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Turn 2: Mourning in the Senate ⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅ The Coffin’s lid was coarse and unsanded. Yosef already had several splinters in his hand from rubbing it, but the prickling didn’t matter at the moment. Had he ever failed as monumentally as this? Personally delivering poison to the most important mortal in the world? And one of his oldest friends? A prickling and some smeared blood wasn’t enough punishment. And the wood was getting smoother. The wooden pauper’s coffin had been the only one available on such short notice, this far from the main seat of Elendel. A rough wooden box barely held together by short iron nails. It was meant to last long enough to be dropped into a shallow hole. It didn’t deserve the hero it held, but not deserving what you got seemed to be a theme. There was a cabinet on the wall of the storage room, and once curiosity got the better of him, he opened it. Harmony wanted to apologize to him it seemed. There was a toolbelt, old and dusty, but with plenty of usable tools. There was a roll of sandpaper and a bag of nails. There was everything he needed. He started with the sandpaper. Once the spot his hand had rested on was completely smoothed out, he used it as the center of an ever widening circle. Yosef had almost finished when the door opened, revealing a somber Constable Wilson. “Sir? We’ve found another body. We need you out there.” He turned back to the coffin and examined the sandpaper. “It’s worn thin Constable. Used up on something it never should have needed to do.” He dropped it to the floor and pulled a hammer and nails from the coffin. “And it’s barely held together. Too much shaking will break it to pieces.” He heard her walk closer, but refused to turn when she placed a hand on his back. “Yosef, we need to work now. His killers are still out there, and now Senator Auldoun has been killed as well.” He turned to face her. He usually didn’t notice, but she stood a few inches taller than him. He had always brushed his height away with actions. When you acted larger than life, people tended to look up to you even if it meant they had to take a knee. He wasn’t acting anymore. “Did you poison that wine Wilson?” She stiffened, and the comfort vanished from her hand. “I believe Altea did sir.” He noted that the respect was fading from her voice with each word she said. Good. He didn’t deserve it. “She would say the same about you.” He turned away, and positioned a nail above one corner. “I’m not leaving his side Wilson.” He began to hammer. Thud, thud, thud. One nail done. On to the next. Finally, she spoke again. “That is dereliction of duty in time of Crisis sir. I will ask you one more time, get back to work.” No one had spoken to him in that tone in years. It was refreshing. “Arrest me constable. But if you want to be effective, don’t try to remove me from this room.” Thud, thud, thud. One more nail should be enough to hold down this corner. He ignored the footsteps of his Detective as she left the room, slamming and locking the door behind her. He ignored the murmuring from the hall outside. He brought the hammer down on the nail, and left it there. Did it really matter? The hammer slipped from his fingers and clattered against the stone floor. Silently, he wept. ⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅ Constable-General Yosef (A Joe in the Bush) was Lynched! He was Just! Senator Bernette Auldoun (Burnt Spaghetti) was Stabbed! She was Surprised! Vote Count: Burnt Spaghetti(1): Snipexe Furamirionind(1): Elbereth Rathmaskal(1): Haelbarde Joe(6): Striker, Bard, Lum, Elandera, Rae, Alvron Gaea(4): Drake, Fura, Devotary, Kidpen Wilson(3): Araris, Ark, Fifth Constable Altea currently has 9 Boxings. Her Boxings will be distributed among whomever votes on a lynched party. PM’s are open. This turn ends in 24 hours. You may now pass Boxings and Items to players. Boxing Prices: 1: Talk to an arrested player without your name being posted. 4: Change someone’s Lynch vote. 2: Change someone’s Election vote. 5: Buy a random item from the Constables. (This price is frozen until Altea has items for sale.) 3: Bribe a player to target someone with their item. 6: Buy a specific item from the Constables. (This price is frozen until Altea has items for sale.) 49: Bribe the Constables to execute all other players. You win. Your team does not. Player List:

Hi all. As this tread title suggests, I've been lurking around these forums for a while now, and finally decided that it was time to start contributing to some of the fantastic discussions and theories that this site has collected. Thanks for the hours of fun from the insightful to the inane.

Yeah yeah, I know that's not how it works... but GOSH, DO I WISH. I'm new to the forum and (relatively) new to the Cosmere. I read the Mistborn series (all six books) last year and just finished the Stormlight Archive, including Edgedancer. Next on my reading list is Warbreaker and then Elantris. Professionally, I work as a graphic designer, but during my spare time I am a budding fantasy/sci-fi writer. I've been writing as a hobby since I was in elementary school, and have completed and published a few short stories. Now I'm working on my first novel, and Brandon Sanderson's approach to worldbuilding has been a huge inspiration for that. You're probably not interested in an autobiography, so here's some fun Cosmere facts about me: Favorite Sanderson book: Words of Radiance (though Part Five: New Unity of Oathbringer would be my top choice if a section of a book counted) Favorite Character(s): Wayne, Kaladin, Sazed, Dalinar, Wit/Hoid, Lopen, Shallan (in that order) Roshar or Scadrial: Roshar, unless I could live specifically in Alloy of Law-era Scadrial Mistborn, Feruchemist, or Knight Radiant: Mistborn Number of times Brandon Sanderson has made me cry: TOO MANY

