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First off, I realise that there is an existing Hemalurgy thread in the Mistborn section, but I wanted to discuss certain topics without needing to worry about spoilers. Additionally, I wanted the discussion to have a more theoretical direction, rather than a philosophical one. I have a few topics to cover, so they'll be broken up into different sections. ETHICS Hemalurgy is often considered an "evil" magic, and not without reason. So far, we have seen it as a very destructive force that not only kills innocents, but damages their very soul. However, we have had many interesting revelations since the original trilogy both in the books and through WoB. Many of these revelations paint a more... palatable picture of Hemalurgy. First and foremost, we have confirmation that Hemalurgy does not have to kill the person donating a spike. Relevant WoB: The reasons vary between WoB, but the meaning is clear: one does not have to die from getting spiked. It would still rip out a piece of your soul and change you as a person, but you do not have to die. Okay, so you don't have to die, but you're still losing a piece of your soul. That sounds like a big deal, right? Well, maybe not: So in the Before-Afterlife it certainly matters, but in the After-Afterlife? Not so much. That's a good thing, but it ultimately doesn't matter, because we have even better news! Soul wounds can be healed from: So not only is it confirmed you can heal back your soul, essentially creating a new patch of soul out of Investiture, it would also give you back the power you just had spiked away. Theoretically, you could be spiked multiple times for the same power. There's some implications that you wouldn't want to do this repeatedly, but the possibility is there. Alright, that's all well and good, but that only helps people who can heal back from a spiking. So that only means... everyone on Scadrial now. Those fancy medllions that the southerners have kindly introduced mean that everyone can heal back from being spiked by tapping an unkeyed goldmind. What's important to take away from this is that Hemalurgy may not be nearly as bad as we have been lead to believe. You don't have to die, you don't have to lose your power, you don't have to permanently damage your soul and it won't have scary, unknown implications for the After-Afterlife. I have no doubt that certain portions of society would be against it regardless of the science, but that doesn't mean that it wouldn't be used. MECHANICS In this section, I'm not going to be covering the topics of bind points or the uses of different metals as there's just not much to go on. Ultimately, I don't think the exact details are what's truly interesting about Hemalurgy anyway, but rather the interactions it has with the other magics on Scadrial. So, what do we know about Hemalurgy from the books? Well, you stab spikes into people and it gives them powers. So far as we know, each spike only steals one thing at a time, spiking an ability you already have makes you stronger and you can't have more than three spikes without opening yourself up to the influence of others: That's some pretty harsh restrictions. Suit appears to have his spikes piercing his heart, or at the very least they pierce his chest, and it was assumed that removing them would kill him. Pretty dangerous weakness to have these days, what with Coinshots and getting access to Duralumin medallions, or whatever other power boosting effects that may let people rip your spikes out. There's one person we know of who did fantastic things with Hemalurgy though, and seemed to have none of the associated weakness: the Lord Ruler. He was an impossibly powerful Mistborn, able to push on the metals inside Vin's stomach while she was burning them. Even Elend, with all his Lerasium granted strength, did not perform feats anywhere close to this. So, how did the Lord Ruler achieve this? The obvious answer is that he also ate Lerasium. WoB says that's not the case though: So how did the Lord Ruler become so powerful? According to WoB, it was Hemalurgy: So the Lord Ruler needed all three systems, but Hemalurgy was the most dramatic. Other than his incredible Allomatic strength, I cannot think of anything else he did that was not explained by compounding or God metals. There's a problem with this, though. So far as we know, the Lord Ruler only had two Hemalurgical spikes located in his upper arms, which doubled as his Atium Metlaminds. Even if these had granted Allomancy, they could not explain the entirety of his awesome power: The fact that he had no other spikes was actually a plot point. Remember that Marsh also thought that the Lord Ruler had been spiked like an Inquisitor, and his plan to kill him was based around this: So how can someone use all three systems of magic to benefit from Hemalurgy but not be full of spikes? Well, I think I have the answer, theorized from a few WoB and based around burning spikes with Allomancy: So we have some discrepancies between these WoB. In one, it says you would splice the sDNA together. In another, it says it won't graft the stolen soul on, but it would have some interesting effects. Finally, in one it says it won't have any effect when you burn it unless it also came from you. I believe these seemingly contradicting elements can finally be reconciled after learning about Identity in BoM, while also explaining why the Lord Ruler was so powerful. If you've read some of my other posts, you can probably already see where this is going. My proposition is simple: similar to Identity and Metalminds, the results of burning a Hemalurgical spike are dependent on whether or not you have Identity access to it. If you share an Identity with the Investiture in the spike, or possibly if the spike was donated from an individual who had no Identity at the time, then a process similar to compounding occurs. As the Investiture is drawn from Preservation and filtered through the metal, the Hemalurgical Investiture alters the shape that the magic takes, thereby spicing the sDNA in the spike and the sDNA of the Allomancer together. For a full explanation on my theory for the mechanics of Allomancy and compounding, see my huge ranty post. So, what effect would this have? Well, I believe we saw the results of this in the Lord Ruler. In the case of spikes which grant Metalborn abilities, splicing the sDNA results in granting, or increasing, the abilities of a Metalborn. It does not "graft" or "tack on" a piece of sDNA as has been described of spikes, but rather a full merger or "splicing" between the sDNA, impossible to separate afterwards. If this were the case, it would explain how the Lord Ruler managed to achieve his "dramatic effects" with basically no spikes, and would indeed require all three systems of metal magic. He needed an understanding of Hemalurgy to spike his own powers out (probably controlled a Kandra or Inquisitor for this), Feruchemy to survive said spiking and heal back his ability, and Allomancy to burn the spike and add it back onto his sDNA, thereby increasing his Allomatic strength without being a "common Inquisitor" with "endowed fabrications." He could then repeat this process until he reached some unknown theoretical limit. Keep in mind, the Lord Ruler was the most knowledgeable user of the metalic arts to have ever existed (so far), so if anyone could figure this out, it would be him. Okay, so maybe this is possible and he figured it out. Why did he use spikes for his Inquisitors then? Control, obviously. He brutally controlled the use and knowledge of Feruchemy just to prevent compounding, and this is easily more powerful. He designed all of his Hemalurgical constructs with both clear weaknesses and methods of control, and anyone granted power through this method would have neither. This is the extent of my evidence on the subject, so it is by no means proven, but I think there's a possibility for it to be true. I didn't find anything directly contradicting it, but Brandon has been getting pretty tight lipped about this sort of thing as time goes on. If you have anything on the subject, I'd be interested in seeing it. HEMALURGY USE GOING FORWARD Theoretically, this could be absurdly powerful going forward. If all that is required is an unkeyed spike, rather than a spike you share an Identity with, then you could potentially turn anyone into a Mistborn via the use of medallions. Give a Metalborn a Feruchemical Gold/ Feruchemical Aluminum medallion, dump their Identity while you spike out their power and have them heal it back with the goldmind. Give the recipient an Allomancy medallion corresponding with the metal of the spike, have them burn the spike and then boom, you've got a brand new Metalborn. Rinse and repeat. As I mentioned before, there's anecdotes that you may not want to do this repeatedly, as Soul injuries apparently scar even when healed and who knows what that does, but the ability is strong enough even without spiking people multiple times. That being said, I don't think Hemalurgy would gain wide spread use even if this were possible, simply because it's too damnation powerful. Imagine a world of Lord Rulers. Wax gave up the Bands of Mourning because the power was too great for mortals, and this is potentially even more powerful than that. I can easily see governments suppressing and regulating the use of Hemalurgy for the same reason they regulate guns. Or, perhaps more appropriately, for the same reasons as nukes. Still, the potential is there for this to be even more disruptive than medallions. FINAL THOUGHTS I consider this to be very theoretical and am by no means claiming to be convinced of its veracity. I'd love to hear what others have to say on the subject, and what they think of my interpretation.

