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I'm back! Q&A time, maybe?

I couldn't think of a good template so it's in text, but here's a normal one.

“Clearly, we are getting nowhere.” “Maybe we would if members of the DSI stopped mysteriously disappearing.” The metallic gavel snapped the room into silence. As each day progressed, the bickering became more forceful. Kaviq twitched its fingers in irritation. The superiority was supposed to be better than this. They might as well be humans at this point. Besides, how could anyone think of siding with the DSI? “There are some among the assembly here that are creating more problems than solutions. It is time for them to be removed. Niki, come forward.” The Tenasi stood and to Kaviq, she appeared weak. Hesitant. “Niki. You have been accused of being part of the disappearances of assembly members. Whether or not this is true, we cannot let such things continue. You are dismissed from any further duty with the Superiority.” The High Minister’s assistant cleared their throat and looked down at the device in front of them. “Cooper! Come forward.” The eager intern stood, smiling despite what Kaviq knew was inevitable. “You too have been accused of similar machinations. Your internship with the DSI cannot continue. You are dismissed.” Kaviq grinned as he watched the intern deflate at the words. Two more voices against their cause were silenced. Wonderful. *** Gerlik’s scent shifted to something similar to a citrus—sharp and clean—as he entered the assembly hall. It should match the many scents used by the cleaning drones to keep the area sanitary. He wanted to remain unnoticed. It was his job, after all, to help Keras discover the plans of Winzik, Kaviq, and the rest of the DPS. He’d been sent to follow one specific target. He’d located the being in the assembly hall and became familiar with their scent. Enough so that he could follow it even when the being was no longer there. Voices drifted to him on the drafts of air coming from a small room. Gerlik forcibly tempered his scent to be less noticeable as he continued to follow his quarry. “This is becoming a problem,” said one of the voices. Gerlik stopped, shifting closer to the door. He immediately recognized the speaker as Kaviq, one of the leading influences of the DPS. The one who often bore the scent of smoke. “Yeah, I don’t know how they keep finding us. Little spies keep looking for us.” They were on to him. Gerlik sprinted away as fast as he could, dodging another figure crouching outside the door. He couldn’t be caught, he had to report to Keras! As he ran away from the room, he heard a slight sound, almost like… footsteps. He was being followed. Evasive Manoeuvre 4: Lead and Corner. He moved towards a narrow corridor that dead-ended by the maintenance shaft entrances. The footsteps followed him into the narrow corridor. Then, he turned, facing his stalker with his weapon drawn. He took a laser pulse to the lung before he could even twitch his trigger finger. Ordinarily, he would be fine, since he was a figment. However, as he began moving towards his attacker, he felt himself began to… disintegrate. “How?” he gasped as the cloud that composed him began to separate. “You?” The figure grinned. He couldn’t see them but he knew they were grinning. “Yes,” they replied. “Me.” Gerlik wanted to reply, but couldn’t muster the energy to move. As one last final insult, his attacker sprayed some air freshener at him. How dare this person spray him with evergreen scent. How dare... how… da… He fell apart at long last and did not reform. *** Faleast moved towards the slightly open door carefully, trying to keep noise at a minimum. The Department of Protective Services was not very wise, leaving the door open like this. Hadn’t they ever heard of closing the scudding door? Honestly. Stop it with the meta references,, AraRaash hissed. The fourth wall is already broken