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Cycle One: Appointment With Death I never really had any beef with Talbot Oswin. Lord Tal, I call him sometimes. Even to his face. He laughs at me. Lord Tal's friendly like that. Don't see no reason why anyone would ice him. 'Course, I haven't worked here long. Been here...I reckon...six months now? That's half a year. I tend the garden, mostly. Do what needs doing. Sometimes Lord Tal asks me to haul some packages for him. Then I walk out to the railway station or the post office. Depending. Lots of flowers in the garden. So many of 'em pretty. Don't really know their names. Last gardener left notes, see. Hard to keep 'em all straight. They blur together in your head after a while. But those are good drawings, aren't they? And then it ain't difficult to work out what a plant needs, see. 'Cause he wrote it all down there. Good for me since I don't care to know much about plants. But looking after the garden, it's quiet. Peaceful, even. And Lord Tal pays well. Doesn't even mind hiring a kig. Better than I can say of those Elendel lads and gixies. What did you say your name was? Well, okay...if that's what you want. Not sure why you want to hear it from me, though. So, Lord Tal was all excited, because he was throwing a big party. He loves his parties, Lord Tal. Had us all cleaning that fancy house of his. Then I weeded the garden. Have to keep it looking pretty for the guests. Lady Prissy tells me to keep an eye out for 'em, show 'em where they need to go. Guess it wouldn't be good if they got lost. That's where I first met you. Getting off the train, all that. I took your bags. Then I showed you to the house proper. Suspicions? I dunno. There was one of you, I guess. Nattering away about plants and animals. The plants are pretty, sure, but who likes them this much? Fair unnatural, I'd say. Then there was the cove touching his earring. Pretty shiny I guess. Ain't sure why you'd need to talk to Harmony at a party. Oh! And there was that old man, grouchy as anything. Called himself Lord Heron. Think he's any relation? 'Course, if I'd known what I did now, I'd have looked closer. Maybe I'd have found whoever iced Lord Tal. Hiding somewhere among you. Like a small weed in the flower patch. Ain't that a party. Apologies for the delay; had some mild PM issues that should be sorted out by now. Anyone who has not received a PM, please be patient as I check through the list once again. Please be reminded the cycle is a no-lynch, no-kill cycle that will end tomorrow, 6th July, 2200hrs, with the new cycle to begin an hour later at 2300hrs, GMT+8. Have fun!

"Surely you don't mean the Lord Heron?" Zachary feigned surprise, rejoicing internally to have bumped into somebody actually important in this sham of a noble party. "Truly, it is an honor. I am afraid there is little or no fame to the name of Holcomb, except, perhaps, that which coincides with my own. Or so I should like to think. I would normally find diversion within the confines of Elendel proper, but things have gotten a tad dull in the city lately, so I'm expanding my horizons. But truth be told, I have not thus far been thrilled by my stay in the country. If I may be so bold as to presume, I cannot help but notice that you also seem disappointed in the quality of company on display at this event? Alright, let's get this party started. As I recall, today is not supposed to have a kill or a lynch, so let's take that opportunity to get a head start on discussion, yeah? There's nothing to discuss about yet, you say? Well then we'll simply have to make things to discuss @TJ Shade What do you think the rooms are supposed to do? @Gears In light of your character name, would you happen to know things about the novel Death Comes at the End? Idk it's a blackout game and Kas gave us that title to go off of so it might be useful in figuring out the basic setup, although I also wouldn't put it past Kas to throw us a curveball and do something completely different. @Orlok Tsubodai Do you think there is a particular strategy we should go about with searching? @StrikerEZ We know this game has at least a village and an elim faction, so how many elims would you expect for this number of players? @Eternum How much do you think the lack of lynch/kill today affects things? Do you think we should basically approach D2 in this game like D1 in an ordinary game? @Mist Do you think RPing will have a mechanical impact on the game? I kinda figure our characters are supposed to actually solve a mystery by searching for hints and stuff which would be pretty cool if it somehow involved RP. @Elbereth Why did you steal the cosmetic role I originally wanted to pick? @Vapor Going by your name, are you by any chance related to Mist? Also your profile is quite funny @Araris Valerian If you were going to vote for somebody today do you have any idea who it would be? @Lord_Silberfarben This game seems a little different in that the elims don't get a doc to talk in. How do you think that affects things? @Burnt Spaghetti I kind of recall you like doing stuff in PMs. PMs are not unrestricted in this game, but what's your take on the room PMs? @MysticLotus Welcome to the madhouse Kind of a big question but what do you think are the best ways to identify eliminators? @The_Truthwatcher I think you're in the LG rn but I've never played with you so hi. I'll ask you a similar question as Mystic: what do you think are the best ways to identify guests? @xinoehp512 If memory serves then I believe you are a player who likes to analyze rules. Does anything in this game stick out to you as particularly unusual? @Lahilt Do you think there is any chance of secret/roles factions in this game? @A Windrunner What food items do you think are most important to stock up on when you visit a fancy party? @Devotary of Spontaneity Can you think of any other interesting questions to ask people? I'm definitely running pretty dry on ideas at this point That is all.

Since this topic has moved beyond cosmere and Brandon plots, I am moving this to Entertainment Discussion.

Sign-ups have closed. Please stand by for your role PMs and suchlike, and Cycle One will begin in just under an hour at 2300hrs, GMT+8.