I seek nothing if not approval of my fellow Sharders! Day 3:

Wow, exercise really does make a lot of difference

Hello, this is my first theory, so try not to tear it apart too fast . I've looked around and am fairly certain there's not a topic on this, although if there is, kindly point me to it. I do not have a ton of evidence for it, but essentially, I believe that the Evil from Threnody is really just fainlife and I'll explain why. (By the way, there are a few AU spoilers ahead, specifically for the Threnody essay, so beware) I first made the connection when I noticed they were both described as creeping. From LoP: And from the Threnodite System essay in AU: The descriptions here are pretty similar in both wording and feel. They are both portrayed as catastrophic, death-bringing forces laying waste to entire continets. For those who haven't read the Liar of Partinel, as far as I understand, fainlife came as a result of the death of Yolen's gods. It says that the fainlife came from the gods' corpse, implying that it came directly from them, and not that the gods were simply holding it back and when they died, it was left to ravage the land. We know Ambition, a shard, which can be considered a god, died in the Threnodite system. So, assuming LoP is mostly still canon, I think that the Evil is fainlife born from the death of Ambition. Now I know Ambition didn't actually die in the Threnodite System, but was only mortally wounded. However, Khriss says that So it seems fair to say at least a part of Ambition died there and that it definitely had some harmful consequences for Threnody. I know thats not a perfect argument, but it makes sense to me that fainlife could be something that causes the inhabitants of the Fallen World to flee. The fainlife we see in LoP drove the people to the brink of extinction. It pushed mankind into very small pockets of civilization where space was extremely limited and growing food was difficult. And I mean, consuming continents, feasting on the souls of men, that seems pretty reminiscent of fain. I can see how the destructive power of fainlife could cause a contintent wide evacuation in Threnody considering what we've seen of it in LoP. It just seems to fit. There are also a couple holes I'd like to address. First of all the biggest issue I see is of the timing of it. The battle between Ambition and Odium occurred relatively soon after the Shattering, however the arrival of The Evil appears to be much more recent, like within a 100 years of Shadows for Silence, which occurs later in the sequence of cosmere books. The only explanation I can think of is that the effect on Threnody of the battle was somehow delayed. Maybe it took time for the pieces of Ambition to reach the planet, or they somehow lay dormant for a long time, I don't know, I'm just speculating on this part. If anyone does know anything about that, please share. The second thing is why Nazh, being from Threnody, did not explain the Evil to Khriss. The most likely explanation is that Nazh was born long before the Evil started wrecking havoc on the Fallen World. This seems to make sense due to his worldhopping history. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Shadows for Silence takes place after Era 1 of Mistborn. And since we see him in SH, its likely he was around before the events of SfS and the Evil. He also talks about the rituals of becoming a shade, which do not line up at all with what we see of shades in SfS. They seem much more dangerous than the way he describes them, suggesting he comes from a different time period when the shades were not quite so evil. Khriss says he could only talk about the Evil vaguely, and I think thats because he didn't actually know what it was since he was not on Threnody at the time. Anyway, there's my theory, I hoped you liked it. Remember, all of this could be completely invalid if in the canon, fainlife is not the same. Feel free to share your thoughts, comments, ideas, criticisms, and any relevant WoBs. Have fun speculating!

Apology up front, but I've spent too long without venting a set of questions on here, so there are quite a few this time around. AonDor Questions: Does drawing an Aon larger make the effect larger and/or more powerful? Are any currently known Aons an exception to this? Can Aon effects be stacked? ie: would overlaying 4x Aon Ashe mean 4x brightness? Do the modifier lines have to be drawn on the same scale as the base Aon? Clarification: Draw a 1ft by 1ft Aon Daa with modifiers, if I make the base Aon 2ft by 2ft, do I also have to double the size of the modifiers? If so, what effect would keeping them the same size have on the Aon when I use it? Can you build an On/Off switch into the modifiers of an Aon? ex: A flashlight using Aon Ashe for light Ancient Elantrians used Aon Ehe to make lanterns that never went out. Given how newly drawn Aons are weaker away from Elantris, would these lanterns(that are already activated) start to dim as they got further from the city of Elantris? If not a RAFO, would this hold true for all Aons that are already activated? Does Aon Aha ["Breath, Air" per Ars Arcanum] produce air in AonDor? I got an Elantrian Scuba Diver image in my head this one time... If so, could it be used to have a never emptying oxygen tank or would it continue filling/raising pressure to the point that the tank bursts? If he somehow doesn't RAFO this, can you prevent pressure bursting with the right modifiers? Allomancy Questions: The point where someone has enough power that they start leaking mist has been given the fan-name of "Mistpoint." Do you have an actual term for this or can we use this term as actual Canon? We've speculated that Mistpoint marks the strongest point that an Allomancer can be(barring Ascension). Are we correct in this assumption? Would Mist-fueled entities [ie: Elend and Marsh during the final battle] be considered as at Mistpoint? How close would the Lord Ruler get to Mistpoint by Duralumin burning his Allomantic Metals? You've said that Elend could only match TLR soothing by using Duralumin. For reference, was the Lord Ruler only burning or was he flaring brass during his intense soothing scenes? Suppose you could reliably steal 80% Allomantic Strength with a Spike. That 80% would differ slightly from person to person correct? Pretty sure we know this already, but just in case. In another WoB, you have said that burning Pewter gives 2x strength and flaring gives 3x. Mathematically, that means flaring gives you double what burning gives. Does this hold true for all metals? Clarification: In essence, Burn = Strength+1, Flare = Strength+2. Thus Flare is 2x the effect of Burn. If no, which metals does this math work with? / Which metals does this math not work with? Gen. Purpose Roshar Questions: Is Thaylenah a mercantile culture? Captain Tozbek runs a shipping business, Rysn and Vstim trade all over Roshar, Tvlakv is a slave trader, Barmest sells books in Kharbranth, Vstim is legally Rysn's father until he considers her ready to be a merchant on her own, several people of several cultures speak Thaylen well, etc.. Rysn and Vstim traded in both Shinovar and the Reshi Isles. Thaylen, Reshi, Aimian and Shin are all in different language families, yet Axies the Collector(Aimian) spoke Thaylen well, the Shin they traded with(Thresh) and the Purelaker guide(Gu) spoke it very well, and the Reshi trader(Talik) spoke Thaylen well enough for Rysn to question his country of origin. Taravangian knows a Shin proverb in its native tongue. Is the language barrier thinner than we would expect it to be? Can you compare the level of difference between some languages with an Earth equivalent? ie: Going from Alethi to Horneater is like English to Russian, or something like that to give us a idea of how different these languages really are Does Azir have a standing army, and would their "by the book"/paperwork oriented lifestyle translate into a well regimented force and chain-of-command? (assuming they filled out the necessary forms to go to war) When Iri and Rira split, was it a peaceful split or was there a civil war of sorts? Additionally, how long ago did this split happen? What do the Reshi actually do to interpret the Tai-Na on whether they should go to war with a nearby island? Cosmere Questions: Would a Shardblade kill the limb of a Kandra, or do they have some form of resistance/immunity to this? If they have a resistance, why/how does it resist a Shardblade cut? Would a Shardblade physically cut the "bones" of a Kandra with a true body made of stone/metal or would the limb still have to be killed first? We seem to be fixated with FTL and space travel, but are there any worlds that would be more interested in exploring the deep seas of their world? If so, have we seen this world? and/or Do we know enough about the culture/magic system to figure out how they would explore the deep seas?