enough. Besides, I still think this is a bad idea. You’re the one that’s directly referencing the walls! Faleast retorted. Now hush. I need to focus. AraRaash grumbled, but blessedly quieted down, letting Faleast listen more closely. “So we are decided?” someone said. “The figment?” Faleast drew closer. They were talking about who to kill! This was his chance to gain some information. “Yes,” said another person, this one much more authoritative. “He knows too much.” “Alright,” the first one said. “Now to find him.” The other one moved to speak, but paused, smiling in Faleast’s general direction. “Never mind,” said the first one in an oddly jubilant tone. “We’ve got ourselves another spy.” Faleast scrambled away, but one of them grabbed him before he escaped. I told you! AraRaash yelled as the more authoritative one approached him. “So look what we have here,” the leader said. “A little spy.” Rusts, could you be any more cliche? Faleast grumbled. At least be a little creative. One of the people pulled out a gun, and Faleast prepared to drop vital functions. “Any last words?” the one aiming a gun at him said. “Yeah,” Faleast replied. “Could you aim for my head? I really like this uniform.” In compliance with his “last” request, the man shot him in the head twice. Faleast gasped and let his heartbeat slow. Fine, Faleast said mentally. You were right, I shouldn’t have spied on the obviously evil people. Yes, AraRaash said back. Listen to me next time. Not a chance! he replied as he let his eyes close. I’ll be a bit more careful, though. Just for you. *** Keras put the gear train into the mechanism and set it spinning as it contemplated the day’s events. It had lost a valuable spy, and several members of the Department of Species Integration were lost. The Departments were inordinately vicious today, choosing to remove two people, and that pilot had killed someone like a human. So uncivilised. It stood and began moving back towards its workshop. The mechanism was nearly complete. If it was given enough time, perhaps it could finish the stupid, intricate thing that had been driving it mad for months. A housing shell for the object it had found. A capsule, with a fascinating chain of light inside. A program in a strange language with holographic capabilities and communicators. Perhaps it was an AI, and thus should be destroyed at once to avoid the delvers. Perhaps it was simply a sophisticated communications system. Either way, it had to know the entity’s capabilities. And thus, the mechanism. If it could actually get the thing to work. As Keras passed by Kaviq, it had to bite back the urge to bare its teeth. Was it really that angry with the Department of Protective Services? As it analysed its emotions, it realised that yes, it was that angry. Kaviq and his cronies were picking them off one by one, and it couldn’t do a thing to stop them. So many dead or gone, and still, no progress. It was just so frustrated. It reached the workshop and buried itself in the land of metal and machines, but that ember of anger still burned bright. Cycle Three BrightEyes2 has been deposed! She was a Tenasi Pilot with the Department of Species Integration! Archer has been deposed! He was a member of the Department of Species Integration! Ashbringer has been killed! He was a Heklo with the Department of Species Integration! Matrim’s Dice has been killed! He was a Figment with the Department of Species Integration! Vote Count Quinn0928 (1) - Straw Breaker (1) - Somebody from Sel, Matrim’s Dice xinoehp512 (1) - Archer, BrightEyes2 BrightEyes2 (2) - Liranil, xinoehp512 Archer (2) - StrikerEZ Matrim’s Dice (1) - Breaker Experience has been replaced! Welcome TJ Shade! Player List This turn ends in approximately 47.5 hours, on December 28, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. PST. Upvote Elandera for being nice enough to let me post the turn and writing a good portion of the write-up!