-> Download Version 0.10 here! <- Hey, y'all! First thread on this forum. I'm a student at Future Games in Stockholm, and this is a pet project I'm working on between classes. I'm working in Unreal Engine 4 and its Blueprint visual coding system. I started this a couple of months ago when I was just done with the Hero of Ages and really into the allomancy magic system. I'm currently on Shadow of Self. No plot spoilers! Goal The goal of this project is to make an FPS-style Mistborn game, where you can play around with some schmexy allomancy. As a fan-made game, this will stay free-to-play. Caveat I want to make a good game representation of the Mistborn books, but some things are blocking the way. School. My time is spontaneously devoted to this project. Me. I'm not the most passionate die-hard fan, I just like the idea of a properly made game, as in true to the material. Controls. I want that feeling of being a cool Mistborn, jumping through the mists, throwing things around. But. Computer/console controls are severely limiting to a magical power that should take your whole body to control (Yeah, who knew, huh?). I want the player to have a good time, regardless of having read the books or not, so I will keep controls from being overly complicated. More advanced moves from the books will probably not be possible, so I will focus on making the general moves feel really cool and make sense for the player. Current features These are the features that I have right now. These will be updated as I go along. The most recent additions are in bold. Steelpushing / Ironpulling Mouse buttons for push / pull (on/off) One target at a time Lock onto target (look around and still control the object) Good-enough physics Coin Drop coin in front of camera Pick up coin from ground (added June 23) Hold coin in front of camera (added July 1) Choice to drop coin on ground and instantly push off it (added July 1) Choice to push coin forward from hand (added July 1) Pewter Switch on/off (added July 11) Greater jump height (added July 11) Faster running speed (added July 11) Extra Health (added July 11) Faster Regeneration (added July 11) Higher tolerance towards fall damage (added July 11) Auto-Pewter @ landing (Reactively take damage to pewter instead of Health if not burning) (added July 12) Breaks Breakable Walls (added Jan 03) Tin Switch on/off (added July 20) Makes mist less impeding (added July 20) Makes damage sight-blur less impeding (added Aug 1) Makes bloodshot screen more impeding (added July 28) Take more damage (added July 31) Darkvision (added Dec 30) Level Luthadel Skaa Suburbs A small Skaa area of Luthadel by the wall Nonsensical metal plates placed in various locations for easy testing (don't @ me) Luthadel Skaa Market A bigger Skaa area with larger buildings (added Aug 22) Noble Keep A stone keep with a massive ball room (added Dec 20) Short intro cinematic (added Dec 26) Doors that open with pushing/pulling (added Dec 21) General Downloaded free 3D assets Pickupable coin pouches (added June 23) Sexy, effective mist (added July 31) Pickupable metal vials (added June 25) Tutorial area with signs (added June 25) Pushable coin pouches (added June 24) Breakable Walls (pewter attack) (added Jan 03) (not in demo yet) Teleporters Between Levels (added Jan 05) Player Coin counter (added June 23) Health tracker (added June 24) Fall damage (added June 24) Regen health (added June 24) Metal tracker (added June 25) Auto-pick up coins and vials you pull towards you (added June 26) Pick up metal vials to inventory (added July 30) Drink metal vials from inventory (added July 30) Melee fighting (no animation) (added Aug 26) Walking / Running (added Jan 08) (not in demo yet) Crouching (added Jan 08) (not in demo yet) NPCs Human Downloaded free asset (added Dec 30) Moving around (added Aug 22) Faction system (who reacts in what way to whom) (added Aug 22) Take damage & die (added Aug 22) Damage player and each-other (added Aug 22) Animated attacks with sword (added Dec 30) Animated taking damage and death depending on how it was attacked (coin or hit) (added Dec 30) Drops sword at Death (added Dec 30) Does not detect sneaking players they can't see (added Jan 08) (not in demo yet) Guard post mode (added Jan 09) (not in demo yet) Koloss Downloaded free asset (added Dec 26) Moving around (added Dec 26) Take damage & die (added Dec 27) Damage player and NPCs (added Dec 27) Chases player and NPCs (added Dec 26) Animated movement (added Dec 27) Animated attacks and death (added Dec 28) GUI Health bar (added June 24) Bloodshot screen while damaged (added June 24) Damage blurs your sight (added July 31) Metal bars Steel (added June 25) Iron (added June 25) Pewter (added July 11) Tin (added July 26) Coin amount (added June 25) Pewter Health bar (added July 11) Screen shakes when falling too fast (added July 12) Hold button to open vial inventory (added Aug 1) Metal icons (added Jan 07) (not in demo yet) Sounds Taking fall damage (added June 24) Dying (added June 24) World music (added June 25) Pick up vial (added Aug 1) Drink vial (added June 25) Pick up coin (added June 25) Coinshot (added July 1) Asset Rights Future features

In topic about theories, @Use the Falchion posted: And this make me think: Its right! Larkins feed on Stormlight, Investiture make them bigger. It is possible, that they are baby Laceryn, but even if not, feeding them with enough of stormlight should make them big enough to ride on their backs. We know about two of them for sure, one belongs to Rysn, one to Nale. If they are different sexes (if, of course, larkins have sexes), so will be possible to regrowth Larkin population, now when we know, they need Stormlight. In addition, domesticated larkins with their Stormlight Absorption ability, will be very usefull against Fused and Power Forms. Will make them simply powerless. Maybe - this is theory - adult Larkin, Laceryn, will be able to not only drain Stormlight, but also emit/share Stormlight. So if they will be able to emit Stormlight, they will be natural allies to Radiants, because can serve as mobile Stormlight Bateries, and Radiant will not need have Gemstones, because his mount will be basicly giant Gemstone. But why i think they will be related to Dustbringers? We have 3 direct military oriented Orders. Windrunners, Dustbringers, Stonewards. We can count also Edgedancers, but they are more scouts, support and duelists than soldiers, and Skybreakers, but they are more like police. From those 3 Orders: Windrunners dont need animal mount, because they can fly (fall). They also are more focused on fighting in teams. Stonewards dont need animal mount, because they are more focused on defense. Their powers, of course, can be used offensivly, but the whole philosophy of this Order can be doscribed with one word: STAND! Dustbringers, on the other hand, are clearly offensive Order. Their powers are for attack, their philosophy also is also agresive. Their main goal "I will seek self-mastery" is also focused on individual skills, not on team. But as clearly offensive Order they lack mobility to do so. Flying mount-monster will be ideal for them, they will be able to keep up with Windrunners, strike fast and strong, also every one member of strike team will be able to fight alone (with mount) with destructive power. They also have Surge of Abrasion, and this will be great help for flying creature. The relation with mount will be also good indication of fulfilling the main goal of Order. Thi Theory also have good synergy with other Theory, about Rysn becoming Dustbringer. What do you think?

...I think so. I had just... well, I had been saying that Gears’ way of talking was hard to understand, and then he says “decision matrix based on the 2 axis” and my brain short circuted . I get what his lynch-or-not-to-lynch analysis was, but I just had no clue what that meant.

It's not technically a ketek since it doesn't have a five part structure; about kaladin and szeth Protected to die, fierce flames burning, Shadows grow, shaping darkness from light shone. Vast, so powerful! Master of death! Raging storms high above, fighting battles, endless death and blood spilt, broken souls weep, determined, weeping souls breaking, spilling blood and dying, endless battles fought above, highstorms raging, dying, mastering powers so vast. Shining light - from dark shapes grow shadows; burning flames fiercely, dying to protect.