The Stranger fell with a splash as Voidus turned the ground beneath their feet into a lake. He was caught so off guard by Voidus’s sudden mischief that he sunk up to his knees before he had the thought to soulcast a pillar to stand on. This is just like that time with the volcano, only fewer explosions. Then he heard Voidus calling out to him. At the mention of rubidium, he blinked. This was going to be exactly like the time with the volcano. “You may want to tap some healing for this.” The Stranger rolled his eyes, “Oh shush.” The blast hit them with the force of a volcano, something they were both quite familiar with. As the smoke cleared the Stranger brushed bits of debris from his shoulder. “You know, the last time you did one of these I didn’t have legs for a week. And you never even found my left foot.” His tone was annoyed, but his grin belied his words. This was a glimpse of his old friend. Now was not the time to be outdone. “Now let me show you how a professional handles these sorts of situations.” He closed his eye and began rearranging Alleys, creating a massive inter dimensional channel. The newly formed crater began to shift and shimmer, its existence changing. The Stranger pulled on the Alleystorm with a mighty heave, and as he opened his eye a massive rift tore open. The Stranger spoke a single word, heavy laden with finality, “Arise.” The storm itself seemed to still, and for an instant it seemed as if nothing was going to happen. The Stranger grinned and snapped his fingers, and a claw the size of a skyscraper reared up out of the rift. It was followed by others, gargantuan chitonous limbs that dig into the ground as an islandsized greatshell pulled itself from the inky deepness. It’s entire body seemed warped and unnatural, it’s carapace twisted and jagged like the bones of the Darkhor monks. It’s body was a living mountain range, a waking cathedral of peaks and spires. Curved horns rose from the head, and strange glyphs and aons glowed along its body. Spikes the size of lightposts protruded from it, further altering it’s shape. It opened its maw and unleashed a bombastic roar that shook the city, the ground quaking with the reverberations. Then it looked down at the two men standing before it. Lightning illuminated the Stranger’s face as he beheld his creation. “Behold the Behemoth. His back is the mountains and his limbs the roots of the world. Let all look upon him and despair, for he is judgement incarnate. Creation cowers before him, and he cowers...” His grin was a blend of pride, excitement, and a Dark hunger. “...before us.”

I have an important announcement. Some of you may not be ready to handle the news I am about to give you, so to soften the blow, I've put it in the least frightening format possible. *deep breath* Here goes. (Don't say I didn't warn you...):

This is true. I'm quite enjoying the thought of Joe trying to make sense of all this. Now I want to make you post more and see if I can get you to mess up.

Hmm...Snip and Ark feel like setups, I agree, and Striker’s tone has been giving me very different reads than I had a few hours ago; that said, I think I’m going to stick with my gut, as the backlog here is a bit intimidating to pull a solid lynch case together in the two or three hours before I sleep, and my qualms with Striker are still lingering, if mitigated. I do want to respond to this, though: First, I love seeing you talk this much, Alv. If you can keep this speech quality up you certainly have my vote for Governor. That said, as an advocate of a Gaea lynch, I feel obliged to give some counterpoints. While your desire to cooperate with Burnt and kill everyone is admirable understandable, I work as much in-thread and with the lynch as you do in PMs and with items, plans, and the like. As such, my priority is purifying our lynches and ensuring their accuracy. While I wasn’t really around to protest the massacre of Joe, I’m still a believer in corrupt!Gaea—additionally, as to why we should “waste” another lynch on a constable, because knowing who is what alignment is the only way to perform reliable analysis? Without that, everyone is floating in limbo completely isolated from past events and other players, and analysis is reduced to a game of find-the-evil-sounding-tone, which simply doesn’t work, as some people will sound village no matter what, and villagers are essentially stabbing in the dark hopelessly trying to make contact, while the Elims, who have more coordination, can steer the lynch where they will. Confusion, in the vast majority of cases, only benefits those trying to hide, which would be the Elims. Also, finding Elims through connections is one of the most reliable ways of finding them at all, and your statement, that it can lead to a horrid mess when misapplied, is true of all lynching strategies and shouldn’t be used as a reason to avoid a particular method which has proved its usefulness time and again. Items disappearing will in most cases not happen, and at any rate will cause those using them to use them more cautiously than they otherwise might, knowing that they might not get it back—besides, any attempts to both use and keep an item within a faction will necessitate revealing to some extent those juggling the item, as we saw with Snip and the Dagger. The black market isn’t necessary to maintain the fun of the game, as seen in this very cycle; there’s really not much in there at all, and I believe that by increasing the value each individual item holds, and being careful to use it in a way that keeps it in circulation, we would add another fun dimension of planning to the use of our items. We need 18-20 votes to guarantee the unanimity you propose to reverse the lynch results, which is probably never going to happen. The most likely remedy if we keep the current system around is to have very small numbers of votes, which also doesn’t work—people with Boxings, and Elims with hammers, have too much of a say. The only way to restore the integrity of the lynch is to purify its results, which means taking another shot at lynching a constable. Finally, as for suspecting those pursuing the constabulary, I again disagree. I respect the desire to have a reliable lynch which will allow us to perform good analysis later in the game, and will defend those who share that desire.