Hm. You right. Queen, my rank title was a few things recently: For most of the time: "I am like Gondor, awaiting the Return of the Queen." A few days ago: "There was never really any hope... just a fool's hope." A couple days ago: "I see in your eyes the same fear that would take me." What it's soon to be: "The authority is not yours to deny the Return of the Queen!"

Another page!

I guess I'll post what I gave @AonDii (AKA "Doomstick.") Behold! The single dumbest thing you're ever going to read! Enjoy.

Merry Christmas at the last minute!

I had a dream the other night that I tried to log into the Shard but it came up with one of those prove you’re not a robot things, and I had to click all the boxes with sidewalks, but there were no sidewalks in the picture. So after I failed that it came up with the message You are a robot. You have been denied access to The 17th Shard, so I emailed the Shard and they said “well, we can’t do anything but here’s a coupon for a cruise to Scadrial” so umm the moral of the story is that all the inactive Sharders are actually on Scadrial?

Also... I'm pretty sure nobody did this but someone has to.

I want to do three different SUs, but out of respect for your notifications, I will do two in replies to this one. I realized that my join date is symmetrical (if you do M/DD/YY). it is 81818

I'm going to disagree with the other person here: Bondsmithspren don't seem to have the same constraint as the lesser Radiantspren. Probably due to their direct manipulation of Connection. The Stormfather never seems to be affected by distance from Dalinar, so I think Navani could probably leave the tower and the Sibling would be alright.

Ok, so if you are reading the threads in this sub forum, you probably read all of ROW. Spoilers and such follow. Now that Navani is bonded to the sibling, can she ever move any physical distance away from Urithiru? Is she stuck in the tower for life? Can the sibling itself move at all? How far outside Urithiru does its influence extend?

Hello everyone, Shard of Theory hopping in. So, Adolin. He's great. Radiant or Reverse Radiant or just the guy with good hair, we love him and he's awesome(@Dalinar, c'mon bud). I've been divided since forever on Adolin becoming Radiant or not, and if he did, I still think he'd become a Dustbringer. But now, I think he won't. I cooked up this crazy theory and I'm reveling right now in its amazing glory. Drumroll, please, for a (hopefully) really cool theory. Spoilered, FYI, because I made it that way. IK this is kind of a short one, and it's definitely got more work, but I had this idea and wanted to share it with all y'all. Have a nice late Winter Festivity, Sharders. I'll be making a new topic for this post so that this thread stays about Adolin in general, and not any one facet of him. Smiley for long post

Vote Count: Archer (2) - Quinn0928, StrikerEZ Breaker (2) - Matrim's Dice, Liranil Matrim's Dice (2) - Dannex, Breaker xinoehp512 (1) - Archer End of the turn is in about 11 hours. Don't forget your actions!

@Rosharan A.C. made this amazing poem and artwork for me! Thank you so much! Merry Christmas, everybody.

From the Discord, written by an AI; the bolded is what I put in and the rest is what came out.

So we know Honor and Cultivation have a light together called Towerlight. I think there are some cultural metaphors describing towers that fit well with earthly interpretations of Towers. For one, Towers as symbols are depicted as sturdy and reaching towards the heavens. Honor is literally god to most Rosharans so towers thematically fit with their interpretation of god. Similarly, large towers are seen as a symbol of cultural advancement. The greatest architectural marvels on Earth such as the pyramids, the Burj Khalifa, and even the leaning tower of Pisa are ways civilizations show growth and innovation. You'll have to excuse my rhetorical ability, I don't have much experience explaining my thoughts in written format, but I'm sure you see the parallels between how humans view towers, and the shards, Honor and Cultivation. So This brings me to Cultivation and Odium. I thought for hours and hours about some symbol... some metaphor... some idiom... anything to connect divine hatred and growth. As I pondered, I had a thought that chilled me to my bone. The more I thought about this particular cultural nexus, the more I felt goosebumps on my arms. Wouldn't it be fitting, as a foil to TowerLight, if the mixture of Cultivation and Odium was also named after another particular architectural innovation? I concluded a place that encompasses both Odium and Cultivation would be responsible for many of humanities fears, much of humanities hatred, and full of mental, physical, and intellectual growth. Thinking through all of these, I postulate to you: A light that is formed from the combination of Voidlight and Lifelight would be called MiddleSchoolLight. P.S, I don't know how to post on here, I just have an exam in an hour, so I wanted to do something to take my mind off it, please let me know if I broke some rule or something. I don't want to spoil anyone who hasn't read the book yet, so I hope this goes where spoilers are allowed. Please take it down if I put it in the wrong place.

Today I realized that with the metal theming of MB E2 names you could have Katium and now I just...want to name someone that...backstory NPC in the new Mistborn RP maybe??

"Dates don't make love. Living makes love."