I’ve been rereading The Way of Kings and it stood out to me how Hesina in Kaladin’s flashbacks seems very scholarly, and she also seems to be interested in and to know a lot about spren, and now I can’t stop thinking that she is actually Hessi, the author of Hessi’s Mythica! We know that Hesina’s past is shrouded in mystery but that she comes from a more high ranking family. As such, it makes sense to me that she would have been highly educated in the Alethi feminine arts and pursued scholarship. And there is of course the obvious connection with the name Hessi and Hesina being very similar. It is said that she and Lirin met during Lirin’s travels, and we know that Lirin was training to be a surgeon in Kharbranth so my guess is that this is where they met. I believe that Hesina was in Kharbranth at that time studying the Unmade - 1) because the Palaneum would be the best place to research such a topic, and 2) because perhaps she figured out that Moelach was there and was studying the Death Rattles (which would have brought her into contact with Lirin if she was in the hospital to observe the Death Rattles herself). Hessi’s Mythica appears to be very certain about and familiar with the Death Rattles: Throughout Kaladin’s flashbacks we get a sense of Hesina’s intellectual nature. We know that she can read and write unlike other women in Hearthstone. Then there is the way she offhandedly corrects Kaladin’s use of words, and her use of wit and logic, for example: When Kaladin is upset about the townspeople gossiping about his father, Hesina tells him: The way she explains things to Kaladin in such a wise and level way reminds me of Jasnah, or rather it reminds me of a scholar. However this quote I think is even more significant. We know that Hessi’s Mythica was poorly received due its controversial arguments about the Unmade. So when Hesina says that people are “frightened of knowledge” and that things they don’t understand must be dark and mysterious, I think she is drawing on her own experience here too. Perhaps what stands out to me most of all is that the focus of one of the few interactions we see between Hesina and Kaladin is her knowledge of spren. It does not seem to be a superstitious kind of knowledge, nor does it seem to be common knowledge. To me it comes across as a scholarly knowledge, and something Hesina is very confident about. If we turn to Hessi’s Mythica, Hessi too seems to have a deep knowledge of spren. Mythica makes a point of identifying the Unmade as types of spren. The fact that Hessi makes reference to Jasnah shows that Hessi was writing in this current period, so Hesina is around the right age that Hessi would likely be. But it also means that in order for Hesina to actually be Hessi, she would have had to have published it while living in Hearthstone, not 19 years ago in Kharbranth when Jasnah would have been only about 15 years old. This isn't too big of an issue for me though. Hesina could have amassed her research and evidence and then finished writing it later on in Hearthstone, perhaps continuing her research in other ways that Kaladin wouldn't have been aware of as a child. These are my main thoughts, although I admit it is a bit of a crackpot theory!

"Of course I'm the Lord Heron! Anyone who pays attention to anything heard about the Heron succession crisis, and my subsequent windfall. And yes. At my age, one doesn't really attend parties for the company. Some things are just a matter of duty to one's House, and there are lots of people to be seen by at a gathering such as this one. Of course, when I was younger, parties like this attracted a more ... refined level of attendance. Half the people here are young fops wasting money and ruining their reputations." As if in response to the last comment, a woman in an entirely too extravagant gown forced her way through the crowd to exit the study, all the while trying to hide tear-ruined makeup under a raised hand. Aralis gestured after her. "See what I mean?" Probably that young woman that just left the room. Or somebody who isn't RPing maybe? It would be pretty much random though. Maybe someone trying to distract from the RP by asking game related questions .

Brightlord Faleast stared at the squabling travelers. They had put up two individuals who claimed to be Radiants, heading to the city of Urithiru to sanctuary. The man Galatar, the purported Bondsmith who had used his abilities to save his life in yesterday’s brawl. And Brightlady Valas Etteax. Edgedancer. Lighteyes of an obviously high dahn. And wife of the man he had murdered. Lafay. He hadn’t seen or heard of the Willshaper since the People’s Republic of Elendel finally took root in Scadrial. Lafay had opposed it, and he had killed him for it. He had. Faleast, not AraRaash. At the time of the man’s death Faleast’s bones were already worn by the kandra, but the plot to kill him had been started by the real, living Faleast, and his Shadow made sure to finish it. And he had enjoyed it. AraRaash and Faleast were almost indistinguishable at that point, but Faleast had still been strong. He had enjoyed rousing the mob against Lafay. He has enjoyed watching Elandra being killed by Kynedath and killing Kynedath in return, regardless of that Coinshot’s interference. He had enjoyed planning the hunt for Reginald, until... Until Pyria. That had turned enjoyment into revulsion, and yet he could not muster that revulsion into regret. And now, the dead man’s wife was suspected of being a part of the Diagram, of being a murderer. It was so similar to his own past. Lafay or Valas, Loyalist or Diagrammist, Willshaper or Edgedancer, what did it matter? History was repeating itself, and Faleast wanted no part of it. That isn’t your choice to make, AraRaash’s voice whispered. She’s a suspect, and she will need to be dealt with if that suspicion bears fruit. And we may be the best to do the deed. No, Faleast thought, I think you would be. It’s not the- Someone stood up, yelling at the crowd that had turned in anger to Brightlady Valas. “Wait! She tells the truth! She has squired me with her powers!” Faleast smiled. Perhaps we won’t have to do it this way after all. ... Okay, lets see where we stand now. I’m a little off-put by Pyro for defending Ventyl on a “mistaken” premise and now wanting his lynch, although it reads more odd than Elim. Matrim being the squire is a gambit that I think will keep my vote off Ventyl for now - although @Ventyl confirming that Mat’s the squire would be nice (just to get it on the record). And I think Gears has been pushing Ventyl’s and TJ’s lynches too much, and being contradictory in his pushing as well. For example: While I agree with the basic premise that Elim!Ventyl could squire Village!Mat to pocket him, this post makes no sense. You state that Ventyl could be village alongside you, but then say we should lynch Ventyl immediately after you flip Village? Why? Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but I want to do a readthrough of Gears’ posts.

I partly agree. Those who have been vessels for longer are more susceptible to the intent of the shard. If you remember in Misborn a certain person was less bound by the intent than the other, which worked out for the protagonists. Dalinar would have more of his facilities about him instead of be a slave to the pure intent of honor. After all, that is what lead to Tanavasts demise.

Today I'd like to thank @Chaos, for nothing less than this entire community. I don't need to say much about him, we all know him. And many others, historically and currently, put so much work in. But to me, Eric will always be the 17th Shard, his work and passion are tireless, he has just the amount of grump to be a great admin while still making people feel welcome in the fandom, and generally his services to Brandon and the fandom over well over a decade are unrivalled. Thank you Eric, for everything. Without you, it'd be Reddit

The stream is just unlisted on YouTube (please don't post the link, as requested by Dragonsteel and Vault) so it will essentially exist forever to those with the link to it.

Zachary Holcomb threw open the doors to the Study and entered, resplendent in a finely tailored three-piece cerulean suit. Entrances were important. "Hello, hello." He traded the blot-stained invitation at the door for a fluted glass. "Talbot, you've been holding out on all us city folk. I never knew you had a place this lovely squirreled away." He almost meant it, too. Breezehome was unexpectedly lavish, for the private stomping grounds of a backwater noble. He'd run into Talbot a fair few times, now. A quintessential rich idiot, the man had excellent taste in parties and horrible taste in everything else. He never knew Talbot was connected to the Herons, though. Now there was a name that carried weight, back in Elendel. He scanned the room with trepidation, and experienced a peculiar mix of relief and indignation when none of the other guests seemed to immediately recognize him. At least the festivities wouldn't be ruined. Who knows, Talbot's grand blowout might even be fun. Time to work the room. He sipped his beverage thoughtfully while sidling up to one of the guests in the crowd. "Evening. The name's Zachary Holcomb, and alas I am in sore need of a conversation partner. I don't suppose you would indulge in my silly request? To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with for the night?"