This. If Burnt or I had gotten a Dagger at start, we would've been murderizing people. Burnt doesn't play many games and the chance to work with her in our mutual love of killing random people would've been wonderful. I had three goals this game. Get a Dagger and call it Shadow's Embrace or The Shadow's Kiss or something similar. Publicly get a Dagger and see what Burnt does. I suspect she would either PM me asking to join in the murder spree or start to panic knowing I have a kill ability and haven't forgotten that she attacked me in a prior game. Burnt descending into madness in fun to watch. (You should ask to see her GM PM from LG16 if she still has it) And finally, kill Hael and collect his head which I have been after for oh so long now. No. Just no. In my opinion lynching Gaea is the worst thing for us to do as village. I was willing to let it be a three way tie last cycle as then we would've wasted only one lynch but if we lynch either Wilson or Gaea then another cycle would be wasted. I just don't understand why finding the corrupt constable is so important. Yes, our lynch results will be reliable but so what if they aren't. It's not like we need them. Finding an elim through connections isn't as reliable as many think it is. Yet they put great stock in it. Sure when it works it's great but when it doesn't it can lead on a wild goose chase that causes far more harm than it would good if it did work. But more importantly, lynching Gaea removes the Market! Beforehand, that would've meant that the elims had an easy way to get rid of all Whiskey, Ledgers and Boxings. That's no more bribes, no more seeking, no more protects. With the new rule that items can be passed, that now includes Warrants. Everyone is saying that it will also mean no more Daggers but that is not true at all. I know of two ways to keep Daggers in the elims hands without the Market and that's just what I've worked out so far. I'm not going to reveal them as this post alone will give them far more ideas than I wanted them to have as it is. All the elims need to do to cripple the village is get rid of the Black Market. Then they can use the Whiskey, Ledgers and Boxings on the one being lynched and poof, they gone. Passing items now means the Warrants will also disappear. What everyone is overlooking is that there is no elim kill. That means they very likely have higher than normal numbers. By removing the Boxings, they gain better control of the lynch which they already have the numbers to influence more so than in a normal game. Removing Boxings also removes the odds of anyone getting enough together for the solo win con. IMO we should ignore the constables completely and focus on finding the elims. Yes our lynch results might not be reliable but that isn't all that true either. Enough votes on a player and it will always give false results so we would then have the truth. Personally I feel that those pushing for the constables to be lynched, any constable, is far more likely to be an elim. It derails discussion and wastes time that they can use to gather items/information. Please read above. I'm fairly certain I had something else to say here but writing the above either covered it or made me forget what it was. Politicians do it all the time. They say one thing and do another. Flavourwise it fits well in the theme. I think I covered everything but I jumped around while typing this so if a thought suddenly drops, I likely got distracted elsewhere. There have been several posts made while I was typing this but I'm not going to risk losing my wall of text. I don't do these enough to risk this one.

After getting a spike, Opal had been feeling quite lucky. However, as she was walking back home and inspecting her new shiny thing, a dark figure jumped out from an alley and attacked her! Fortunately, Opal was able to fend off the attacker with her spike, and proceeded to run back and tell everyone about her close encounter. Burnt Spaghetti was attacked, but survived! GM Notes: PMs are open. The Day will end on August 7th, at 4:00 PM EST. Due to the low number of deaths, I'm implementing an activity filter. Every player must now make a post every two cycles. Tineye Message #1: Two little Spiked buddies plotting in the night;One got themselves spotted, and then there was one. Player List:

What did the cook say to the lazy guy making seafood stew? Oi! Stir! What is a good way to describe a jar of pickles that’s really hard to open? Cucumbersome.

Okay, time for actual analysis. First off, last cycle Alv voted for Joe by himself in this post here, that wasn't vote manipulation. In that case, the vote manipulations were from Joe to Gaea (Kidpen's vote), and from Gaea to Wilson (Fifth's vote). Chances are that they weren't both done by the elim team, because they effectively made the number of votes on Gaea the same as before, and kept the lynch on Joe. We know that Joe is village, and the elims benefit from a mislynch, so the manipulation off of Joe was probably by a villager. That leaves the manipulation off Gaea. Gaea is the only reliable way for elims to get daggers, and thus kills, so it's possible that the elims might have saved her even if she was village to keep the black market open. Assuming Gaea is village, the manipulation could have been done by both a villager or an elim, so the bribery is NAI. Assuming Gaea is elim, the elims have a lot more reason to keep her alive, so the bribery was probably done by an elim. I'm honestly tempted to kill off Gaea now, regardless of alignment. Yes, she has nice items for villagers too, but the village can still work without alignment scans and item seizures. Protects aren't needed if there's no kills, either. Comparatively, an elim team with no kills is crippled. The elim team gets hurt a lot more than we do if Gaea's dead.

