Then there was only fire. Fire, and the baleful hate of the one who watched him burning. After a time, Odium looked around the remnants of the garden, melting under the heat of his power. Such a monument would be...satisfactory. Let the Cosmere tremble. The Lord of Hate reigned again. Conquestor was killed and Preservation was Shattered! Jondesu was a member of the 17th Shard! Day 3 has begun, and will end in 46 hours. Player List: 1. Assassin in Burgundy - First of the Game 2. Master Elodin - Second of the Signups 3. Jondesu - Quintus17th Shard 4. AliasSheep - Kelen Taldar 5. Darkness Ascendant - Kaldain Selblessed 6. A Joe in the Bush - Jack Tormander Returned 7. Doc12 - Silence 8. Kynedath - Desten Kyde 9. TheMightyLopen - Kaloo 10. Straw - Malum Farcimen 11. Young Bard - Serol 12. Magestar - Magestar 13. Alvron - Lorna 14. Dalinar Kholin - Sanya 15. Harambe - PUNisher 16. I_am_a_Stick - Stic 17. RubiksCube - cubefright archive 18. DroughtBringer - Ralar 19. Araris Valerian - Aralis 20. Arinian - Arinian 21. Zephrer - Tardeick 22. Conquestor - Farallen Oniz 23. Sart - Sam Trudite 24. Aonar Faileas - Nilan Izenry 25. Elenion - emissary of Mandos 26. Kasimir - Tenth of the Dusk

This has been in my head for a while, and I keep forgetting to post it, so hopefully it'll not be as rambling as I worry it will be xD Forgive me if this has already been speculated/shot down elsewhere! So, Brandon has been rather close lipped on the origins of Shardplate, if Kaladin is going to get his own, and we've theorised all kinds of things, like the Plate being made of non-sentient Spren locked into Plate forn the same way Spren are locked into non-living Shardblades... My thought/random theory is this. When a Radiant reaches the final Ideal of their Order, or progresses far enough, they create their own Shardplate... but through Stormlight manipulation. "But Rawrbert, you crazy, mad, lovable, handsome fool," I hear you say, "What would make you think that? Shardplate has to be more than just hardened Stormlight!" Well, you flattering reader, let me explain my way of thinking. We've seen Shallan can dim the Stormlight from her skin to blackness, and we've seen that as a Radiant progresses through their Ideals that holding and using Stormlight and Surges becomes easier and more natural to them. And from what I recall from Dalinar's visions, when he was fighting with and saw Radiants in their prime, their Shardplate glowed at the joints with inner light correspondending to their Order. What we DIDN'T see... was their skin glowing. At no point (Unless I'm recalling incorrectly, as I don't have the book in frony of me at the moment.) does Dalinar mention that the Radiants he sees' skin glow with light at all. Now, he doesn't specifically say that they AREN'T glowing, but that seems like the kind of detail everyone's favourite war dad would notice, especially when he instantly remarks on the glowing Plate in his head. This, along with Shardplate being powered by infused spheres, and that it can regrow when fed Stormlight, makes me think that a Surgebinder will be able to convert the Stormlight that would make their skin grow, or escape from their pores, into Shardplate, when they become proficient enough with metabolising/using it. This would also explain why the Radiants in the visions were able to summon and dismiss part of their armour at will, by simply reabsorbing the Stormlight they've hardened around their head to create a helm, or around their fist to make a gauntlet. I suspect the reason Brandon didn't have Dalinar see the dismissal/resummoning of the armour pieces to keep us guessing, since if it formed first from mist or from light we could pretty easily narrow down how it was happening. ^^ Of course it COULD maybe be summoned from the Cognitive Realm, a perfect ideal of armour for each Radiant.... Anyway, thoughts? Praises? Insults? ^-^ Hit meh!