I grilled burgers, porksteaks & sausage and an now fixing to go enjoy my labor.

LG31: Day 1 - Dancing Mist Our tale begins. The mist has set in and a solemn figure strolls through the dancing mist. Shoulders hunched, she makes her way to an imposing building, almost obscured by the veil. The Canton of Finance, the bank of the Final Empire. The mist’s fingers caress her body, swirling around her, almost...comforting. But no amount of comfort will help her, for she is to con an obligator. At the foot of the building, at the bottom of the stairs, she gives a deep breath and shudders. First step. Second step. She makes her way up through the dancing mist. A door, an imposing door, an imposing steel door stands in her way. A shiver, and a push. She’s inside. Men look up as she enters, an assortment of nobles and obligators. One raises an eyebrow, staring at her suspiciously. She smiles faintly at him and makes her way through the lobby, a spacious room with benches and tables along the side. She struts through the middle, hoping she looked confident until she comes to a large table at the end. The obligator at the table looks up and asks in a husky voice, “Appointment?” She nods and replies, “Fadrex city, I came to request an investment for a shipment to Fadrex City”. The man nods and looks down at his ledger. “Name?” “Ariel Gadth, related to the Hastings,” came the reply. “Everything seems to be in order, please make your way to the office at the end of the next hallway, ignore the bloodstains if you will”. Bloodstains? She wonders, “My thanks”. She pushes through to the next hallway, speed-walking to the office now. She enters the room without knocking, with a flourish of her hair. “I believe I am expected?” she announces arrogantly. The obligator in the room smiles, “Indeed…”. He studies her carefully and nods to the table next to him. “You will find all you need there, allow me to finish off this paperwork.” Two agonising minutes, and yes! She is homefree! She nods curtly at the obligator, snatches up the bundle and promptly leaves. She exits the establishment, wary of eyes watching her. The mists are there to greet her and she breathes a sigh of relief. The mist didn’t seem as animate as before… something was off. A slight rustle to her left. She turns, another to her right. She quickens her pace, eyes darting. Shadows in the sides of her vision, a glint of metal here, a shine there. Heart beating, hands sweating. She breaks into a frantic run….and runs into a body with a dull thump, she falls back onto the gravel, dropping everything. “You didn’t think we would be this easy to fool did you?” A scream. And the mists keep dancing. LG31 has begun! You have 48 hours to choose someone to lynch. Rules Clarifications: PMs are not open! Only Kandra may make PMs, and only two per cycle. Allomantic Tin only finds out the action, not the person targeted as well. Ties will result in a coin flip.

There have been some good responses on Reddit recently, especially as part of the AMA and Oathbringer updates. I don't have time to compile those yet (and some have already been posted here) but one on a separate thread about character deaths jumped out at me. Here is the whole quote, with the important piece in bold. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stormlight_Archive/comments/5yejj3/comment/derrlv5 I'm pretty sure this is the first official pronoun for Adonalsium besides "it." I take this as unintentional confirmation that Adonalsium was a being/Vessel and (probably) male, something Brandon has been quite evasive about.

Language! I believe that's what they call Hoid because he keeps traveling everywhere

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. And then the murders began.

The bloodsealer was actually drawn by a Sharder, @Botanica. Her other TeS artwork is here: She also has some other cool artwork in the gallery on other subjects.

I dreamed that Portugal had a child dictator sometime in the recent past. This kid demanded that no one give him an answer other than "yes," made a movie about himself, and installed glass doors and walls in every government building. For some reason, those doors were still there when I visited with some class or other. I was not the only one who kept running into them.

Yeah, I'm active, no need to hit me with the contribution crusade. I don't have any suspicions yet (I mean, we haven't been plating for half a day, anyone who claims to have suspicions now is probably an elim). I do have some general thoughts and opinions on what might be a smart thing to do. First of all, I recommend that Kandra try and make sure they use their two PM's each cycle. PM's are wonderful things that allow you to gain more info, and talk over ideas without immediately having to throw them into the thread for all to see. Kandra are also going to be useful for getting new metal vials where they'll do the most good, but remember that confirmed Kandra is not confirmed Noble. Second, the metalurgists. There are unfortunately no metals that have only utility for the village. That having been said, I'd still attempt to get the most out of the role, if not from the start, then at least once you've found someone you're pretty sure is village who can act as stockpile ( @Elbereth, @Darkness Ascendant, @Conquestor, I assume you can't give metal vials to yourself as a metalurgist?). The reason for this is that it's going to be important for the village misting to remain stocked with metals at all times, as you'll never know when a game-winning vote comes down to whether someone still has some brass, zinc or copper left. Before the last part, I'd quickly like to give the Arinian Disclaimer: "I am not certain about any of the numbers to follow. If it seems like I'm stating something as fact, it is merely because I forgot a 'maybe' or a 'probably'." So, the number of elims. If the 20% convention is used, there's 3, or maybe 4 elims. However, since they've got a faction conversion ability, I suspect there are going to be less of them to start with. There will almost certainly not be 4 of them (unless there's a massive amount of pewter among the village), and I suspect there are only going to be 2 of them. This does depend on the number of half-skaa around. So, those are my thoughts on the rules and what might be a smart thing to do. If you see something idiotic that I've missed, or a fatal elim-exploitable flaw, don't hesitate to point that out and throw a lynch vote on me(and for that matter, remember that my name is 'Jondesu' for purposes of lynching).

Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

I guess you could say they 'Raysed' a murderer. ... Snark is the only thing I have to contribute to this conversation, carry on.

Sadeas is still alive.

Chapter Nine is now over, and with it the game. Due to me attempting to write an especially epic conclusion to Part One of The Most Important Words (the saga of Roshar games I will be running) - as well as a conflict in my work schedule - it will take longer than usual for me to post the next Chapter. I'm not sure how big the delay will be exactly, but I hope I'll need no longer than an extra day to take care of what's left. Thanks for playing, everyone. I look forward to seeing the survivors return in Part Two, along with a new, equally wonderful batch of characters.

Disclaimer: this is not intended to be sacrilegious (I'm a Christian myself). "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And then the murders began." Not too far off from the original story anyway.