One of the prime reasons for the Industrial Revolution in England, was the shortage of labor. The Black Plague had eliminated enough people that they needed to automate things. On Roshar, they have just lost a lot of manual labor. They are ripe for their own industrial Fabrial Revolution. They have the technology and the understanding. Navani is going to be very busy. People are going to need fabrial washing machines, dishwashers, etc. Mundane things, for sure. But is going to turn the world inside out.

So, I tend to be a very immersive reader. The scenes of a book play out in my head like a Hollywood action film, complete with camera angles, character voices, and sound effects. Sometimes, my mind will alter or add to character appearances and voices automatically, just because it 'feels right' (even though these alterations sometimes contradict the book). One such alteration that my mind came up with was a particular speech... erm, pattern... that Pattern used. Pattern tends to enjoy humming... a lot. I believe he is even described as 'vibrating' on more than one occasion in the series. This led my mind to do something rather interesting with how Pattern pronounced s, x, and z. For example, take this phrase from Words of Radiance: "Insults in particular will be of great use to my people, as they are truths and lies combined in a quite interesting manner." When reading this sentence in Pattern's voice, my mind tended to shift to humming, vibrating, and nasal-based noises, with some of the sounds extended to emphasize the vibrating effect. Here's an attempt to write out how it sounded in my head: "Inzultzz in particular will be of great uuze to my people, azz they are truthz and liez combined in a quite interezzting manner." Another example, which is even harder to decipher (and write, sorry): "You fear nonexistence, but is not unconsciousness the same thing?" "You fear noneggziztenzz, but is not unconjjiouznezz the szame thing?" Additionally, Pattern's voice was high for a male, almost affecting the classic 'nerd' voice (pinch your nose and pretend to be smart and you'll see what I mean). However, his voice deepened a bit when in Shadesmar. I believe that my mind made this jump because his form in the Cognitive Realm better reflects his true age and nature, as opposed to the condensed version that appears in the Physical Realm. I wondered if anyone else had given Pattern a bit of the same 'vibration' effect when hearing his voice in your head? What other characters did you give vocal quirks to as you were reading?

Palpatune watched as the senators went this way and that, wandering about the room. First they were mad at one fellow, then another. They had even gotten upset at him for a time. He shook his head, and then let a smile slip to his face. He was starting to hear the first few notes of a song. He pulled out his notebook and jotted down several chord progressions, and the basis for the melody. Yes, this could work, he thought while humming it to himself. This could get him re-elected. Little was known about Palpatune’s secret identity, the elusive “Count Gold”. It was the way he generated the funds for his campaigns without the need for special interest groups. It may have seemed strangle to some that Gold would release another one of his albums at almost the exact time that Palpatune’s district was up for election, but no one thought much of it. It was simply a coincidence. Simply a coincidence. As the group finally seemed to reach an agreement, Palpatune felt the need to stand and share something. It was a political move he had been planning for quite some time, something that if done correctly could be enough to get him to the head of the arts and literature sub-committee. ”Have any of you seen the opera recently? They are playing “The Mists within a Women’s Heart.” It’s really a lovely story, the performance excellent. And it was written in the roughs too, surprising I know, that culture can manifest in such a desolate place.” He sat down. That should have done it. Perfectly calculated as to give the impression of him being familiar with the arts, which he was, but they needed know that, and to appeal slightly appeal to the Roughs elected Senators without offending those of the city.

Does it have to be an elim? Can I claim to be evil just to get you to post?

Acting nefarious is kinda Burnt and my default states. You basically killed Burnt because she acted like herself. Also, welcome to my kill/revenge list. When Burnt died I decided that whoever killed her would regret it. I shall kill you. In a game. Likely a long time from now given how few I've managed to get revenge upon. So long as you don't leave.... you're probably fine. I kinda agree. If one of us must be killed I would rather it be me than Burnt as she doesn't play nearly enough.

Indeed it is! With the castle bot and train bot! Girl genius is a wonderful webcomic. I’ve been gone so I’ll read through the thread and see if there’s anything I want to comment on.