Short version: Braize is (or contains) a giant gemstone, and Odium is stuck inside. I know this is really far-fetched, but I can't shake the idea. As far as I can tell, nobody has proposed it before, so I am proud to present here the popular Beatles Song: Rayse in the Sky with Diamonds. We know that spren can be trapped inside of gemstones. The type of gem and its cut determine what sort of spren you can capture. Artifabrians can harness some of that spren's essence with the right configuration of metal fixtures, and listeners can carry around the type of spren they want to use for their next transformation, breaking the gem to let it out during the highstorm. And since spren are splinters, i.e. tiny pieces of a Shard, it doesn't take too much imagination to extend the idea to a much larger scale. Best guess: Tanavast saw Rayse coming and sneakily forged an immense gemheart inside the planet next door, and faceted it into the perfect Odium-shaped prison. So when he showed up, Odium got sucked into it and has only been able to send out tendrils of power. Obviously, a Shard is powerful enough that you wouldn't expect a hunk of rock to constrain them. You might think that the ability to move a planet's orbit and remake its continents would also allow such a being to reshape a giant piece of jewelry, but if that hunk of rock was forged by another Shard, and especially if it is being actively maintained, such a prison might hold. We know that Odium is "contained" to the greater Roshar system, and many have postulated that is because he was forced to invest in a planet enough that leaving has become difficult. I'm not saying that is wrong, only that something must have held him in one place long enough to force him to expend that kind of power, or for it to happen passively. (A recent WoB confirmed that it can be an active or passive process): Circumstantially, we have also seen that Odium has little direct influence on Roshar, instead acting primarily through the unmade or other emissaries. Now, this doesn't prove that he is trapped off-world, as something similar happened with Shards actively opposing each other on Scadrial (both before and after the events at the Well of Ascension), but it does confirm that something is keeping him from bringing his full influence to bear. And now, to go off into entirely unsubstantiated territory: If Rayse is imprisoned inside of a giant gem in the core of the planet Braize, what sort of fabrial could you make out of it? Connect everything together with posts and wires of god-metal, and you have immense power waiting to be put to work. Want to send a blast of hate-filled destruction at the nearest gas giant? You just invented a better Death Star. Attach those wires in another way, and put something you hate behind your spaceship: Ta Da! Near-infinite propulsion. What would you make out of a planet-sized fabrial? I think Honor may have missed a grand opportunity here. (Or maybe he connected something wrong, and died in a lab accident. These are hazardous materials after all.) So, yes, there are some major holes in this idea, but it is an entertaining one. And perhaps semi-plausible?

You get fruit sliced like a dragon Inserts a cookie.

You know you're a Sanderfan when you go see Rogue One, repeatedly mishear the name Krennic as Kredik, and keep thinking of Kredik Shaw.

Ok... This is just my opinion, and it doesn't have a ton of proof to back it up, but personally, I think that shard plate is connected to the Larkin. They feed on storm light. So does shard plate. They can suck the storm light from a radiant. So can shard plate. Look at the time when Kaladin was helping in the arena. He put the helmet on his fist and it began absorbing his storm light. Nalan would know this and would use it to his advantage. He wanted to stop freshly forming surge binders. The surge binders grow stronger and better at storm light manipulation as the progress through the oaths. I think that if one were to progress far enough through the oaths they could hold enough stormlight for the Larkin to bond and change. Running out of time so maybe I can explain better later. Also the Larkin have silver eyes. Plate is naturally silver in color. I think that the Larkin are going to play a big role in the creation of new shard plates.

Aw, I was in London a month ago...

I moved to Israel, met some awesome people, and discovered Hamilton. I'm spending my own money now, which is equally terrifying and responsible-adultying. Also I *think* my singing has improved a ton which is awesome and fun.

Rashek never sleep, or He simply would die...He can't tap his Atiummind in the sleep and to him it would mean die. Another point, with a little charge of wakefulness, he may continue to compound forever (as long he had metal), the scene with Vin see him old, isn't a "He stores Youth to a later compound", He can't do this, if he stops compound he would simply die. Probably Rashek spent almost all his "private time" in an old form to consume less Youth and he appear as a cool guy only in the rare public events.

@Kestrel Is Sweetpea an eastern or a western screech-owl? I forget where you live. Also, she sounds like a riot! Reminds me of a comparison someone made once between cats and owls. They said something along the lines of, "Owls are amazing because they're totally fluffy and adorable but they're also perfect killing machines. I think this is all the proof we need that owls are simply cats in bird form."

I got a beautiful, illustrated edition of Game of Thrones, new headphones to replace the ones my cats destroyed by chewing on the cable I also got a WiFi adapter, because my current one is acting strange and disconnecting me from time to time. I also got a pair of leather slippers and a pair of slippers that look more or less like those: And I also got two parts of "Slavic Bestiary" with beautiful illustrations ^^

Reviving/Necro-ing this post from the dead because I now have a direct WoB about this for both Steel and Iron lines. Yes, both can be used to identify specific metals, and it is not limited to only savants. This seems to be something any misting or mistborn could do with enough practice.

My name is Riah, and I'm from London in the United Kingdom. It's a pleasure to meet you all! Really looking forward to posting here and getting to know everyone

I actually did this the other day when posting a theory, saying that Nightblood was made from Black luxin. Fried my brain for a minute.

RAFO why

That's a cool idea. I like how it explains why Shardplate consumes Stormlight and why it is a silvery color at its base. One thought I have is that the larkin seem to be rare. If they are so rare, how could all the Radiants get their own Shardplate? Now we don't know much about the larkin, and I think Brandon said there was a purging of Aimia, so my problem could be a future plot point.

Well I wouldn't go that far.

It's my 16th birthday, woohoo!