@DramaQueen for greatest comeback

Alrighty... where to begin? Okay, so Wyrn captured Daolan, and everybody decided to go on a rescue mission. Fadran led Herate and a few others (I don't remember who) to go find them. On the way there, though, the folks from "Other Tales" popped in, and... well, remember Ayia? She may or may not be Fadran's ex-girlfriend. That's who I was talking about when I said this: Anyways, after negotiations didn't work, we decided to do a good 'ol fashioned invasion, but then that did not work at all. Herate ended up getting taken by Wyrn, and now she's bonded to a Withergeist and spent roughly twenty pages having mistborn-esque training scenes with the villain. Meanwhile, Nath decided to get the godly ecquivalent of anxiety, Jek got super ticked-off that they weren't going after Vapor, Chrysler enlisted some soldiers to join his chalk brigade, and now Fadran's all stressed because on top of keeping the Fellowship together, he now has an army to lead too! After that, things kinda tuned down in favor of some... other RPs (), so that's about where we're at. I have to go eat dinner now, so I'll let the others explain some stuff to you, and I'll come back and give you the rundown of all the other RPs.

LE-GEN-DA-RY

Connie did these And I made this five seconds ago

Vin IIRC. But the 16% are not important for that. Any percentage will do. The oddity is that the number of afflicted people was always (within the limits of group size) 16 / 100. And that is not how natural afflictions behave. The numbers should have been on a bell curve centered on 0.16 No. That is half the problem. You had two observable phenomena 16% of the whole group became sick. Expressed as a fraction: 4 / 25 Of those 1 / 16 become sick for longer (the future Atium-Mistings) - That turns into 1 / 100 of the whole group If you equalize the bases you arrive at 16 / 100 for the first group and 1 / 100 for the second group. Hence the number communicated was 16 (or theoretically any multiple thereof). The solution can be derived independent of the number system. The only knowledge you need is the normal distribution (Gaussian curve a.k.a. bell curve) and to know that numbers between 0 and 1 can be expressed as fractions. Late 18th century math by our standards. The psychological and cultural problem why Leras chose 16 / 100, as opposed to 16 / 256 of course remains. But that depends on his number system, not the Scadrian system.

I think the Stormfather, Sibling, and Nightwatcher are fundamentally part of Roshar - I think the only way they can be any great distance from them is when they try to leave the planet or the system. I think the Tower is probably like the Highstorm, the manifestation of their centre, but the idea of the Sibling, like the Stormfather and the Nightwatcher, is as a concept that pervades all of Roshar. I don't think she is restricted - I think she is only bound to the planet and system now, possibly more than an ordinary Radiant as those shardspren cannot leave the planet, but others can.

Based off what happened yesterday . . .

Hey guys. I hope everyone had a good Christmas! It has been awhile since i was around last and I just wanted to fill you guys in on my progress this last month or so, which has not been much at all. Life kind of caught up with me and I haven't had much time to devote to my hobbies. Hopefully this will be getting better soon and I will be able to get to more critiques and subs. I have been trying to keep up with the subs that are being put in and I have been really enjoying them, I just have't had much time to get any useful critiques done on them. Also, Nanowrimo was a bit of a bust for me. I was able to hit 13k but I fell off pretty badly the last two weeks and couldn't manage much more. It was a great experience though, and I plan on taking part again next year.

Sorry for getting things wrong. Writing about physics in a foreign language. Anyway. At a very basic level objects change their shape if you exert a force on them. Suppose you press on a football. It will get flatter. If you stop pressing it will spring back into the original shape. Do the same thing to a lump of clay and its shape is permanently changed. So far with me? Now suppose we have a length of wire. With Tension you can control how hard you need to twist the wire to change its shape. Even more, if you tell the wire that it is very hard to twist and is twisted in its current shape, it will change its shape. But if you want to make a permanent loop out of the wire, you'll need Cohesion. To us these differences look like differences in degree of the same phenomenon. But then to us a liquid is a liquid and we do not see a fundamental difference between oil and blood.