George Lucas Open on Kaladin, staring out at the battlefield. It is littered with both soldiers and Parshendi corpses. He stands alone in his vest and trousers, an unreadable expression on his face. KALADIN: Dead. All of them….dead. Half of Bridge Four is gone, because of me. Sylphrena floats up to him, a ribbon of light, before assuming the form of a young girl. SYL: Not-so, Mistah Kaladeen, sah! You-sa still have meesa! KALADIN: Uh, Syl? Why are you talking like that? You didn't talk like that in the last book. SYL: Mistah Lucas thought it'd be better for the KIDS! You-sa knows he loves dee children! KALADIN: Excuse me, Syl. SYL: Where-sa you-sa going, Kaladeen? KALADIN: To find the nearest chasm. J.K. Rowling Dalinarbledore gripped Kaladin's shoulders, meeting his eyes. "Don't you see, Kaladin? You are the Chosen One. Of all the Radiants at this school, you alone can unite the Sprenly Hallows and defeat Voidemort!" Kaladin looked away from Dalinarbledore's eyes, which always made him feel as though he were being X-rayed. "But….this doesn't make sense." "Of course it does. Voidemort chose you as his equal, which is why you can fly and do all of those amazing things." "But wouldn't I have been able to do that anyway, being a Windrunner and all? And while we're at it, why did I get Windrunning while Shalmione got Lightweaving? I mean, seriously, why are there differences in our magic, anyway?" "Because it's magic. Duh." Just then, Professor Sadeas walked by, scowling at Dalinarbledore. "You're smiling, Professor. Ten points from Gryffindor." "I outrank you, Sadeas." "Fine. Ten points to Slytherin, because I have better fashion sense." George R. R. Martin Sigzil stood alone on the battlefield. Around him lay the broken bodies of Bridge Four, Dalinar's warcamp, Sebarial's warcamp, and the entire customer base of a random tavern. "Looks like it falls upon me, then," he sighed. "I alone must carry this narrative to the end. And I shall. I shall." The arrow struck his heart from an unknown source, and there he died. Stephanie Meyer Pattern buzzed in deep chagrin. "Shallan?" "What?" "I know that your sketches are important….but shouldn't you be working on keeping the parshmen from destroying the world?" "In a minute," she said, chagrined. "Shallan, you have already made 499 sketches of Adolin Kholin's abdominal muscles." "And this will be an even 500." Just as she finished the sketch and held it to the light for a moment's admiration, the door swung open. Her chagrin was quickly replaced by delight. "Shallan," Kaladin breathed. "I'm sorry for intruding on you like this, but I had to see you. I didn't have time to put on a shirt. I hope you don't mind." Pattern's chagrined buzzing began anew, but Shallan ignored it. When the Almighty sent you a shirtless Captain, you didn't ask for details.

Full disclosure: I am still reading Way of Kings. This meme does not reflect any upcoming twists that may make me reconsider the opinion expressed therein. Also, it probably makes me a terrible person for thinking of it.

On my reread of Secret History I noticed something - when Nazh gives Kelsier his knife, he says that "Ire were doing this much longer than us". Us meaning him and Khriss. While we don't know when Khriss started her cosmere scholar career, it was definitely after White Sand. We know White Sand is before Elantris and we know Elantris is less than two thousand years before Mistborn First Era. Well, now we don't know how long is "much longer" or when Khriss started doing her thing. We don't know how long before Elantris is White Sand. We know that Ire are really, really, really, really, really old. But all in all together I think we can safely assume Ire (as a group) were doing their thing long before Reod occured.

QF22: Ghosts in the Night Or: Two-Headed Elimination The Ghostbloods are well-known for being a secretive organisation. It could be said that this secrecy is the only reason they have existed for such a long period of time. They carefully pick and choose their people, evaluating each individually before adding them to their members. They operate in small groups, each only aware of the one they report to and the others in their group. Everything has been done to minimise risk should one of their number be caught. The secrecy the organisation has thrived on has now bled completely through into the very lives of their members. It is said that a half-decent Ghostblood could walk out the door, and suddenly they would be a completely different person. A different face, different hair, all changed within a matter of seconds. It is for this reason that they are known as ghosts, an ethereal presence that many doubt even exists. But through time, they have become complacent, and their hidden nature has started to work against them. Their recruitment methods have become lax, slowly, and they have been infiltrated by their enemies. The Sons of Honour walk amongst their members, their own secrecy preventing them from finding out who they are. The order came down from someone - who, no-one knew - to purge the Ghostbloods of these people. The ghosts are grim, but determined in their task. The Sons of Honour are their enemy, they know this, and if they are left unanswered, they will slowly dismantle the organisation from within. They must be eradicated before that can happen, if the organisation is to have any chance to survive. In the quiet, forgettable town that this division operates in, an unnatural hush has fallen over the night. The normal folk go about uneasy, keenly aware that something is not right but unable to figure out what it is and entirely powerless to stop it. Within the houses, Ghostblood agents make careful plans to deal with the threat from the Sons of Honour, using their skills of subterfuge and skullduggery to fool their neighbours, friends, and even their family. But when every potential threat in the town is two-faced, how can one tell who is a friend, and more importantly, who is a foe? The Rules The variant is the same as a normal set of Elimination, but with one major difference; At the beginning of the game, the GM assigns half the players to be Day Players, and half the players to be Night Players. Players are then paired up, Day/Night, until everyone is in a pair (all pairs will be completely Village or completely Eliminator). In the event of an odd number of players, one player is both Day and Night. Day Players may not post in the main thread unless it is the Day, and vice versa. The pairings between players are hidden, and only the player knows who their partner is. However, all players start the game aware of whether each player is a Day or Night Player. Each player pair shares an Alignment and has the same Role, and they share a Role/Action PM. If a player dies, then the paired player dies with them. Day Players may not talk in PMs unless it is with their pair. Players may talk to their other half via the PM, regardless of whether it is a Day or Night Turn. In the event of one half becoming inactive for a complete Cycle within both thread and PMs, the active half may request to the GM that they take over both Day and Night. This will be stated to happen publicly if it occurs. During the Day, Day Players can discuss in the thread and place votes for another Day Player to lynch. Night Players cannot be voted for. This Turn will last for 48 hours. During the Night, Night Players may target other Night Players with their Action and if PMs are open, talk to other Night Turn players. Day Players cannot be talked to via PM or targeted by Actions. This Turn lasts 24 hours. There are no cross-Turn Actions. It is possible that the game will be Role Madness, but not by any means definite. Rollover will be at 9PM GMT, and the game will begin on Tuesday 14th at 9PM GMT. Roles Assassin - The Assassin's job for the Ghostbloods is to take out anyone who may be a threat. They have the ability to use a Kill Action every Night. Backup - The Backup has been trained in one of the other Roles, but lacks the go-ahead to use his skills. If a player with the Role that the Backup has dies, then a Backup is randomly selected among the eligible Backups to become that Role. The Backup Role cannot be detected until they become that Role. The Backup is aware of their Role. Hired Goon - The Hired Goon's job is to be a target while other Ghostbloods carry out a mission, and is hardened and tough in combat. The Thug's first death is nullified. Messenger - While at least one Messenger is alive, players may send messages to other players within their Turn. Shadow - The Shadow is able to conceal his own nature, and potentially that of another as well. Players targeted by the Shadow's ability cannot have their Day Player, Alignment or Role discovered. Spy - Who said that the Ghostbloods didn't have their own agents amongst the Sons of Honour? Each Night, the Spy may dig up information on a player, confirming whether or not they are a Son of Honour. Stalker - The Stalker is able to stealthy follow a player back home each Night, and is informed the identity that they go by during the Day. Strategist - The Strategist is privy to knowledge that most are not. Each Night, they may use their Action to discover another player's Role in the organisation. Surgeon - The Surgeon's task is to prevent the deaths of the Ghostbloods. They may save a player (excluding themselves) from death each Night. Alas, despite the theme of the game, Kas is buried in work, so I have no co-GM. Anyone want to volunteer? Mission Countdown Quick Links: Player List

As I understand the spirit web, it is like spiritual circuitry, powers and other aspects get coded into the "circuitry". When you use Hemalurgy, you rip out the chunk of someone's spirit web the controls the attribute you are stealing and then you staple it into the recipient's spirit web. When the "circuit" is spiked into the appropriate place for that aspect, the "wiring" works as intended and the power is transferred. When it is put somewhere else it makes weird connections and does weird thing. i.e. Koloss don't just have the strength of 5 men, they have blue skin that doesn't grow despite the fact their body never stops. Spook's book also said that you can make just about anything by changing the spirit. Now Shardblades cut the spirit. While Hemalurgy works additively to change the spirit, I wonder if one could use a Shardblade to make modifications of a subtractive nature in more complicated ways than just paralysis. Something like cut away at the shoulder(Hemalurgic bond point for pewter Allomancy) of a natural Thug and destroy the part of their spirit that lets them burn pewter. Or forcibly break someone's bond to a Shardblade while leaving them alive. It may even be possible to create Hemalurgy style monsters like Bleeder's creepy things by cutting away bits of the spirit.