KanMien shot another bullet and looked next to them. Their ammunition was down to half of what they had started with, and with the disappearance of the storm they were left to shooting at the slower targets moving across the ground because they couldn't use their zinc anymore. Sighing, they found a lumbering beast with a large amount of armor. They aimed, then fired their rifle. A number of seconds later part of the beast exploded, the flesh around the wound bursting into flame. They smiled, a smile that vanished when they looked at how close some of the beasts had come. They clicked their tongue, they'd have to move soon. Well, they had to get more ammunition anyway. At that moment they saw something at the edge of the city, a large blast of water and flame rising into the sky, and about ten seconds later they heard a distant roar. From the remaining crater something started to rise. Frowning they adjusted the scope on their rifle, looking at it. In front of it they noticed two humans standing there, though they couldn't make out their features. Not that it mattered, of course. They only knew of one group of people who could do something like that. They fired another shot at a monster in the streets, then focused back on the crater. This was going to be interesting. *** Aylitha walked through the streets, monsters in front of her and monsters behind her. Puppets ran around her, defending her from them, tentacles whipping out and grabbing new ones as old ones dropped down, eaten away from the inside out. She smiled at the screams of those surrounding her, of the puppets and of the monsters. She found herself wondering about taking this city, creating a new home. Her place in the alleys was nice, but here... Abruptly her mind went away from the idea, and she smiled. It seemed Aylitha didn't agree with the idea. Well, it wasn't as if would work anyway, the people would probably just end up burning her away. Still, it would fun... Smiling she wandered in the the direction of the explosion. She didn't care about the monsters around her, but that, that would be interesting to see. It has been a long time since she'd seen the others acting on their full potential. A smile split her face in two, skull cracking. An unnatural laugh echoing between the building. Oh, she thought, This was going to be fun! *** Back at the building Aylitha still hung at the side, growing restless. She could feel her other self's amusement, and she felt herself growing annoyed that she was getting to enjoy herself while she was stuck here, dealing with this... vermin. For a second the two linked up, minds becoming one, then separated again, and she knew why her other self was so amused. The DA leaders, out in force! Still, she felt herself growing happy as well. After all, after she'd exterminate those still here she'd have an excellent position to watch the impending fireworks. She focused on the growth on the leader's arm. She had enough mass back now to do something, so she might as well take care of her first. Something small, to start this out with. The growth changed, tentacles digging into the arm, trying to destroy the nerves, the muscles, the bone, to shatter it and tear it apart. Other tentacles sought veins, trying to release their acid into her body. Done with that she pulled at the tentacles latching her onto the roof, pulling her up towards the edge. At the same time she started running, pushing away from the wall, gaining speed. She jumped up past the rooftop, tentacles, flying towards it, pulling her in. She broke into a sprint as soon as she hit the edge, rushing towards the nearest soldier, a long white spike in her hand. @RayOfSunshine

Regarding the suspicion Ark used the dagger, I don't think it should be used to condemn either him or Snipexe. He is just brash enough of a player that I would believe village!Ark got a dagger, named it what he claimed, and over-zealously chose to use it on someone. He only had a few option for people with votes on them, and probably wanted to keep the dagger in easy circulation. Additionally, by stabbing someone a fellow Alleyverse player had voted on, the joke around the dagger name would be more potent. I don't like the votes on Gaea, nor do I like the idea of lynching another GMConstable until we can narrow down suspicions. It would be best to actually find the corrupt one, rather than get rid of one based on outcomes. I know this is a bit contradictory to my stance yesterday, but we're down to one GMConstable lynch and we have actual suspicions today. On to suspicions then. Striker does seem like a good possible lynch. His response to everything that happened last turn seemed a bit disingenuous. However, I do agree with Drake. The lack of opposition is a bit sketchy. I don't have any reason to suspect Bard at the moment, so I won't be joining that one. I also won't be joining the Snipexe lynch, as that seems too obvious a move when we don't even know Burnt's alignment. Fura's posts are giving me a bad vibe. His posts seem a bit too confident regarding alignment, but a bad feeling isn't enough for me to want to lynch one of the most active players right now. I will want to go back through and review their posts when I'm more awake (unlike last night). I will need more time before I vote. For now, I'm going to tag people I don't think have posted yet, or have very small post counts. @Bugsy, @Elbereth, @Lumgol, @RayOfSunshine, @Shqueeves. Vote Count: Snipexe (2) - Alvron, Hael Ark (1) - Snipexe Striker (3) - Fifth, Araris, Fura Gaea (2) - Rae, Striker Bard (1) - Drake

1. I don’t agree with the concept of a Chekhov’s Gun. It makes the world more immersive and real. Not everything has to be essential to the story. 2. Brandon does avoid those a lot. He almost always ties stuff in, you just have to look for it. 3. That example is not a Chekhov’s Gun. Dalinar not having a Shardblade is a huge deal. He’s one of the greatest warriors in all of Roshar and his fighting ability has been largely compromised.

https://alleyverse.fandom.com/wiki/Voidus_Prime Phew. Took a bit and some digging but hopefully this helps. I'll do some work on others when I have the time too. Also @ZincAboutIt I hope you don't mind my use of your artwork for the picture, I meant to ask you beforehand but then I guess I forgot during all the typing.