I'm slightly concerned this will result in another 20 page D1, with people making 3 100 word posts then spamming short posts. I don't understand the Basic Lashing mechanic.

A FEW HOURS AGO: Loqlaw Mora was in a fix. He had waited until the last moment to implement his plan, and most of it would depend on luck. Of course, he had planned for every possible way his plan could fail, but still most of his plan hinged on luck. And luck, he had loads. You see, Loqlaw was a Slider-Spinner Twinborn. Everyone thought his powers were the reason he was so good at what he does, but that was barely the truth. They even had a Twinborn name specifically for him - a Swiftswipe. He stiffened as he thought of the name. He absolutely despised it. His methods were anything but swift. He loved making extensive plans and playing long cons. They thought he was so successful because of Bendalloy bubbles. But in truth, he loathed using them. Where’s the fun in that? Where’s the look of betrayal in the face of the person who had given you their confidence for a long period of time? Though he derived immense satisfaction from it, he wasn’t a sadist. Each and every one of his victims got what he gave them (well, what he took from them). He shook himself out of his reverie. He had a job to do. Earlier today, he had received a message from one of his numerous contacts, which usually meant a new job. This time, it just contained the address to a manor, and a short message to be there with an invitation. In a short while, he had figured out the identities of several other legitimate guests and chose his mark. Sat right across from him on a train from Elendel to Bilming was Lord Elmar Valand, extremely prideful of his scholarly pursuit and too greedy for his own good. He knew exactly what to do with these types. “Wasing the went of the where?” Loqlaw asked, hiding his smug grin. Valand looked up from the book he was reading, seemingly perplexed. You see these types, they only show off their possession of knowledge. They do not actually make an effort to study. Best way to deal with them is to baffle them with High Imperial. Valand tried to eke out a response “Eh, going of wasing to Bilming.” “Ah, notting the not of feeling the bad. Wasing the thinking of wanting to knowing.” Loqlaw could barely contain his laughter as he saw Valand thoroughly annoyed. But that was enough. It wouldn’t be wise to chase his victim away. “I meant to ask where you are going, sir.” Loqlaw put his brightest smile. This question seemed to brighten up Valand. “Why, I’ve been invited by Lord Talbon Oswin at his manor for a part, of course! I assume you are as well, Mister…” “Ah, I’m Varybed. Lord Varybed Theef. Of course I was, but unfortunately I had to decline. You see, I was invited to Mayor Severington’s private banquet. Alas, I would have loved to go to Lord Oswin’s party instead. You see, I really do not like to be among political plotters. Lord Oswin, now that’s a good man. Always pleasant to spend time with. But I had already accepted Severington’s request and I could not go to Oswin’s party without someone replacing me.” “You.. don’t have anyone to go in your stead.” “Alas, no. I leave quite the lonely life.” Loqlaw could see Valand plotting in his mind, slightly grinning. “Say what. Shall we exchange our destinations? You seem to be eager to go to Lord Oswin’s party, and let’s say I would love to make some connections in Bilming.” Loqlaw gave out his largest fake smile. “You do that for me? Oh, Lord Valand. I do not know how to thank you!” “You can thank me by handing out your invitation”, Valand said with an evil smile. Loqlaw removed a sealed envelope before eyeing Valand. “I’ve got strict orders to seal the invitation after reading it. Do not open it before you reach. He nodded and handed his invitation, and it was as easy as that. He didn’t even need to tap Fortune. He rose up, bowed slightly. “Seeing you out of the seeing without!” He turned around to steal a final glance at Valand’s face and left. Lord Severington was about to be one confused host to one utterly confused guest. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Loqlaw Mora was standing outside Breezing Manor, wondering why his contact had sent him here, and what valuable treasure was he to loot. This would be an uncertain, but exciting night. Feeling pretty confident, he showed his stolen invitation to the Secretary, and strolled in.

I had issues when reading Edgedancer as well. Guess WoR Lift is not my favorite person. But I am happy to have finished it as it provides depth to Lift and to Nale as well. Though I wouldn't place it at the same level as Emperor's Soul and I will not reread it as often as the other Stormlight books, I encourage you to read on.

Or make the bullet with a ballistic tip from aluminium. For reference, I have included a photograph of a bullet with a polymer ballistic tip.

soz all. locke spent all of yesterday in pubs celebrating their reopening. investigations reveal at least four of my locals still serve good pints have decided im going to do this game entirely on gut. just not fun trying to analyse and write as locke. as such, ventyl. reasonably strong gut village read on tj shade. havent thought enough about gears.

After a bit more study of Ascension, I think Dalinar definitely Ascended the same way the Lord Ruler did, and became a Sliver, rather than a shard.

Endless Sand slipping through alabaster fingers. A haphazard attempt at painting. Blind eyes reading from a book no one else will ever read. A neverending hunger for all you cannot have. Eyes of green and speckled blue. A cruel mirror that lies and lies and lies. The sound of her wings.

Rule Clarifications Player List

Also, if anyone does decide to sign up, I'll be on two panels on the 30th and 31st, talking about Music in SFF, and about Self publishing.

Off topic but perhaps relevant, I have been hunting Con news to see what is happening this year: Gen Con is online and FREE this year for anyone who wants to register. World con will also be online, not free though.

Sokka is in fact awesome. I would say, give the show at least the first season. Season 1 is very 'all right', Season 2 is dang good, and season three is like so good it's heavenly.

Watched the first episode with my mom. It was all right. I've adopted Sokka.

Wow, looks like the elim team has Striker, TJ, Ventyl, and Gears, embarking on a cunning plan to get each other killed for trust while simultaneously killing actual villagers trusted for their votes. Next thing you know, the elims will be purposefully submitting kills on each other so they can claim Skybreaker/Dustbringer. Does squiring take up two stormlight charges? The rules only mention it requiring two actions, so Radiants can't take any other actions the night they squire someone.

Susebron and Siri (Observe the heightening of colors in the Godking's presence ) Szeth training with novice skybreakers at the Purelake :

Whenever these books come out, I will buy them (but not the leatherbound editions - I'll leave those for folks with richer pockets, LOL). Some things are worth waiting for, and that's the case with Brandon's books, IMO. That said, I may stop buying/reading SA after book 5, especially if the first 5-book arc ends with a nice sense of closure. Reason is that I'm probably a bit older than Brandon's parents, and I may not live to see book 10. So a book-5-closure would leave me at a somewhat happy point in the story (I'm thinking, who needs any extra sadness or tension when one is in one's declining years?). Then if time goes on & I am around for book 10, I can always start up again with book 6 and go forward from there. I have told myself "No more getting invested in book series by young authors!" ... and have broken that directive numerous times already, LOL! I'm very much looking forward to the preview chapters of RoW, whenever Tor starts posting them!

Play And Find Out

This wasn't at all like the mafia games. yes, the game was a fair approximation, paranoia, panic. but not the pure fear you could die at any moment, just by making a dumb move, or being in the wrong place at the wrong moment. perhaps... perhaps his games should have more consequences? nothing so severe as death... but... perhaps some kind of punishment. he would have to think on that.