Neat theory, I like it! @strumienpola Liar hasn't been abandoned per se, Brandon's still planning on writing it. It's just that we can't rely on the sample chapters available to us because he's stated he wasn't happy with the original effort (including some characters specifically but he won't say who) and he's especially called out his inclusion of Aethers as something that's probably not going to make the final cut, now that he's planning on rewriting the book they originally appeared in as well. That said, we know fainlife is still going to be part of Yolen's backstory because the AU essay on Scadrial talks about how that planet was made in Yolen's image and the flora and fauna found on the former resemble that of the latter 'aside from the fain parts'. Which doesn't prevent some variation on that theme from being the source of the Evil, especially as Threnody is a minor shardworld and unlikely to get the kind of deep development as the major worlds, so a bit of conceptual recycling is probably okay. @The One Who Connects I don't remember that WoB but assuming it's the case for purposes of argument, if you want to get really picky about it since Odium was the one to wound Ambition, we could call him the 'cause' of the Evil as much as Ambition and we knew about Odium before Shadows came out.

Interesting. I had not considered this interpretation. I worked under the assumption that he simply made himself an Allomancer and then built off of that, but it is possible that he just made himself super strong from the get go. Similarly, I am aware of that compounding the effects of Allomancy is possible, and it could be that he simply knew this trick and that's the reason. This begs the question though, if he's using one of these to boost his Allomancy, what is he using Hemalurgy for that could be considered "the most dramatic"? We know he was using it in a big way for something that we saw. If there had never been anything said on the subject of burning spikes, then I too would have assumed it to be something else, but we know that burning a spike has some sort of effect. I'd argue that "hacks" or "tricks" like compounding are actually really simple, comparatively. Spiking someone requires you to know exactly where to place it and is likely even more complicated to make constructs, whereas this just requires you to try burning a spike sometime and messing with Identity. Realmatics is said to be central to the old Terris religion, so it's possible that Rashek actually knew something about Identity to begin with and the knowledge was surpressed afterwards. Naturally occurring Aluminum is rare, but not unheard of, after all. This is indeed something that bothers me. What was he spiking himself with? Why did he want to? It could be that he just wanted even more insurance that his Atium Metalminds couldn't be Pushed or Pulled, seeing as he almost instantly died of old age after losing them and that's kind of a big deal, but who knows. I mean, this is the Lord Ruler we're talking about. Even if he used a puppeted construct to do this, he definitely killed them afterwards just to be sure. Probably doesn't really matter what he used in the end. On whether or not it's still Hemalurgy, I think it is. I can pull off "dramatic effect" on my car by boosting it with Nitro (shoo, car enthusiasts, you don't need to bother telling me this is wrong lol) and just because the effect is just going really fast and it still runs on gasoline doesn't mean that it wasn't pulled off with Nitro. This is the worst metaphor I have ever told and this is what I get for responding in a car. I'm heading off to a family dinner now, so I probably won't be able to respond for the rest of the night. Glad to see the responses so far.

Ahh... no problem with cutting in my RP . But don't wait further RP(atleast in 10 hours) from me cause it's 2 AM right now and I gonna go sleep little bit.

Well, I don't think I actually made a point about it not being likely to happen on D1, but I'm glad you admit some amount of fault in the initial logic. That being said, the inherent problem with bandwagons is players not thinking for themselves, in my opinion, not a stall in discussion. Besides, I'd rather see a bandwagon than a bunch of poke votes and no votes any day, as bandwagons have a lot more potential to reveal useful information. Additionally, I'd argue that the problem you're addressing isn't the bandwagons, but the fact players would rather wait around for information than actively pursue it. It really isn't too different than a game of follow the cop if we all just wait around for answers, except it's even more likely the elims will be able to take advantage of our silence if there's no genuine reason for it, therefore I think that's the issue worth addressing. I'm also glad you responded as fast as you did (I'm assuming it's because of the mention, though I will record it here and now that between the time I posted and the time Phatt did, I only saw one player, Straw, viewing the thread. Thus if phatt turns out an eliminator, it might be possible Straw saw the vote and gave his teammate a heads up). Regardless, I am going to keep my vote on you, mostly because that's the second time you've advocated more discussion without making a significant effort to help perpetuate it.

I came up with a new one: Stonewarden Awakener. See, we don't know what Tension and Cohesion do exactly. We know that: Awakeners use mostly cloth and fabric in Awakening. Combined with ability to alter its flexibility/stiffness and (probably) malleability... You'd no longer be limited by the fact that you're using fabric in Awakening - you could alter it how you want at will. One moment your Awakened sleeves "grip what you must", the next moment you can parry swords with it. If you have long tassels, you could Command them to spring at enemies and then make them stiff and rigid and pierce their bodies. The idea started when I thought of Vasher using his clothing to enhance his limbs; I thought of designing clothes which you could Awaken to form an exoskeleton around your body. Stonewarden can make armor out of it (or use them offensively like in example above). Then I threw Twinborn in that, because that's what I do. As of right now we have an Awakener wrapped in Awakened exoskeleton which can also be used offensively (tassels. Tassels everywhere), who can inhale Stormlight (boost in physical abilities + powerful regeneration) and alter the physical properties of things he Awakens. Which Allomantic power and which Feruchemical power goes with that? Well, I think Allomantic pewter is good - it combines nicely with the enhanced abilities of exoskeleton + Stormlight. Another one could be Allomantic tin, to play along with the Heightened senses. Feruchemical powers... it's hard to choose from. We could go Feruchemical pewter just to add even more strength. We could go Feruchemical tin (although it's a very inferior choice to Allomantic tin). Feruchemical steel is always OP. Feruchemical gold is always helpful. Feruchemical duralumin could enhance lifesense (if it works on Connection). Feruchemical zinc would probably be the best - faster thinking to Awaken in combat situations. I think I would settle on Pewter/Zinc Twinborn or Tin/Zinc Twinborn, depending on what you want enhance more. All in all, the combination is Pewter/Tin & Zinc Twinborn Stoneward Awakener.

Ah. I haven't seen that one before. Then, if I understand the quote correctly, they have to be willing to change, but once the transformation has begun there's no ability to stop it, i.e. No "this isn't the Spren I wanted" moment. Allows for unintended changes but no ability for a change when you wanted to stay in your original form. Makes sense. Thank you

@maxal What do you wanna bet he's a hotel desk clerk on the graveyard shift like Brandon was? XD In other news, I finished A Conjuring of Light and very much enjoyed it. I'm now about 80 pages into Duskfall by Christopher Husberg and already super excited about the rest.