There isn't much terminology for what I'm about to discuss, so I'm just talking about it in terms we do know - it might be hard to read because of that fact, but bear with me. If what I write here doesn't make much sense to you right now, come back after a couple of days when this statement is removed. I may have improved the write up significantly. Premise: Elantris is a simple Aonic equation made up of two Aons - Aon Rao (Spirit) and Aon Ela (Focus, Center) Aon Rao, when used in other Aonic Equations acts as a power amplifier. (Why? I suspect that amplification of power is a side effect, and the actual effect involves the spiritual realm somehow - it adds a sort of spiritual weight to any equation, making an imprint of the idea back into the spiritual - thereby increasing efficiency and thus output. A similar principle seems to be at play on Roshar with Lightweaver Illusions) The effect of the Aonic Equation of Elantris is to focus the Dor and to increase the power/efficiency of all other Aons drawn in it's vicinity. This effect is strongest within Elantris, and weakens the farther you go from it. There isn't an Aon Shao anywhere in or around Elantris - making me think that Elantris isn't a direct cause of the Transformation, but rather a side-effect of some other phenomena that Elantris causes. Let's doscuss the nature of Aons in brief. Aons are cognitive structures that allows you to make the right connections. As such, they have to include stuff that would be in the general background cognitive perception of the concept they represent. Thus, the Aon for Water uses the lake and the Aredell river to cognitively conceptualise water. Similarly, the Aon for wood incorporates the location of actual Arelene woods. Aon Reod (Punishment) look like a crown of thorns. The Aon has to conceptually make sense. Let's take a look at Aon Ela and Aon Rao in this sense. All Aons "pull" the Dor, and shape it. Aon Ela pulls the Dor to it's center. I'm asking you to think of this as an increase in pressure in the Dor, focused at it's center. Aon Rao serves one primary purpose - it creates a conceptual channel into the spiritual to the idea of the land of Arelon (as this idea is incorporated into the shape of all Aons), and connects all of the Dor in that land to the Ela drawn. This has an effect of creating a much stronger baseline pull in the Dor towards the center of the drawn Ela, increasing the "pressure" significantly. When any other Aon is drawn in it's vicinity, this existing pressure adds to the pull created by that new Aon, in effect pulling the Dor out much more strongly, thus increasing the power drawn out of that Aon. Keep this in your mind when you read Elantris next and the effects will make more sense. Everything on the Spiritual seems to exist in two forms - as ideas and connections between ideas. So there is an idea of every person, an identity of who they are. And then there will be literally thousands of two-way connections between them and all the different spiritual ideals conceptually connected to them. One such connection of import is their connection to the land of Arelon. This would naturally be strongest in those who are born there, but even people who are simply travelling there will form some level of connection to the spiritual ideal of that land. In other words, we can say that there will be a connection between the spiritweb of the person and the spiritweb of the land of Arelon - a channel of sorts. The Shaod could then be a side effect of this pressure. Kind of like how pressure beneath the Earth's crust will find weak spots and periodically explode outwards to relieve itself (the technical term for these is "Earth Pimples", but in the common tongue they have been called Volcanoes), the cognitive nature of the Dor, it's connection to the land, the Spiritual channel created by Aon Rao, and the massive amounts of pressure created by the Aon Rao enhanced Aon Ela will all combine to periodically push the Dor along the "strongest" spiritual connections that are connected to it and into the spiritwebs of individuals who are on the other end of that connection. This sudden infusion of the Dor will significantly warp their spiritwebs - an effect which cascades out into the physical. This is what they call the Shaod. Just like once a Volcano is formed, it takes much less pressure to push stuff out of it, once you get taken by the Shaod, your connection to Arelon has been immensely expanded. This makes it much easier for the Dor to be channeled through you. Does this make sense to anyone, or is the write-up too confusing? TLDR: Getting "taken" by the Shaod might be equivalent to the formation of a new volcano on the Earth's crust. Elantris the city creates and maintains a constant pressure on the Dor, which makes it easier for the Dor to flow through when the metaphorical tap is opened by drawing an Aon in the air. A side effect of this is that the pressure constantly wants to relieve itself, and sometimes it does so by flowing through someone's connection to the land. The result of this is the Shaod.

While Ascended, Ruin "directed Rashek to an understanding of hemalurgy", leading to his creating the three hemalurgic constructs of the Final Empire: Inquisitors, koloss, and kandra. Koloss and Inquisitors are made from an original, base human (like Marsh, or that overseer obligator that Kelsier talks to in the Cognitive Realm in Secret History), who is then enhanced with hemalurgic spikes that have stolen Investiture (at a net loss of power) from multiple other humans, by killing them. The kandra are different: they are mistwraiths, a living and breeding species created by Rashek with the power of Preservation by altering Feruchemists into something immortal but without Feruchemy - and with some kind of a block to Connection that renders them essentially mindless, which can be restored (if they had a mind before, like the First Generation had) or given one (by creating that Connection) with the right kind of hemalurgic spikes, that were also created by killing people. We know that Rashek was unable to kill with the power of Preservation, as he tried to kill Kwaan with it and got "bounced" instead. So it stands to reason that he could not directly and immediately create hemalurgic spikes while Ascended, either, as that would involve killing people. He (with an assist from Ruin) had expanded his mind properly while Ascended to understand the hemalurgic principles involved for the three constructs, but would then have to go about killing people to make them once de-Ascended, right? I mean, he rewrote himself to be a superstrong Mistborn on top of being a Feruchemist, so killing people to make spikes wouldn't exactly be a challenge. So, what was the timeline? Some hemalurgic constructs must have taken much longer to create than others. Koloss are quick and easy to create, but it takes time to make enough of them to form an army. Even if you trust the koloss with the task of making more koloss (as Ruin later did - it's unclear if Rashek did as well), he clearly took care to keep secret the nature of their construction (that, or very effectively stamped out knowledge of the secret once he become The Lord Ruler). Still, it's conceivable he started making koloss very soon. I personally like to think his first priority was to make kandra Blessings. We know from The Hero of Ages that Rashek returned his personal Feruchemist friends (including the fellow packmen who had gone up to the Well of Ascension with him and Alendi) to sentience after turning them into mistwraiths, and that the longer a sentient being is in mistwraith instead of kandra form, the more "holes" are formed in their memories. So I would think Rashek (if he cared about his friends) would have made creating spikes for them his first priority. The really intriguing question is when did Inquisitors arrive on the scene. By Vin's time, they are essentially "super obligators" in the Steel Ministry (the Canton of Inquisition), drawn from the ranks of ordinary obligators. And per Yomen, Ministry doctrine holds that there were SIXTEEN original Inquisitors! (Which could just be legend, of course.) But Inquisitors are made from not just one, but multiple Allomancers, and Allomancers would have been quite rare for quite some time after Rashek's Ascension! In the Final Empire, most if not all Allomancers are noblemen, descended through multiple generations from people that Rashek gave lerasium beads to recruit them as allies, making them very strong Mistborn. Allomancers did exist and continued to exist on Scadrial without this lerasium injection, but rarely. So to get the upwards of 7 or 8 Allomantic spikes needed to make an Inquisitor, aside from the steel ones from ordinary humans, he would have needed 7 or 8 sacrificial Allomancers. For sixteen of them, in one go? Hmm. And without skaa Mistings around to harvest, which would take generations of illegal hanky-poo to pop up, where are those early Allomancers going to come from? The very small pool of "natural born Mistings"? Or... The descendants within 1 or 2 generations of the lerasium Mistborn, or even himself? (Whoa.) Perhaps the earliest Inquisitors were all made from Mistborn (and relatively strong ones) and didn't need as many, or even any, Allomantic spikes?