I just assumed that it was because the Dawnshard would enhance other powers to a level that would be too powerful even for a hero. Not just "absolute power corrupts absolutely" too powerful, but "oops, I just rendered Roshar permanently uninhabitable" too powerful. Mistborn trilogy spoilers: And given that this particular Dawnshard is "change," that just makes it extra dangerous. Combining it with, for example, the Surge of Gravitation might mean you could accidentally cause everything in Roshar to fly off into space. Heck, that quote from Oathbringer kind of implies that a Dawnshard accidentally destroyed Ashyn.

Additionally, the Sibling was sentient before Navani bonded them and the effects of Navani being far away from the tower are probably no worse than the effects of the Sibling not being bonded.

I'm leaving to go on a trip with my family tomorrow. I probably won't be able to get on at all until the New Year, although I might possibly be on during the Sanderstream on New Years Eve. I hope you all have a great New Year and had a great Christmas. I'll miss y'all, despite having fun.

LOOK at this awesome map of Washington my sister made for me!

I got stuck on YouTube, on a very long video about centipedes, in full screen, because I wasn't willing to touch the screen Anyway, Merry Christmas / late Happy Hanukkah / winter solstice / Yule / Saturnalia / whatever y'all

Cultivation probably, even if it gives off some huge monogreen vibes (for the mtg afficionados). To grow as a person is the very essence of human strife in my opinion though having honor or some sort to pair it with seems preferable than growth for the sake of growth, which is (quite literally) cancerous. Next Invention or Dominion probably, depending on what exactly the latter entails.

Valor sounds pretty cool, if I could create a fantasy world of my design, I think that's the sort of core principle I'd like to build it around. As far as shards we've actually seen, Cultivation is probably the coolest. I've always admired the long con type of characters, who are patient to the extreme when executing their plans. That being said, I don't think either would fit me very well. Preservation is probably the shard I'd match best.

(This I mentioned in another Thread) Even I was terrified when he went on full berserker mode of anguish-radiant rage, and his eyes started glowing...I think this was the moment Odium wanted to corrupt his soul because if I recall correct, Odium/Rayse wanted to have Kaladin as his champion and there were fracture in his soul which could be expanded so that Odium could Connect...but also, I remember Odium mentioning that they (Vyre/Moash) has to do something about Kaladin since he was a 'bigger problem than anticipated' and 'will continue to do so' so, they have to 'deal with him'. And Odium foresaw something/s about Kaladin which clearly rattled him. Rayse/Odium failed to claim Dalinar, lost the Tower and Stormblessed. Vyre keeps repeating a single line that Kaladin 'can't be killed' because he's 'Stormblessed, the force of storms' and 'you cannot kill a storm'. IIRC, this line was repeated...more than 10 times in book. Which brings us back to part that Kaladin has some influence over highstorms, as proved by him deflecting in whole windspren-archangel manner which made Syl surprised. Earlier I thought he made a pressure vacuum using Adhesion but then Syl said that this was something she never recalled of having which means this could be something else? To add, Syl does mention that there are a lot of things Radiants were never able to discover about their powers due to constant wars. But Kaladin seems to have extreme control even during rage that he brandizes Reverse Lashing-Full Lashing combo to ripp Pursuer. That was terrifying to read. But I would be wrong if I don't admit that there are a lot of things about Kaladin that is not 'normal' for any Radiants. For example, his spidery senses while creeping in silence through Urithiru. Cryptics were clearly wary of him, as Elhokar mentioned the 'shadows go away' whenever only Kaladin appears. (In WoR) He's always symbolized with storms, something not even Dalinar has been mentioned. For all I know, he might become a grander character traversing through Cosmere.

It’s not being a vegetarian that’s the issue, there’s nothing wrong with being a vegetarian, it’s that he isn’t really doing it by choice. He’s a vegetarian because he’s incapable of doing otherwise; even though he loves the taste of bacon, he’s incapable of actually eating it. It’s more similar to someone who loves the taste of peanut butter being allergic to peanuts. Being incapable of eating your favorite food would really suck.