I just got back from LGPE( Large Group Performance Evaluation, pretty much the big band exam, whatever it is where you live), and my band got a Superior rating(the best one)! I'm so excited!!!!

I wonder if we can take this theory and then apply it to voidbinding and voidspren? Are voidbringers those that voidbind? Are the listeners voidbringers or is that a broad term that, over the ages, was applied to a larger scope of creatures. Would this term only be applicable to the humans that attract these certain spren, as this theory says about surgebinders?

But these are similes... Well... Carry on!

Lift will figure out a way to access all the Surges, making her Roshar's first ever Awesomeborn!

1) I'm controlling a bunch of koloss and they do all my forum posting for me.

Dalinar is actually an extremely skilled Dysian Aimian. The real one died long ago.

At the end of Oathbringer a new red star shows up. They decide to call it Calamity.

Just want to point out that Sazed has the power to bring people back to life, he just has to do it before they reach the Beyond, so I'm pretty sure it won't be a problem for Marsh

I never said I regretted it. Just the opposite in fact. You are doing just what we wanted you to do. Sadly yes. I highly doubt I will be able to pull off another miracle escape this time. Do me a favor though. Vote Doc into jail next cycle. He's been voting on me for so long that it's clearly a concentrated bussing attempt. Why Doc why? Hmm, tell you what, keep me out of jail for this cycle and I'll totally vote to pardon you next cycle. You can trust me. Yep. Completely trustworthy.

It was more a joke than anything else, don't worry

Probably more cheerful than people were thinking, but I thought it could be amusing. The Lord Ruler's "You're Welcome"

@Silverblade5 - Sure! The Bible does not say that slavery is a natural state of man. The Bible does say that we are slaves to our sinful natures, a slavery from which we can freed through Christ. In the Israelite economy, slave == employee - you hired yourself out for a set period of time. Slaves were to be freed every 7 years (I think. Slaves every 7 years, land returned every 50 years?). So you would 'sell' yourself until the next year of Jubilee, with the price being determined by how close to that year you were. There were strict rules regarding the treatment of these 'slaves'. Keep in mind, all of Israel were to be landholders and to have their own, ancestral, tribal lands. So if your farm failed, you would hire yourself out until you had enough money to restart it. That's also why land returned after 50 years, you could only sell your homestead for that length of time, after which it would return to you or your next of kin if you were dead. Much of the prophetic work in the Old Testament was lambasting the Israeli upper-class for its treatment of the poor, and specifically for failing to treat 'slaves' (employees) properly. That, and idolatry, were the two crimes that are repeatedly mentioned when God is punishing the Nation of Israel (remember, God made a covenant with Israel - you follow my rules, and I will prosper your nation. They didn't follow the rules, and God punished them. Lots of little punishments; hoping for repentance. Eventually He went with a severe punishment - the exile to Assyria for the North and Babylon for the South, but always with an eye to them repenting and returning to their homeland. Understanding this will go a long way towards helping you understand the Israeli mindset even today, although @Deliiiiiightful will know a lot more about that than me). The New Testament says very little on the ethics of slavery. However, it says a lot on the ethics of the being a master and being a slave (/employee! While Roman slavery is much closer than Jewish slavery to the modern conception of slavery, it is still far different from 17th-19th century plantation slavery. Slaves often outnumbered Citizens in cities, and were basically considered employees). It also has significant underlying themes that caused the abolition movement (the bulk of abolitionists in the 18th/19th centuries who eventually ended slavery in the West were devout Christians, often clergymen. Look at John Newton and William Wilberforce for example). Firstly on what it says explicitly: Slaves(/employees/bond servants) were to remain within the law, and generally behave in an exemplary manner. Many, if not most, Christians in the early Roman world were slaves. They were asked to perform their duties as to the Lord, and not as to men. They were also strongly encouraged to earn their freedom through the conventional means, if at all possible (remember, 'no man can serve two masters'). At least two early popes were slaves who had either been freed or had earned their freedom. . Masters, on the other hand, were commanded to treat their slaves well. Most telling is the letter to Philemon, a slave-owner, about Onesimus, a slave of his who had run away, met Paul, and converted to Christianity. Paul was sending Onesimus back to Philemon, while carrying the letter. In that letter, Paul asks Philemon to treat Onesiums as Philemon would treat Paul himself - as a beloved brother. He also says that he will repay any damages incurred, and strongly hints that Philemon should release Onesimus. Church tradition holds that Philemon did manumit Onesimus, and that the two became extremely close friends. Crucially as well, there was and is no distinction in church services or standing. In Christ there is neither 'slave nor free, male nor female, Jew nor Gentile' - all are to be equal. The slave is supposed to sit beside the king in church, and to live as equal to him in life. Paul wrote several strongly worded letters to new christian groups who were showing prejudice, esp. ethnic prejudice and class prejudice. Onto more theoretical stuff: the way Christ orders us to treat each other completely excludes slavery, in its modern sense, and discourages slavery in its classical sense. We are commanded to be humble, to help one another, to 'turn the other cheek', to be generous, compassionate, kind, patient and on and on and on. Scripture teaches that people are made in the image of God, and that they are inherently free, valuable and equal one to the other, that we are to love our neighbours (with neighbours being shown to mean anyone you come into contact with), treat others as better than ourselves and so much more. This is completely incompatible with slavery (as we think of it). You do not put your brother in chains. The slave is your brother. Its as simple as that. It is compatible only with the mildest of ancient/classical slavery - that is, paying someone to work for you for a set amount of time. But during that time, you are still to treat them as your brother, as better than yourself. Honestly, there's a lot more to be said on this, but it would take me doing more research and readings and I just don't have time right now. Too much school. (For the record, I googled, like, two things briefly, and re-read the letter to Philemon while writing this post. The rest is from memory. All errors are thus mine). Also, I'm touched that you asked my opinion on this @Silverblade5 - practically blushing. I hope I was helpful, and I'm glad you think so highly of my opinion on these things! (I'm generally a sarcastic person - that response was NOT sarcastic. I am really touched)