I like the ten sub shard theory, in some way that would just be making them stronger versions of the heralds but bound by the intent of a Shard, or more likely their oaths in whatever order they are. In some ways Nale has taken the first step down that road having bonded a spren of the Sky Breakers and progressed to the 5th ideal. I'm imagine Seth with kill Nale and claim his honor blade. Somehow I think all ten blades will need to be recovered un-bonded or passed on and modified for the 10 sub shard theory to work. How heavily invested is a sub-Shard though? How does an Elantrian compare to a knights radiant of the 5th ideal? Do sub-shards have the same limitations as the Shards?

Do we have to say we’re searching? Cause if so, than I am Searching

We move to a room before we search, so by the time we search, we are in a room. Short answer: yes.

Well, people did make good points against Ventyl being an elim. Matrim's Dice has been squired by Ventyl and this point I am inclined to trust them. Would an elim be so aggressive in defending their teammate? I don't know but I think it is unlikely. More experienced people, feel free to correct me. One thing I am feeling weird about is the number of times that people have misunderstood Gears posts. Is this simply because of their language? Can anyone offer a reason for this? It feels deliberate.

Ahh, Dumbledore's army.

I've been listening to Soldier by Fleurie and Meet Me On The Battlefield, by Svrcina, on loop, and a ton of sad music. A ton. I balance it out with stuff like Hamilton, Imagine Dragons, and Seven Nation Army. Those make me feel like I can take on the world.

Whoa, that is rare

Every single time I see an account from 2012 in today's birthdays, I am extremely tempted to write "One of the Ancients has resurfaced" on their profile page.

The best theory I’ve come up with is that Dalinar takes Honor and Szeth takes Odium, but Szeth’s oath is binding on the shard as well. So, Szeth’s commitment to follow Dalinar would allow shackles on Odium’s actions without requiring Odium to mess with Honor’s intent.

And the universe imploded, unable to withstand the sheer brilliance of their cooperation.

Bringing this thread back to what it was originally supposed to be, I would like to go on a short rant. A short rant for me, anyway. I recently returned a book on Libby because it made me so angry. I was less than halfway through. I originally picked up Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim because it was originally described as "Mulan meets Project Runway." I was intrigued. "Sounds fun," I thought. I became quickly disappointed. First of all, YA rant. I'm sick of reading YA that has come out in the last few years that is so thinly plotted out and is a jumble of illogical character decisions. There is no excuse. Quality should and can be found in all age ranges and genres. Children of Blood and Bone by Tori Adeyem was marketed like crazy and seemed so promising and was complete trash. I mean, the villain and the MC hate each other for half the book, then fall madly in love in one chapter, promising to go to the ends of the earth for one another because they're bonded, before he decides to go betray her in the next chapter. I mean, this isn't a new problem, just look at Twilight. I have just come to the realization that I've probably outgrown YA. Second rant, which applies to every genre. Authors who don't do their research and editors who don't catch those mistakes. And I'm not talking about technobabble or some very specific thing that 98% of the audience won't catch. I'm talking basics. I returned Spin the Dawn because it called reins "leather straps." Now, in case you're new, I am completely horse crazy. But horse-crazy people aren't rare. It's not like 98% of the audience wouldn't know what reins are. What really gets my goat is that how long would it have taken the author, their agent, their editor, their beta readers, anyone to go look up what those leather straps that steer a horse is called. I mean, it isn't some specialty piece of tack like a martingale. It's reins!!! Horses are common!!! I can forgive a first draft, a second draft, a third draft for making mistakes. But when a book published by Penguin Random House lets something as obvious as reins miss the mark, I find it infuriating*. I mean, just do your research, people!!!! Google exists!!!! Also, if anyone wants to go on "Pretty prose doesn't necessarily make up for a thin plot and thinner characters" rant, somebody go read The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern because, wooohooo, boy, I would love to go on a rant about that book. *My friend has now named my reins rant the George Costanza rant, but I've never seen Seinfeld. Apparently it fits, so yay me.

Star seemed unresponsive, tears pooling around her head, matting her hair to the stone of the floor.

You know you and your web community are Sanderfans when you write a hundred page worth of posts about how to know that you're a Sanderfan.

When on Twitter, someone named BelovedVin adds you to a mailing list, and you think 'Rust, Scadrial has Twitter now???'