Brandon has spoken about this once or twice. If I recall correctly, Scadrial has never had the negativity against homosexuality our world has had (and still has), so it's always been accepted as more or less normal. I suspect some people might feel weird about it, but those would be individuals.

Want there a WOB about how after Elantris, Wyrn decided that they had been interpreting the prophecies wrong and only everyone east of the mountains needs to convert for Jaddeth to return. This quote is from October 2004 Elantris Group Questions though, so it could have changed by now.

We had a pizza party today for a family who won a silent auction. They got to eat with the birds. We called it Pizza with Pippin (one of the ed birds). Pippin was the host and sat near the table. He was served with the guests, his mice on a plate and napkin. He was weary of the plate. Once dinner began, though, me and a few other volunteers rotated birds around. I had Sweetpea, Rusty, and Willie. Sweets did okay, considering that her and I don't like each other. Willie was a different story. I had never worked with her before and she isn't flighted. She ended up hopping off the fist and couldn't get back up and I couldn't swing her back because I had no idea how the center coordiator wanted me to do it compared to my falconry sponsor (which is also done with a flighted bird). I also didn't know Rusty liked to play dead in his travel box and that was an adventure. (Edit: oops. Wrong (ish) thread. Still good thing tho)

You know, @TKWade, I really admire your steadfast determination to understand the critiques and improve your writing. The world needs more people like you. P.S. I'll get a list together for reading!

This was the year I really got into reading Sanderson and found out about the cosmere. It's also the year I started circus club, and learnt how to do poi and stilts. I also wrote one of my first completed stories that I actually like, and wasn't for school. Now, of course, I think it's absolutely horrible, but that's irrelevent. I also only joined this year, but I haven't been on for long.

FOUND THE SPYRIL https://ifunny.co/fun/SZ6aYbp81?gallery=shuffle

I'd like to sign up, please. Character name: Bezth. A middle aged man. Has a broken leg (long story). But that doesn't stop him from anything, be it walking, fighting, doing what needs to be done to manipulate... With two daggers in his belt and two knives in his boots, he's nearly undefeatable in one-on-one combat. Also, he's sworn vengeance against that pathetic excuse of a Shardbearer in Dalinar's army who murdered his daughter for no valid reason.

I'd check out Reckoners series if you are looking for a Brandon Sanderson series to enjoy that's outside of the Cosmere series. I would also recommend that you read Warbreaker, Emperor's Soul, and Arcanum Unbounded, all of which are within the Cosmere. Warbreaker is available free on Brandon's website, and I believe Emperor's Soul is a part of Arcanum Unbounded, as well as a bunch of other Cosmere novellas and postscripts by "Khriss" a world hopper, which give us a little insight into in-world knowledge of the Cosmere by those who are believed to be most knowledgeable outside of shards.

I finally got over that girl that was no good for me anyway, stopped being such a terribly self-centered person to my friends who love me and whom I love back in equal measure, had my ego knocked down a few a lot of pegs, improved my instrumental and vocal abilities, started up something that could possibly be called a band with some of my best friends, found my place in high school, realized who/what is truly important to me, realized what I want to do for a living, had my first boyfriend, lost my first boyfriend, set up a YouTube channel, and got a bunch of great books for Christmas. Most importantly, I met you guys.

One of my alligator photos from Florida was just asking to be memefied, so I give you Smug Gator and Skeptical Gator!

Just a note: the GMs will not confirm any actions at any point. Only the results of actions will be shown. Also, actions are not recorded until the end of turn. Any vote manipulations will be reflected in the official vote tally in the write-up.