That's an awfully defeatist way of looking at things. You're also not the only person dealing with a high death rate. Here's some interesting statistics: the sum of all the characters/avatars who have been in every game played in SE is 1653. The death count is 1102, or 66.7%. This means that the average survival rate is 33.3%. Individuals with a lower survival rate than that die more frequently than the average SE player. Here are the survival rates of a selection of players with lower survival rates than the average: A couple things I'd like to comment on this. Everyone, minus Ecth, that is higher than Seonid has played more than 20 games. Seonid, Hael, and Kas are all at 17-18 games. The rest, including Ecth, are between 10 and 15. There are some really low survival rates there. Mage is less than 10%. He's only survived one game, out of 15. That's kind of insane. Hael died the first 12 games he played. However, if we count just from the time people stopped making a hobby of Hael Hunting, his rate is 60%. 3 out of 5. Not too bad. And I imagine, it'll hold to about that. If he were to continue playing rather than going on a hiatus, I imagine his death rate would balance out at about 30%. Once you hit about 25 games, the survival rate you have is probably going to stay about the same, unless you make a concerted effort to change it, and even then, it's questionable. Death is just something that happens. It usually balances out the more you play. The average survival rate for those with 20 games or more is about 30%. So less than the average SE player, but not by much. Certainly better than 20-25%. But that's because you've played more games and people have a better placement of you in terms of kill-necessity, and you've gotten better at being less suspicious-looking, no matter your alignment, so you'll probably by lynched less as well. Especially early on. For example: You've been lynched 7 times in your 12 games. 2 of those lynches were when you were village (so you accrued suspicion and couldn't deflect it....or your brother arranged your lynch because he was evil ), and 3 were when you were evil. You've been lynched every time you're evil. But I'll bet you've learned something every time you've been evil as well. You're probably learning how to avoid suspicion. That's what happens when you're evil. You learn. You get better. Eventually, you'll make it through a game without getting lynched as an eliminator. You might get vig-killed, but hey: at least it wasn't a lynch. And you'll improve from that. You've been killed by the eliminators once, and that was in MR18, towards the later part of that game. You've been attacked by the eliminators a couple of times early on as well, but you didn't die to them. And yes, attack cycle is rather different than death cycle. The first block of information is the cycle you take your first hit. The second block of information is what cycle you die. You've been attacked 4 times in the first 2 cycles, but you've only been killed 3 times in that same chunk of time. You tend to be attacked first between cycle 3 and 4, but you don't tend to die until cycles 5 or 6. That's...not bad. Sure, your death rate in the first two cycle is on the high side, but there are others with a high number of deaths in those same cycles. Orlok has been killed 7 times in the first two cycles. He can definitely relate, because he was really upset about it after the 4th or 5th time it happened. Really, it's just about playing more. Those early deaths will average out. Your survival rate will rise. You've only played 12 games, which I get that that sounds like a lot, but comparatively, it's fairly low. There have been players who played 10+ games before they finally became an eliminator for the first time. Like I already said, Hael died the first 12 games he played. 12 games isn't enough to get into the true direction your stats are headed. That takes around 25 games. And I can practically guarantee you that your stats won't look like this 13 games from now.

What does The final empire and pokemon have in common? Too much ash!

I'll add it to the Sandmastery entry. So it would be Sandmastery, Feruchemical bendalloy, Feruchemical iron. I like the bird + electrum one. I wish we knew more about Truthwatchers to know how atium drualuminium atium burn would work for them.