That would be weird, because then it means there are 11 Surges in total and that's just heresy. @cometaryorbit There is something interesting with atleast one Unmade - specifically Re-Shephir and Lightweavers. Lightweavers make Illusions with stormlight, where as the midnight mother weaves entities of pure the essence of midnight. Lightweavers need to understand or atleast somewhat connect with what they are copying, whereas the Midnight Mother seems fundamentally incapable of doing so.

In all honesty, if something happens in-thread, my self restrain will be non-existent... so There is no way I am actually going to hold long at 999 for long xD I will try though. : ) all you have to do is get one of the elims to claim their own alignment, and I'll come right back : P

Aln pointedly ignored his exasperation; she just muttered something about "assumptions" and moved on. "Mr. Redleaf," she asked, "If you don't mind me asking, how high ranked in this organization are you? You seemed to be able to rescue my library without too much difficulty." Assuming, she added to herself, that you really did save it.

Anyone who has a Steel Inquisitor picture, because I want 100,000 Steel Inquisitor balloon heads. ...How evil? December 13th, I think? Why would they need a light bulb? They have Stormlight. So, maybe it would take all ten to figure out what a lightbulb is. By volume or by mass?

Creationspren are confirmed by the songs to make artform I do not belive we have confirmation of anything else.

1. A snip lynch is based on speculation, but considering every village-lead lynch will be based on speculation, I’m okay with that. The move to stab Burnt with a named dagger is clearly a bid to sow confusion, and from our PM I think you agree that the eliminators are trying to leave us confused. In the face of deliberate obfuscation the simple answer is usually correct. If Snip got implicated in this way and I didn’t get the impression that the eliminators want us second-guessing ourselves, my assessment would be that Snip was framed, but as it is, I find it entirely conceivable that Snip is in fact evil. 2. Idk, kind of just gut. There’s a reason she didn’t make it on my shortlist of lynch targets. 3. Yes, I am defending Striker. To make my case more clear (I apologize for not explaining it very well before): Fast trains are always suspicious to me. You know well that I am always up for defending those who are not being defended by anyone else. And while I’m not the best at picking lynch targets I have pretty good instincts at picking the right people to defend. People don’t usually pay attention to this sort of thing, but when a lynch develops, the homogeneity of the reasons behind lynching that person is significant. When people throw their weight behind a lynch train without even acknowledging that other people have voted on them or citing any of their reasoning, it’s suspicious. I don’t like it when people pretend they thought of a lynch on their own with no hidden motives when it clearly isn’t a coincidence that they voted for the leading lynch target. In my experience, when somebody gets nailed for a singular badly worded post, it’s almost never an elim. Hm. I believe you just want the black market to get knives Nothing wrong with that, though.

Lunamor - I think my favorite series as of now would have to be the Stormlight Archive books, although my introduction to Sanderson's writing was the MIstborn trilogy, and those books still have a special place in my heart. If I had to rank my favorite Sanderson books, regardless of series, I'd have to say my top 5 are probably the following (although this list may shift around a bit, based on mood and which re-read I'm on) 1) Way of Kings 2) Oathbringer 3) Well of Ascension 4) Elantris 5) Warbreaker

@Nathrangking, I just got a chance to read it. I enjoyed it. There are some grammar issues that others have noted so I'll just skip past them . A few notes on the story itself; I very much enjoyed the vagueness of the story overall, with that said, I think you over-described the man and his dog at the beginning. I suspect you were doing it to contrast with the lack of details as to what was actually going on, but you may have overdone it a bit. In a longer short story I would approve of the contrast as you can bring it full circle, but in something so brief I think sticking with the bare bones descriptions would be more thematically appropriate. If anything I would probably go for a more detailed description of Ms. Lil and use that for a contrast of shadowed half life the Vet lives. With that said, your Mephistopheles woman's name is a little, well, "meh" I would probably go in one of two directions with it. Either be much more direct with it or change it to something completely inconsequential. For me the subtle nod in her name just didn't work. Her diatribe and macabre bargain both did work well though.