Oh, ok, that does make more sense. Thanks.

Ok so when I first got back I scrolled through my profile and looked at everything everyone had said over the last 2 months and...there may or may not have been tears shed because I half expected you guys to have just moved on with your lives and be like "oh, yeah, she existed. Huh. Forgot about her" when I got back.

I know I literally just did one of these, but I found this while browsing the arcanum and had to share. Brandon: Also Brandon: ’Ash fell from the sky.’ ’Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar, wore white on the day he was to kill a king.’ ‘“I’m going to die, aren’t I?” Cenn asked.’ ‘Dalinar Kholin appeared in the vision standing beside the memory of a dead god.’ ’Marsh struggled to kill himself.’ ’I am, unfortunately, the Hero of Ages.’ ’It’s funny, Vasher thought, how many things begin with my getting thrown in prison.’ ‘Jasnah Kholin pretended to enjoy the party, giving no indication that she pretended to have one of the guests killed.’ ’Lift prepared to be awesome.” ’Gaotona ran his fingers across the thick canvas, inspecting one of the greatest works of art he had ever seen. Unfortunately, it was a lie.’ ’Kelsier burned the Eleventh Metal.’ ‘Death hunted beneath the waves.’ Yep, Brandon totally doesn’t use ‘hooks’ in his stories.

I enjoyed the exploration and expansion of past-Venli's motivations. She was manipulated by Axindweth (!) and Ulim more than I recalled. Also enjoyed adding a little more complexity to Eshonai - she wasn't just the 'better' sister, she had flaws too (ignoring family etc.) The flashbacks showed how both had qualities and both were flawed. The flashbacks helped emphasize the total tragedy of Venli being the last* Listener. What bothered me more was the present-Venli still doing a lot of hiding and sulking. I guess it would have been unreasonable for her to be a full-fledged hero by this point, but I think it would have been a more satisfying contrast to the flashbacks. Her arc in book 5 really needs to continue to feel complete. She's the perfect person to continue the Listeners, and she's going to grow into an awesome Willshaper, but she's not there yet.

I really enjoyed it overall, but I wasn't a huge fan of the ambiguous ending-- it felt kind of lazy. I did love the idea of reskins over the world, and how that could be cool and fun and make life easier but had some serious ethical concerns. I thought little details like her "editing" the taste of her favorite fruit were super fascinating. I agree that it felt a little more morally corrupt (no good choices, no good people) than Brandon's usual fare, and I have mixed feelings about that. I think it would have been less noticeable without the Sanderson expectations (and Kowall, for that matter, since her stories have been relatively black-and-white that I've read) My personal interpretation of the ending is that the copy killed her original, went in to get her "permanent" body and then went AWOL, and the recording we get at the end is right after that. I think you misunderstood the world (or at least I understood it differently.) People have their default themes they see walking down the street, but in most places you are projected a certain theme unless you try to override it. (So for example, the club always looks like a retro-vintagey club with the same music unless you ask it not to). Even then, a lot of the re-themes that your average person does are subtle, like making a room a little brighter or colors pop a little more. She seemed to expect the white buildings and white walls, and that was mostly just disorienting, but not know the extent of it. I wasn't at all surprised that it was shocking to see just how much of her normal, everyday experience was completely fake-- especially in places that your average person doesn't know is themed at all, like the campground, but also just that anything undesireable, including whole communities, can be edited right out from under your nose.

Portal (and freeze) - Marasi and Allik sharing a hot cocoa in front of the Sovereign's Temple - a bit rushed because i was out of town and had to draw in a shaky car. abandoned - Marsh, the poor guy

So, I’ve been thinking about Marsh a lot lately and I just felt a really strong need to talk about it. That man has been through five times his share and it’s not fair at all. I’ve written several rants about him and spoilered below (for length and general spoilers) is one I wrote a few months ago. Please, share your Thoughts and rants with me!