Let's make this an even playing field: the armies of Roshar and the armies of Scadrial are somehow fighting over a third world (so no highstorms, and no ash or mists). TLR sends his full armies with a few inquisitors and Mistborn. Lots of allomancers join the fray for money and power (but no Feruchemists, as they are hiding). TLR is OP, and getting lazy in his old age, so he stays home to ensure the stability of his empire and to watch the Well of Ascension. The peoples of Roshar, seeing a chance at mutual advantage, put together a vast coalition expeditionary force under Alethi leadership. However, there are no radiants yet - just proto-radiants. All the shardbearers of Roshar go. The Heralds are in hiding, and choose to remain so. No Chasmfiends, whitespines or other terrifying creatures are tamed and sent to battle. NUMBERS: Scadrial: There are around 300k Koloss during HOA, so we'll assume that that's how many they have here. There are roughly 20 inquisitors. We'll assume that they send 15, as that seems reasonable (the other 5 would be back home doing their duties) Cett and Yomen between them raised some 100,000 in one dominance. Let's assume TLR can do the same in every dominance, and so he sends 500k footsoldiers. We don't know how many Allomancers there were in TFE era. However, I'd estimate that, assuming TLR advertises an opportunity for wealth and advancement, there will be a sizeable component of Mistings, and maybe 5-15 mistborn? Total: 500k Skaa soldiers, 300k Koloss, 15 Inquistors, 10 Mistborn, and an uncertain number of Noble mistings. Roshar: We know that the Alethi had an army of 100k deployed at all times on the shattered plains. Seeing how much fighting was going on at home, how they're surrounded by hostile kingdoms, we can assume the Alethi would be able to muster at least 50k more troops for an expedition. We can assume from in text references that Jah Keved has a similar force, so another 150k. Jah Keved and Alethkar make up around a third of Roshar, but they are also the most militaristic nations by far. Thus 300k between them, and another 400k from the rest of Roshar seems reasonable. There are around 100 shardbearers on Roshar at this time as well. MILITARY INFRASTRUCTURE AND TECHNOLOGY: Scadrial: TLR can get skaa to do whatever he wants in terms of raw labour. The final empire has canning, extremely useful for establishing a supply line. Scadrian military technology, however, is purposefully suppressed and simplified. The Scadrians are not militaristic, nor military innovators. This is due to the intentional pacifying influence of TLR. Scadrial has a decent number of horses. Ranged: Scadrial has simple bows, and that's about it. Possible they have composite bows, but seems unlikely. Why would they? Yomen has some trebuchets, so siege weapons are known. Longbows, crossbows, and etc all seem to have been suppressed. Melee: Basics. Spears, swords, hand axes. War staffs? Scadrial just doesn't seem to like weapons. You don't hear of any pikes, halberds, longswords, maces, anything. Shields don't appear to be widely deployed (only Hazekillers and a couple of soldiers in HOA are mentioned as having them. Medical technology: Not terrible, but not great either. Sazed has historical knowledge of medicine, and likely there's some basic field surgery, but no mention is made of antiseptics, antibiotics or proper sterilization. Roshar: Soulcasters. Soulcasters. Soul flipping casters. I'm a history geek, particularly a history of war geek, and frankly, SOULCASTERS. Those things are so insanely useful it's not even funny. Roshar can fight wars almost without a supply line at all, with no risk of running out of ANYTHING. They have as much food, water, metal, leather, EVERYTHING as they need. THIS IS HUGE. HUGE. If you're not a war geek, you have no idea how much of an advantage this is. The only supply line Roshar needs is a line supplying them with fresh gemstones/stormlight. This is a far simpler supply line then anything in history ever. Running gemstones with stormlight to the front is so much easier than running a complete military train it's mind-boggling. Horses, however, are rare on Roshar, and expensive. Ranged: While the Alethi aren't huge lovers of bows, they still have lots of seemingly excellent archers (especially that one highprince...). The Parshendi have composite bows, and the Alethi appear to have good bows of some different kinds. In Dalinars flashback that Brandon posted, there's an archer using what appears to be a heavy longbow. Some Rosharan cultures have a good mix of ranged weapons. Crossbows, however, do not seem to be used at all, AFAIK. Siege weapons are likely well known, but I can't remember them being explicitly mentioned. Melee: The Rosharans LOVE melee weapons and equipment. And they're good at it. They have everything, pikes, long spears, shortspears, halberds, short swords, long swords, maces, battleaxes. You name it, they got it. Furthermore, they also have good access to armour and shields: Alethi spearmen appear to be trained to fight in a manner similar to Grecian Hoplites, as well as later era Macedonian hoplite/pike mixed formations. Medical Technology: Wisdom of the Heralds indeed! Roshar has military medical surgery that's as good as what we had in WWII, if not better. Excellent antiseptics and a good understanding of infection and prevention of infection (if not the causes of infection), excellent sterilization practices. A large number of well trained and equipped field surgeons. MILITARY THEORY, TRAINING, EXPERIENCE AND LEADERSHIP: Scadrial: Not much, frankly. Scadrial has many things, but military experience, theory, and leadership on Scadrial SUCKS. Scadrial hasn't had a proper war in a millenium, and it shows. Military leadership is ineffectual at best. Military theory even worse. The Lord Ruler has done an excellent job of preventing real warfare, and real war experience, to affect his people. The most his armies do is crush the occasional rebellion, and that's usually done by letting the Koloss rampage. Well of Ascension really shows the absolute dearth of military leadership both on the platoon level, the battalion level, and the division level. The leaders and soldiers are completely unprepared for real war. With a core of troops from the old empire, and 'experienced' officers, the defenders of Luthadel are laughably undertrained after over a full year. The best armies of the Lord Ruler simply let the Koloss do 75% of the fighting. They never had to face a superior foe, or even an evenly matched fight. Likely they'd never been in a position where it seemed likely that they'd lose. The troops, even veterans like Clubs, haven't experienced real war. Roshar: Odium reigns. Which has had an interesting side-effect, Roshar is at war with itself ALL THE TIME. Large scale, small scale, everywhere in between scale. Roshar is filled with generals, captains, squadleaders. Thousands upon thousands of experienced Officers and NCO's, hardened veterans with battle training and excellent military theory. Roshar's armies are filled to the brim with highly trained, well prepared and well led veterans. At least half, if not more of their forces are disciplined troops who can follow orders, hold their ground, and have faced terrifying odds before. People who aren't at their first rodeo. With hardened, brilliant generals like Dalinar and Gavilar, the Rosharans know how to run a real campaign. MAGIC: Scadrial: Tons of it. Scadrial would have thousands of mistings for sure. Pewterarms who can lead a charge, Coinshots and lurchers who can protect formations against arrows and set enemies off balance, rioters and soothers who can maintain the composure of their forces while weakening their enemies resolve, Tineyes who can scout and spy extremely well, and most crucially the Inquisitors/Mistborn; fighters who can dominate small battlefields on their own, especially when they have Atium (Atium would have to be used sparingly though - likely saved for when fighting Shardbearers. In an extended conflict, even the full cache, in the unlikely case TLR let it be tapped, would run out quickly; there's not a lot of Atium and it burns fast). Duralumin would be useful, but AFAIK, TLR had concealed it at this point. Kandra provide a huge advantage in information warfare: TLR would certainly infiltrate Roshars ranks. Poisoning food/water supplies wouldn't be terribly effective (because of Soulcasters), and it's unlikely that they'd be able to effectively counteract soulcasters/fabrials (they might be able to steal a few, but once they started to steal them, security would tighten up significantly). But the Rosharans would have no secrets, and could be effectively screwed with at a few key points in combat. Roshar: Shardbearers. These guys are tanks, and their invested equipment is almost certainly immune to steelpushes and ironpulls. I'm not kidding when I call them Tanks: the tactics and opportunities they allow for are very much likely armoured warfare in WWI/WWII. They can pierce through enemy lines almost unmolested, shatter a hole allowing for the regulars to exploit the breach, hold a weakened position all on their own. Their uses in combat are manifold. Fabrials: instantaneous communication across the whole campaign is a fantastic advantage: again, something that wouldn't be seen on Earth until the first and second world wars. Navani's plethora of cool tools would be very helpful, but likely not game changing. Soulcasters are just, wow. Such useful, so soulcast, much supply line, very wow. CONCLUSIONS: Roshar has an incredibly advantage in military theory, experience and infrastructure. They're tactics, strategy, everything. Infinitely superior to Scadrials, due to their overwhelming weight of experience. Their battlefield leadership, and hardened soldiers, would make them far more efficient, flexible and effective a fighting force. Their military training, formations and equipment are all far superior to those we see on Scadrial. Scadrials magic advantage is huge. Mistborn and Inquisitors can both turn the tide of a smaller conflict, and are much more useful and flexible than a shardbearer. However, this is a conflict on a truly immense scale. Absolutely immense - 25 people can only do so much before succumbing to exhaustion (a great example of the best large scale use of allomancy in combat is Elend in HOA - he could only do so much, and that was with a constant supply of Atium!). By the same token, there aren't enough Shardbearers to be everywhere. Enough to be useful, but not enough to change the course of the battle. There are, however, lots of mistings. Rioters and soothers would likely make up for a good chunk of Scadrials morale disadvantage (inexperienced soldiers, especially before modern training, are FAR less more likely to break and run than veteran soldiers. Even with veterans, most battles ended in a rout, not a slaughter. Inexperienced forces tended to get routed AND slaughtered). Coinshots and lurchers are helpful, but actually not that useful in a full-scale battle. Their offensive use of coins aren't really better than arrows or crossbow bolts. They'd certainly make a difference (especially in stopping arrows), but not that much of one. Thugs are super handy, and would definitely help shore up weak points. Koloss are interesting. They're big, no problems with infrastructure, hard to kill, and impossible to rout. They will make a significant difference. Roshar however has proper equipment, formations, tactics and leadership. Koloss function a bit like a mixture between heavy infantry and heavy cavalry - but they completely lack armour. What's the best way to stop a charge of heavy cavalry, OR of lightly armoured heavy infantry? A spearwall, or a pike wall. Roshar has both in spades: Spears and pikes would be extremely effective against Koloss, especially backed by archers who can shoot over their allies heads (as the most dangerous Koloss are tall!). Roshar's advantage in experience, training, equipment and infrastructure is HUGE. Absolutely huge. Those are the things that win real wars. However, Scadrial has a simply incredible advantage when it comes to magic (and Koloss!). What would likely happen? It would be a very, very even match. If the Scadrians were able to force major field conflicts early on, they'd likely win. A well-led rush of Koloss against troops who hadn't seen them before, backed by rioters, soothers and inquisitors, would have a good chance of breaking the Rosharan army right away. However, if Roshar was able to weather the initial conflicts against Koloss, they would likely win. Battles are won by experience, training and discipline (usually), and wars are won by infrastructure, medicine and food. Roshar has a huge advantage in those key fields. But Scadrial has Koloss. And Koloss don't follow normal rules. In the end, it would be very, very interesting. And make a ridiculously fun video game if done in the Total War series style: I can see it now! Total War: Cosmere. EDIT: Uhhh... Wow. I tend to geek out about these things. That's a long post. I'd be sorry, but it's just too interesting a topic for me! Cosmere AND military history? How can I resist! TL;DR - Roshar has a huge advantage in military training and experience. Scadrial has a huge advantage in magic. It would be a very even fight.

Why did Elend cross the road? He wanted to Venture to the other side

good job. upvote. here's a long one... A Tineye and his father are looking for a bar to drink in for the night. The father goes to walk into the first bar that they come to but his son stops him saying, "With my enhanced senses...I can tell that this place is dirty and cheap, despite the dim lights. We should go somewhere else." And off they go. His father goes to walk into the 2nd bar they come to, but his son stops him saying, "With my enhanced senses, I can tell from this far away that this place smells terrible. We should go somewhere else." Dad is a little irritated...but off they go. The father goes to walk into the 3rd bar that they come to, but his son stops him saying, "With my enhanced senses, I'm not going to be able to stand this place. It's obnoxiously noisy." The father says, "Fine! But you should be happy that I'm not a Tineye!" The son says, "Why?" Dad replies, "Because if I was as picky as you...I would have never knocked up your mother!"

What do Lyras and Shallan have in common??? ...preserves...

More WoK progress updates. How I feel looking at my progress when I have an assignment due Tuesday: Oh, and then there's Dalinar: …who is only slightly less insane….