It's been a while since I've been theorizing! It's time to change that. This treatise--and it is a treatise; it is way too long--has a long history in my mind, and now it is finally time for me to actually put it down in writing. (The graph also took forever to figure out how to do, but I finally got it to work. Yes, there's a graph in this theory.) Introduction There is a wide variance in magic in the cosmere, but it has never been clear why some magics might be more related to one than another. Considering Words of Radiance, we know that Stormlight and Breath are similar in many ways. In this exhaustive classification scheme, we will rigorously describe how cosmere magics differ, using Realmatic reasoning, and also provide a high level view on how these magics came into being, and why they act as they do. (Look, I know I should be calling them Investitures or manifestations of Investiture, but I'm going to go with magic systems for now because it is just less clunky than "manifestations of Investiture," okay?) These ideas began, as many things with me do, with a conversation with Windrunner. When we read Words of Radiance, we had many thoughts, and we started comparing magic systems. What makes one stronger than another? The Spiritual fuel is important, but what of spren? In this scheme, I said that Allomancy and Surgebinding was probably the most "powerful" of the magics, but for different reasons. Allomancy was very restrictive, but because it was so restrictive, its effects could be much more impressive. AonDor was also very powerful in its own way, but while flexible, it required a great deal of preparation. So I supposed that maybe there's a "Power" axis and a "Preparation" axis. BioChroma would be of more middling power, but require less preparation. This seemed like a sensible way of organizing the magics together from a high level. But, I had never been satisfied with these terms, as they had no relation with any other cosmere terms. And more importantly, something seemed… missing, somehow. It turned out there were more precise axes to use: Realmatics. We throw terms around like Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual, but we don't know what they mean as much. But with Emperor's Soul, we know more, and now I'm going to relate these in classifying cosmere magics. Two axes seemed too few, so let's go with three, the typical Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual. In fact, there are good reasons to use these as attributes. In Words of Radiance, the writer of the Ars Arcanum uses it to describe Lightweaving: Of course, this by itself, is not a new idea. A long-espoused idea is that All Magics have Three Parts. But that theory didn't go far enough. Why? Magics are not equally rooted all three Realms. Time for a short digression on my philosophy on magic: every magic is essentially a Realmatic exchange. Power--Investiture--is moved or transformed from one Realm, say the Spiritual, to a different Realm, like the Physical. Not all magics have the same Realmatic exchange between Realms, but there's always some sort of interaction between all three Realms. For this to happen, a magic system has to be partially embedded in each Realm. Think of it like a chemical reaction: you have three different pots and with the right conditions, you cause a reaction between these three pots, causing various effects. This is not entirely relevant to this theory, but to me it seems to be an interesting way of thinking about magic. It's more fundamental, and to me explains the reasoning why magics need to have roots in all three Realms. It seems obvious that magics will be rooted in each Realm differently. Awakening has a strong Cognitive component that Allomancy does not. Surgebinding requires a Spiritual connection, and is totally different from Awakening and Allomancy. Three different magics, three different distributions in which Realms the magics are rooted. I think the idea of a "focus" can also be fit into this classification scheme. Originally, without Roshar, the focus of a magic system seemed pretty self-evident: Aons/symbols, metals, Commands--with Commands being the least immediately obvious, but in retrospect, Commands do all the "action" of this Realmatic interaction, if you think about it. But Surgebinding just doesn't have an obvious equivalent, and that's totally okay. Brandon has more recently said that the idea of a focus is something that peoples came up with to describe magic, which implies to me that the notion of a focus is not a core, fundamental attribute to cosmere magics. But again, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's classify magics. The Model You guys know I have a math degree, right? (Now a Master's degree in fact.) So, this part may be slightly… unnecessarily numerical. Don't worry about it; you can skip the numbers. Mathematical models, at their simplest, start with a few core principles and then use that to construct equations or numbers which hopefully illuminate things. We obviously have little to no true numerical information, so I'll be doing some estimations. But first, let's make our assumptions very clear before insanity begins. 1. Every magic is rooted in each of the three Realms (pretty widely accepted) 2. Depending on magic system, this distribution is not equal. So let's get onto classifying just how much each magic system is rooted in each Realm. It seems sensible that perhaps we rate magics on a scale of 100 points, and we'll have three values, for Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual. These values need to sum up to 100, so you could say these are the rough estimates for how much a magic is rooted in each Realm. (If you've had probability, you can just scale these to be from 0 to 1 rather than 0 to 100, but big numbers seemed nicer for this). So we might say a magic is 50 in Physical, 30 Cognitive, and 20 Spiritual, for an example. Now, that might seem like a pretty safe assumption, but what I'm effectively doing is saying that I'm normalizing every magic to have the same power level. There's 100 "power" to distribute between Realms. That's a pretty big assumption! We will see minor Shardworlds where Splinters power magics rather than Shards, and those magics will definitely not be as powerful as the Shardic magics. So, our final assumption: 3. Generally all Shardic magics have the same amount of pure "strength"; it is just distributed differently (this may be totally false, but right now we don't have tools to properly measure if one magic is purely stronger than another). With our assumptions in hand, we can begin thinking about magics. But maybe I ought to say what I mean by Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual. Physical: How much a magic is aligned with things in the Physical Realm. The Physical generally results in more restrictive abilities. Cognitive: How much a magic is aligned with Cognitive things, such as thought, preparation required in manifesting magic Spiritual: How much a magic is aligned to ideals, Identity, and other Spiritual traits. Depending on which Realmatic attribute is dominant will determine how a magic's focus is. Physical magics require a very rigid focus. Cognitive magics have more fluid foci. Spiritual magics may purely not require a focus because of a person's direct connection. We'll talk a lot more about this in a bit. Finally, let's get to business. Scadrian magics are interesting in that they are specially hardwired into a person's Spiritweb (and Hemalurgy revolves on rewiring these, essentially). It's the only cosmere magic like this, with very rigid abilities encoded into you. Many other magics can be accessed more easily, but not the Metallic Arts. You either have it or you don't, or you're a horrible person and like spiking people. I would thus classify all Scadrian magics as Physical. Whereas other magics require significant work to get going, like AonDor, Forgery, or Awakening, all the "work" of the Realmatic interaction is contained in the correct metal. Nothing else is required. Allomancy - Heavily Physical, minor Spiritual (due to its connection with Preservation), very little Cognitive Feruchemy - Physical, about equal Cognitive and Spiritual Hemalurgy - Physical, Spiritual, and Cognitive, but there's more Cognitive to Hemalurgy (since it heavily depends on knowledge of where to put the spikes), and it steals a lot of Spiritual attributes, hence its Spiritual designation. One could argue, perhaps, it is more Cognitive than Spiritual. Nalthian magics are most obviously embedded in the three Realms: color, Commands, and Breath are its Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual components, respectively. But where does the work lie? It's primarily Cognitive. The visualization and the Command is the most key element to the magic, Awakening - Cognitive, Spiritual, then Physical Selish magics are also highly Cognitive. It requires a lot of work to create just the right Aon or soulstamp. AonDor - Cognitive, Spiritual, very little Physical Forgery - Cognitive, Spiritual, more Physical I'm not including the ChayShan or Dakhor, as we know so little about them, but if we had more data I'm sure we could fit them into this scheme. At the moment, ChayShan seems more Physical, and Dakhor has a more strong Physical component too. AonDor really has the least Physical of all the Selish magics, yet a very strong Spiritual component. Finally, Roshar. This is a Spiritual magic if I've ever seen one. It requires a deep