I'm not sure Kaladin is asexual so much as he's on a different tier of the hierarchy of needs

Don't we all like food.

I agree. I could see it working out similar to Elantris Spoilers I have read a theory that Kadash would end up a knight radiant. I think that would be an interesting read, and would show an interesting juxtaposition with how Dalinar dealt with it, versus how Kadash would deal with it.

So the other day something occurred to me. Don't you guys think they could make a really cool movie with Skyward? I hope that they don't unless it's under the right circumstances, because chances are whoever tries will just mess up the story and it won't be good: We don't need a repeat of Ender's Game. But still. I think it has so much potential. And honestly, that would be awesome.

Big Storming Sword

For the full scale of the war I think it’s ok to just discount Feruchemy. Many of the skills are useful, but can be replaced by allomancy in most situations. F-gold and F-pewter would both be phenomenal for that one soldier but really wouldn’t have an effect on the war or battlefield strategy as a whole. Steelrunners would be incredibly useful but also incredibly rare so I don’t see how planning for them would be that useful. For allomancy it’s important to remember a coinshots use as a scout. I think the governments would put a lot of money into aluminum hats so the soldiers are unaffected by the enemy’s emotional allomancy, but also their own. I think you’d also see a rise in trained hazekillers.

Very cool! Recently playing through Spider-man on PS4 made me wish there could be an open-world Mistborn game that had that level of fluidity with the movement and controls. This is definitely a good step in that direction as nailing the physics is going to be key to something like that.

As someone who has read the German versions I have to complain about the amount of Grunzen and Kichern in the books. Kaladin apparently "grunzt" a lot, which you could probably translate with "grunting". Except you usually use it in the context of pigs. The mental image of Kaladin randomly making pig noises is hard to ignore. There also is only one word for chukle, giggle in cackle in german, and that is "Kichern" which all characters do all the time. Suddenly all characters sound like imbecile young teenagers who start giggling childishly even at some of the less funny jokes in the books. Apart from that my only real complaint is about Vyre. In English it rhymes with Fire, which makes sense considering its spelling. For some reason that part was also translated. In german, Vyre (which Germans would usually just pronounce the English way ("Anglicism") or as Vee-reh) now rhymes with Feuer (German for fire). So, "Voyah" is how we apparently have to pronounce it in German. The spelling not only makes no sense then, but it also sounds pretty stupid. You could probably have said it rhymes with "Befreier" (Savior) which would be quite a little melodramatic, but at least it would make sense AND keep the Vyre-sound.

I've read some books in Polish and there are a few odd/ different names used, especially in Warbreaker. Originally it was translated as 'The Sower of War', which would indicate completely different intentions of the characters. Thankfully, they changed it to what might be translated as 'Peacemaker' so it fits better. The characters in the Court of Gods also have different names: - Blushweaver is Morning Dew - Lightsong is The Gift of Song - Clod's name could be translated as Nitwit or a Fool Fortunately they didn't mess with the Stormlight Archive. And in Mistborn the first novel is called just 'Mistborn' instead of 'the Final Empire' but I'm not complaining.

I would also love Rysn to get promoted. Specifically, I think she’s make a great second Willshaper. Her desire to explore and try new things makes her a good candidate, IMO. Don’t know if I want a full size dragon for her to ride, but the idea is cool Also, I really think Rock is going to be a big player. I’ve seen the idea of him being King of the Horneaters, and I love it

My reaction to the end of LotB: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

This is a great theory. I vaguely remember Gavilar (or someone close to him) talking about limiting his conquest to Alethkar, resisting the urge to take over the world and build an untenably huge empire. He says the Shin invaders (much like the Sunmaker) lost their empire shortly after conquering it because they overreached. But maybe the Shin let their empire disintegrate. Maybe they just wanted shards, and they let their conquered territories go once they'd confiscated all the plate and blades. Alternatively, I had another theory while reading yours. Maybe the Shin attitude toward warriors isn't all that ancient. Maybe the Shin Invasions were Shinovar's version of the Hierocracy: the warrior class took control of the country and tried to take over the world. Once the Stone Shamans (the religious class) regained control, they permanently reduced the status of soldiers to prevent another coup. It's like the Hierocracy in reverse!

Whoa, on that note, what if you awaken a shield with "defend evil"? I imagine it would be fairly useless, since NNightblood seems to have no real understanding of evil. The shield might just end up defending anyone holding it that is actively fighting. So the good guy could grab it and start swinging his weapon making the shield think he's evil.