Sanderson Elimination: Memories This is Sanderson Elimination. It is not a ruleset, a dry summary of what is - if you’re looking for those, look elsewhere, for I am not a lawmaker. I am a writer, a singer, a weaver of words, and of SE, this I sing: SE is a pocket of peace amidst the world’s turbulent chaos, laughter and blood mixing without sorrow for death. Divinity and depravity exist here in harmony, interlocking to form a story of contrasts. There is deceit, danger, and betrayal, yet there is trust too, and safety, and beauty. It is chaos, shadows, light, death; fear, anger, wonder, love, friendship. But, let us begin with beginnings. It begins with a man whose smile is death. It begins with the death of a doctor in the night, and a woman running messages, and a village thrice doomed to die. And it begins with a story. The story is one of murder, and distrust, and betrayal, and it doesn’t always have a happy ending. Yet despite that… it’s beautiful anyway. And that is SE: a cycle of game after game, story after story, all weaving together in one great narrative tapestry of revenge and love and loss and ever-present death. So the story continues to weave and be woven. Frozen instants fill the tapestry before me, seemingly unordered in time or space, myriad memories flowing into each other without break or end: A glint in a woman’s eye that might be a tear; scrawled writing in blood; a silhouette standing on a rooftop, unaware that he has already been betrayed. Snow covers the tapestry for a moment, then clears to reveal a young man arguing with a horse, a cellar, three paranoid people talking late into the night. A kandra sings a song of shadows, five sets of eyes turn black, and two daring grins hang over a jacket that’s not quite real. A year’s length of memory passes by in an instant, ending in blood and betrayal and death and the birth of a sunset. On a solitary mountaintop, Shards swear to Odium. A suspicious lawman’s badge glints in the sunlight. A hand reaches from the grave to grasp a stuffed panda, while above it a woman drowns in blood. Love comes with the dawn, until fire takes all. An artist kills an emperor, guilty innocents die, a hand is stolen. Aon Ati glimmers in spilled ale. An inquisitor casually licks a drop of blood off of a spike, a heart is ripped out of its chest, and a cook slices tubers, smiling. Thus the second year ends. The third year blooms in a wild spiral of color and activity and a tableau that is nearly whole but in truth many pieces flowing into each other. A forge explodes in fiery beauty, while a tiny blue bird flits over it uncaringly. Then, a storm of bone rips a young girl to shreds, which becomes a storm of metal from which ascends Preservation, whose power forms the Well. That well’s power trails into a woman, who meets a man in a darkened tent on Roshar, and the fire that once separated them at last brings forth new life in that darkness. The darkness becomes deeper, now. There are nightmares and dreamwalkers and shades, paranoia festering until reason returns in sharp betrayal. A brief burst of storm covers the tapestry for an instant, then dies away to reveal a pair of rabbits hopping innocently towards a huggable sword. That sword stands hilt-to-hilt with another, much darker sword, whose tendrils extend outward to a man with hateful eyes, and then… well. The tapestry continues on, farther than the eye can see, images building and twisting and turning in unspeakable beauty. That is our story, we of Sanderson Elimination. Our history, our lives, our pasts. Each image and instant is a memory, a story, a lesson. And how well we have learned! We are not bumbling children, stumbling about, trying to find our way. Not anymore. We are death, all of us. There is a danger in our words now, quiet watchfulness lying below the surface, waiting to strike. You do not toy with someone who can kill you, not unless you are even more dangerous than they. Few are: and we name them divine. So, then. What is SE? Yes, SE is darkness and danger and death. Yes, there is anger, there is fear, there is despair. There always is. But there is also hope. Joy. Laughter. Love. Despite the fact that you could die any day or night, despite the knowledge that you cannot trust anyone, there is community here. There is a sense of comfort, of caring. That is more important than the winning and the killing. That is what makes this SE. For me, that is what makes it home. Happy holidays, all.

Kabsal uses it twice while talking with Shallan: Ym talks about the Cosmere when explaining his philosophy of the One as well in Words of Radiance. Hoid also uses it while talking to Dalinar, but I figure that one doesn't really count, since Hoid isn't really Rosharan. Dalinar didn't seem terribly confused by the term, though.

This is true, but seeing as it's the only (known) continent, I don't tend to see too much trouble in using it interchangably. I mean, it's up in the air when a character talks about the Almighty "creating Roshar" whether or not they're referring to the world or the landmass, but in most situations their meaning doesn't really change if they're including the oceans (Roshar the planet) or just talking about land (Roshar the continent).

Roshar is also the name of the continent they live on.

Oh, right. I actually have a thought on what's walking in the storms. Whether or not the Highstorms are Honor's "mobile Perpendicularity", they do appear to weaken the barrier between the Physical Realm and the Cognitive Realm. I wonder if those figures we see aren't necessarily Unmade, but simply what a pair of Spren actually look like in the Cognitive Realm. The next question would be, what particular Spren are they?

First of all, congrats! As an aspiring writer myself, it is inspirational to hear fellow travelers on the same journey so close to the finish line. Good on ya, mate. As to your question, I don't know any resources first hand, but I searched around google and found a podcast that seems to be on the subject... there are a bunch of episodes so you could dig in for a while I'd bet (if it's any good): http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/category/podcast-episodes Best of luck to you.

[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:

Indeed. If Elhokar was an evil tyrant, wantonly mucking about with and abusing his powers, then I believe Kaladin could have killed him without a second thought. But in Elhokar's case, as Kaladin came to realise, he really tries. He wants to be good, but he is just currently blatantly incapable in his rule, which is not the same as being evil, and to a Windrunner, that makes all the difference. On a side-note, Elhokar might actually be one of my favourite characters in the Words of Radiance. True, I consider both Kaladin and Adolin to be among the best characters I've ever read and will always be my true favourites, but Brandon has developed the ability to create really deep and interesting side characters. I site Gaz, Renarin, Bluth and Elhokar as examples of this. The latter showed a surprisingly potent insight into his shortcomings towards the end of the book, which would be the first step to get himself out of the mess he currently is. I have great hopes for him for the coming books.