bond with your spren to make the magic work. If you don't have that bond, you need an Honorblade, which I would call a "focus" in this case. It grants that ability for you, giving you that connection to Honor necessary to suck in Stormlight. But in most usual Surgebinding, its dominant attribute--the reason for the power--is your Spiritual Identity. Who you truly are. Surgebinding - Spiritual, Physical, Cognitive (the last two depending on Surge) Of course, in this, I'm generalizing all magics under one umbrella. Certain Feruchemical abilities are in one Realm entirely, and while Windrunning doesn't involve much Cognitive, Lightweaving does. So take these as rough averages at best. Putting it all together: Allomancy - Heavily Physical, minor Spiritual,very little Cognitive Feruchemy - Physical, about equal Cognitive and Spiritual Hemalurgy - Physical, Spiritual, and Cognitive Awakening - Cognitive, Spiritual, then Physical AonDor - Cognitive, Spiritual, very little Physical Forgery - Cognitive, Spiritual, more Physical Surgebinding - Spiritual, Physical, Cognitive And heck, let's put some numbers to it, because I feel that will show a magic's attribute and its distribution more effectively than me blathering: Allomancy: 60 Physical, 30 Spiritual, 10 Cognitive Feruchemy: 50 Physical, 25 Cognitive, 25 Spiritual Hemalurgy: 50 Physical, 30 Spiritual, 20 Cognitive Awakening: 60 Cognitive, 30 Spiritual, 10 Physical AonDor: 50 Cognitive, 45 Spiritual, 5 Physical Forgery: 50 Cognitive, 40 Spiritual, 10 Physical Surgebinding: 60 Spiritual, 20 Physical, 20 Cognitive That seems to sum things up pretty nicely. The only one I'm not really sold on is Forgery, since it throws around much less power than AonDor, but yet still deals with Identity (a very Spiritual attribute) heavily. Perhaps if we consider that AonDor only seems so powerful with the help of Elantris, this power disparity doesn't seem nearly as extreme. So of course, here's a pretty graph displaying this info: Each color corresponds to a particular world: Red - Scadrian Purple - Nalthian Blue - Selish Green - Rosharan But what is a 3D graph from just one angle? That's why I made a fully interactive version for your viewing pleasure! Now that I think is pretty slick. Power levels and Cognitive Intermediaries And with that model in place, we can get back to the discussion Windy and I originally had, about relative powers of a magic. Tied up in this question also will be spren and foci. Remember, in my conception of magic, manifestations of Investiture occur because Investiture is being shifted between the Realms. This effects don't happen in a vacuum; they require a user, and almost always, they require activation of some sorts, a will for magic to occur (the only time it doesn't is when Allomancers unconsciously burn metals). But more importantly, there needs to be a catalyst for this Realmatic interaction to occur. If we think about Surgebinding and Shallan Soulcasting, Pattern acts as her intermediary in Shadesmar. Given Syl talks about magic being an "agreement with friends," it seems reasonable to say that your spren is the thing that, in the Cognitive Realm, makes this interaction work. It all comes back to the Cognitive Realm, really, because Shadesmar connects the Physical and Spiritual. It's where change happens. (Is it any wonder that Shadesmar is predominantly water? Liquids are a transitionary state of matter between solids and gases) I'll call spren a Cognitive Intermediary, or an Intermediary more simply. These are the catalysts that make magic all work. So, that immediately asks the question, do other magics have a similar Intermediary? Of course! They are focuses. I originally defined a focus as something that shapes power into a specific effect. Realmatically, that focus facilitates the Realmatic interaction. This explains why AonDor is incredibly unforgiving. Without a sentient Cognitive Intermediary acting on your behalf, you have to do all the action yourself, and persuading the "spren" of other things to do what you wish is… well, as we know from Shallan, it is nontrivial. Aons allow Investiture to be shaped very specifically, but you have to get it precise, or else the whole thing is for nothing. Awakening's Commands are also that Intermediary, and similarly, you have to be pretty darn specific in your Command (and your Cognitive visualization, which is really what you want; the words just help to visualize the Command). You are willing that Breath to take this very specific shape and form, for the "spren" of the object to do as you wish. You have to be a pretty persuasive. What of the Metallic Arts? In the case of Allomancy, the consuming of the metal unlocks the Investiture directly from Preservation. I interpret this as, the powers are very specifically ingrained into you, and when the metal--the Intermediary--is used, Investiture is forced down the very specific paths that are ingrained into you. It's like a very narrow conduit that suddenly opens with the metal present. Other magics that aren't as firm in abilities either need a very precise Cognitive focus to shape the power how you want it, or it requires a deep Spiritual connection, with something doing the action for you. Those are the three ways you get magic. And of course, the way the Investiture is accessed also needs to be in line with the Shard's intent, but this goes a step further in identifying what components a magic will require need, Realmatically. (Tangent: Nightblood is a spren, really. He's his own Cognitive Intermediary in Shadesmar, like a spren. I imagine in Shadesmar, he's violently using the power of his Breath and the Breaths he consumes to actively fulfill his specific intent. Other spren get vaguer intents and have a bit more freedom in what they do.) So Allomancy is hardwired in, and it is powerful primarily because its power is very focused in specific ways. In AonDor and Awakening, you construct your Cognitive Intermediary yourself. Differences between these two magics come from the way you get the magic in the first place (differences in Shard intent), but also, AonDor has a lot more Spiritual power to throw around. Awakening is interesting in that it is the only magic (well, other than Hemalurgy) where Innate Investiture--Breath in this case--is the fuel, and in the scale of Shards, Innate Investiture is really small. Powerful magics require a connection with something more Spiritual. In Allomancy and Feruchemy, the encoding grants that connection to the Shards, and your Identity and who you are is what triggers the Shaod, allowing a direct connection with the Dor. Thus, AonDor has a lot more to work with. So power, ultimately, is vested in the Spiritual. The stronger a magic's spiritual aspect, the more power it gets to throw around. As such, Elantrians, Knights Radiant, and Allomancers have a great deal of pure "strength". However, Elantrians and Radiants are more closely related in this spiritual way. Radiants and Allomancers are more related in ease of use, because things are less Cognitive, but that comes with limitations: the magics that are fast to use are limited and not flexible. The more a magic is Cognitive, though, the more flexibility it has. Awakening and AonDor have almost innumerable abilities. Practically unlimited! Physicality means that things are the least flexible. But rigidness means you get dramatic effect at minimal costs. I predict that there will be very few Physical magics in the cosmere, as building a physical magic with these specific Spiritweb encodings seems like a very deliberate act on a Shard's part, and I'm not sure a Shard would make such an intense effort. Which brings us up to a more mythological analysis on maybe, just maybe, why these magics are vested in each Realm the way they are. A historical perspective (Source, and emphasis is mine, of course) This is an incredibly important quote. Focuses are not a function of the Shards themselves, but also the Shardworld. This could be taken to mean many things about a Shardworld, but what if this means foci occur because Shards and the actual events that happen on that planet? So let's take a historical look at magics. Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy have much more active Shardic connections, and their Spiritweb encodings represent a specific design. It's as if the magics were created with that purpose (If you buy that the Metallic Arts are designed, this can explain how Harmony can alter the way Snapping works and Preservation could switch out metals--the magic itself is Physical. Constructed. Designed.) That does make sense given Scadrial's origin. Things on this planet were born of an agreement between two Shards. They had to carefully craft what they built. Preservation let people access his power more, forging Allomancy in the process. The metal, being an artifact of agreement, became its focus. Ruin countered Preservation by using the metals for his purpose instead. He of course wouldn't let people access his own power. Their agreement was hardly a pleasant one. They were enemies and every action they did had to subtly give them an advantage over the other. As such they could have agreed upon a focus which let them be very careful in how their Investitures were used; hence the reason abilities are so rigid here. (Another tangent: It is important to note that they did not Invest the metal on Scadrial. Rather, they made a more interesting construct: Investing people in very particular, specific ways, and allowing the metal to be the key to unlocking the Investiture. So a Scadrian could burn Rosharan tin and find it chemically identical, unlocking the power exactly the same as elsewhere.) That was how Scadrial's conflict manifested in its magic. On Roshar, things emerged quite a bit differently. Honor and Cultivation, romantically involved, went to the Rosharan system. It is possible they Invested some of their power onto Ashyn or Braize--we don't know yet. But either way, Honor and Cultivation made it to Roshar first. Then Odium came and caused some issues. (Understatement of the millennium) Odium would not have agreed, as Ruin did, to an easy accord. Odium didn't even want to construct--he wanted to eliminate his opponents. Honor and Cultivation disagreed rather strenuously. Honor, at the very least (it is not clear how Cultivation fits in), began opposing Odium with everything he has. Honor threw around a ton of his power in opposing him--perhaps creating the storms in what seemed at the time to be an effort to blow Odium's forces off the whole planet. Odium threw a lot of his power around too. As such, Rosharan magics have a high ceiling of power because the Shards there threw a lot around. Conflict is Roshar. Or, rather, "Man's life on Roshar is conflict," says The Arguments (Way of Kings, Chapter 24). Spren, appearing through… well, the origin of spren is not clear, but possibly Honor and Cultivation wanted them prior to Odium's arrival. Either way, spren began imitating the Heralds' abilities and granting them to humans. The Heralds bound these Surgebinders to them, and perhaps due to the Heralds' connection to the Almighty, Honor Invested his power into these Surgebinders, so if they followed Ideals, they would become ludicrously strong. They became the Knights Radiant. There's another mystery with Roshar; why did Hoid say that its Shards are very strict? Well, in this epic conflict, Honor and Odium were battling with powers that were hard to comprehend for us. But Shards have limitations. Whether there were efficiency restrictions in this battle (Honor would not have wanted to use his power in such a way to be much weaker than Odium), Honor made it so you got two Surges, not all ten, for whatever reason. This is still a bit mysterious to me why this would be, but the strictness of the Shards came from high level restrictions and rules to how this war happened, maybe through the Oathpact. On Nalthis, Endowment Invested people and began Returning. Magic arose naturally (though I'm sure we could debate this a long time). Endowment allowed humans to do with the power what they will, not restricting the power. They could do basically anything with the power, if they knew the right Commands. Is it any surprise that the Scholars discovered essentially how to make a Shardblade (which Nightblood essentially is)? BioChroma is incredibly versatile. On Sel, the current day magics are really different manifestations of the same magic (this was proposed in Kerry's Selish theory, and I am absolutely certain Brandon said that's essentially what's happening, but I can't remember where that confirmation was posted. If someone finds it, I'll update this) It seems entirely rational that prior to Devotion and Dominion's Splintering, there was in fact a single magic system on Sel. Devotion and Dominion worked together, I think. Complementary. But whatever magic looked like on Sel, the Splintering created this unformed mass of power that couldn't be released effectively. The Dor formed. And because the Selish magic wasn't as restrictive, when the Shards were Splintered, The question you might ask is, why would Selish magics break whereas Honor's did not? Two reasons: first, Honor's Splintering power had places and people to Invest in, so his power didn't cause this cataclysmic Dor. Second, Honor was probably much more precise in how people could access his power than Devotion and Dominion. If you agree with how I've sorted magic systems as above, it seems as though Devotion and Dominion took a more hands off approach to how their magic initially was. There's not evidence of grand conflict between the two initially, so that could make sense. When Devotion and Dominion Splintered, that lack of "definition" meant that the method that mortals usually accessed the power also was disrupted, and so you needed a different sort of connection (and Identity) to the power to use magic. Comparing magics and replicating effects Let's talk about Nightblood more. Come on, you know you want to. It seems intuitive that Stormlight and Breath are similar. Both are gaseous metaphors. You Invest the two similarly. However, Breath is of life. It is the Innate Investiture on that world. Stormlight is not the power of life: it is directly the power of chaos, of the storm raging inside you. That is similar across all Radiant orders. This is to say, I'm suggesting that Spiritual power actually sees itself differently, depending on how the Shard's power was distributed (and the Shard itself, surely). Endowment made Breath Innate. Breath was of life. When you have more Breath, your life sense is increased, and at the fifth heightening, you're immune to disease and are freaking immortal. (Makes sense that you could use Breath to influence the mind--it is a Cognitive magic, and it is affecting life, right in line with Breath.) Then there are other abilities granted with that much Spiritual power, too, and other abilities related to tones and color (other Nalthian attributes). It perfects, as Spiritual power does. Stormlight is the power of storms and chaos. It perfects, but does so entirely differently. And actually, Stormlight is probably a much more potent source of energy than Breath. Breath being Innate means it is a weaker investiture than these gigantic storms and the power they radiate. Also, it seems as though Stormlight is more Physical than Breath is. Stormlight Invested things glow; Breath does not. But you can hold a lot more Breath than Stormlight at a time. Breath also requires color to move (an extra physical impetus for that spiritual transfer to a new physical host), whereas Stormlight requires a Spiritual link to Honor to move it in the first place. The idea that Stormlight is more Physical than Breath may explain why Stormlight dissipates while Breath does not. It's more Physical, so that power diffuses into the Physical Realm, while Breath is located more elsewhere. This idea--that these fuels are subtly different in intent--could mean a lot to Vasher and Nightblood. Shardblades are ludicrously destructive, and cause spiritual damage.(cite) Nightblood is, in many ways, a Shardblade. Would not the type of fuel matter for Nightblood? As I said, Breath is the power of life, and that's very different from what Nightblood's intent is. Stormlight though. That seems like the perfect fuel. Chaos. Destruction. So when it comes to some magics, if you want to get the most bang for your buck, you want the right Spiritual fuel for the job. I'm not sure if this makes Nightblood more or less destructive. Maybe he wouldn't be so vicious at consuming Stormlight as he was with Breath because the storms are a better fuel for him. Stormlight might make Vasher quite a bit different. Remember, any Investiture, no matter how small, will change you over time(cite), and Vasher has lived a long time. Make no mistake, Vasher is there because he can live off Stormlight(cite) easier than acquiring a new Breath frequently… but I'm thinking that because he's consuming the power of storms and chaos, he would be quite a bit different. It seems to me that if you wanted the right magic for a given task, you would want to consider the effect you want to have, and pick the Investiture colored by a Shard's intent that would be most in line with what you wanted to accomplish. Then, depending on what Investiture you selected, you'd have to work to shape the power in exactly the form you wanted. Illusion magics are replicated frequently. Yolen has it. Sel has it with AonDor, but that variant is different as there's no Spiritual requirement; it is all Cognitive. It is possible that Yolish magic has a key Spiritual component, if Lightweaving is similar. If Preservation and Ruin actually altered themselves to allow metal to be the key to their power, as I suggest, it makes sense that iron and steel influence metals. That might actually be the hardest basic Allomantic effect to replicate on another world because of those Shards relationship with metal. The other effects of Allomancy could definitely be replicated, especially the mental metals. Conclusion (the tl;dr version) The Realmatic description of magics help define magic systems much more precisely. How much a magic is rooted in each Realm determines a number of effects of a given magic. It can determine how you access it, and what sort of "focus" it requires. Physical magics cost the least to do, Cognitive magics are the most flexible, and Spiritual magics throw the most "power" or Investiture around. I realize this was far too long, but I hope I minimized the amount of crazy in the theory and made it as elegant to describe as possible. The numbers weren't important (since they are just guesses), really, but the moment I realized there were three axes, I had to show an awesome graph. At the very least, I hope I gave you a new way of thinking about cosmere magics, with the Realmatic interactions, Cognitive Intermediaries, and the nuts and bolts of how these Realmatic interactions happen.