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  1. SPOILERS AND ADDED INFORMATION: I had posted other bits of this else where in 2020 before the "Taln never broke" WOB, but consolidated all the ideas here in this post This theory and post came out before Rhythm of War, but updates have been made to include information from ROW SA5 Prologue: This is not discussed to avoid spoilers, but SA5 Prologue has some interesting information --- Weird Questions: 1) TALN BREAKING SEEMS ODD What broke Taln? He is crazy and insensate for 4000 years and then one day he says "No thank you". What could have broke Taln? And, in terms of timelines, Taln returned before the Everstorm crossed into the physical realm, so it can't be that the Everstorm freed Taln. Yes the Everstorm was in the Cognitive, but all the doom and gloom seemed to be about the Everstorm being pulled in the Physical Realm by Eshoni and her team. Since Taln returns at the end of The Way of Kings, then Taln must return in a way that is not related to Eshoni. And as I mentioned before, I don't think it makes sense that Odium suddenly found a way to break Taln after 4000 years of trying. Edit: we later got a WOB that Taln did not break 2) DAVAR FAMILY CONNECTIONS Why was the Davar family so connected to secret societies despite being a Vaden house of little note? They have connections to the Ghostbloods and the Ghostbloods have handed them a confirmed soulcaster AND possibly a Seon box. Why? And it seems Skybreakers may have been visiting as well for "reasons". As well, the Skybreakers are breaking paterns when it comes to the Davars. As far as we know, Shallan's older brother is the only Skybreaker to be using a dead blade. Is this special treatment for a member of the Davar family? And finally, Mraize seems to know the Davar family well enough to recognize the name immediately. The Davars would need to be pretty active for that name recognition to be so apparent. 3) CHILD SHALLAN AND HER IMPORTANCE Why did the cryptic go to Shallan as a child? Lift was chosen due to her strange connection to Cultivation, but why Shallan? And why twice? And what were Shallan's parents fighting about? Shallan remembers her parents having huge fights over Shallan's future starting from a very young age. What was that about? Connected to that, why is an dark influence attacking the Davar family? Why is Heleran given a shardblade and brought into the skybreakers? No other Skybreaker acolyte was given a dead-blade and sent to war (that we know of), so why is Helaran so non-standard? Shallan's parents also fight A LOT about Shallan's future. This seems to be a hint that Chanarach had a major plan for Shallan. 4) MAMA DAVAR IN THE KNOW Why was Shallan's mother so quick to try and kill "one of them". How does she know "them" so clearly? Why would she have such a quick and radical reaction? 5) MORE SECRETS What is Shallan's last secret. There is still something horrible in Shallan's past, and this has something to do with a Seon box and whatever Radiant was created to protect Shallan from. What is worse than killing testament? We also have strange internal thoughts from Shallan from WOR in Chapter 10: "The world ended; and Shallan was to blame". This thought has never been explained. What did Shallan do to end the world? "The world ended, and Shallan was to blame.- Words of Radiance, Chapter 10. Mentioned by @honorblades Another strange but overlooked instance occurs in TWoK when Shallan almost summons her Shardblade: If this is indeed Patters/Testement, then why would that Spren ask "What are you?" Testament should full-well know "what" Shallan is in terms of her being a human or a semi-radiant or anything like that. If this voice is Testament, then asking "What are you?" is very odd in my opinion. Shallan answers "I am terrified", but to me that always seemed ... not what the voice was asking Shallan. I always felt there was more to this that simply speaking truths. 6) THE FAMILY'S SAFE AND THE GLOWING LIGHTS ARE IMPORTANT (main data point for me creating this theory) People are very quick to discount Shallan's recollection of Lin Davar placing a glowing soul into a safe. I have always been very confused as to why Shallan is taken as "lying" to herself in this scene. Shallan has no reason to lie about the item being her mother's soul instead of a Shardblade. Lin Davar acted extremely quickly in that situation and made sure to place the item in that safe before dealing with any other issues. That to me is extremely telling. Why would Lin think the Shadblade wouldn't disappear eventually whenever Shallan dismissed it? Why would Lin think the Shardblade would stay in a safe if he managed to place it there quickly? Why would Lin so quickly run to place the item in the safe in the first place? Why is there an unused safe in that room? And then why do Shallan and Lin seem to continually see light coming from that safe for years and years? None of that vibes with "it is just a blade and Shallan is lying to herself" in any way. I just don't get it. Shallan having a Shardblade is not in anyway covered up by this lie, nor is the lie that Shallan killed her spren hidden by this lie either? There is no mental cover-up being done by Shallan making up a lie here. It seems everyone else dismisses Shallan, including Pattern, in favour of "Lynn put a sword in there". 7) EDIT FOR ROW: Then in ROW we get the timeline, and this does not hold up to scrutiny either. Shallan says her father put the item into the safe. WoR Shallan thinks that was a soul, but Pattern convinces her she is misremembering and that the item was a dead spren-blade. But that can't be a dead spren blade because Shallan has not unbonded Testament yet. Shallan does not think that a spren is trapped in that safe and we know this because Shallan then leaves to go speak with her spren in the garden AFTER the item is placed in the safe. Shallan acts immediately as a child in a way that doesn't even consider that her "blade" is in that safe. It just doesn't make sense to think a blade was placed into that safe based on the reactions of the two witnesses involved (which we learn Pattern is not one of) We take it from Pattern that Shallan is wrong here in her memory. However, In ROW we learn that Pattern is NOT an eyewitness to what went down in that room. Pattern sure has a lot of opinions about what Shallan saw, but Pattern was not actually there in the room and cannot actually know what Shallan saw go into the safe. Pattern assumed Shallan is lying to herself as Pattern sees many other lies around that event. But Pattern has no knowledge about who Mother-Davar was, what the safe was for, or why Skybreaker/Ghostbloods may have been in the home. Pattern is not a credible source of information on the events of that day. Shallan is the only living witness, and the actions of her father are consistent with the understanding Shallan had as a child. Shallan too noticed her father staring at the direction of the safe and the light. Only later in life is Shallan told again and again that her memory of those events are wrong by people who were not there. Both Lin and Shallan believe something is in the safe, and a sword does not match the other data points we have. There is "light" in that safe, and it is leaking out over time. And where di the blood come from? A Shardblade should not have done that. The blood has to be some other injury? The box is something. The light was something. Pattern is making assumptions and is wrong about this history with the safe. And why does Shallan see a glowing light coming from the box? Is it a soul like she believes? We learn in RoW that no herald soul can be trapped completely, and that the light of a herald will slowly leak out (is that what Shallan was seeing her whole childhood come out of the safe?). Is it her mother's soul escaping slowly to Braize? Or maybe could it be a perfect gem with Mishram inside? Who knows? But it is something. We have seen other glowing lights (Dawnshard and Dalinar hearing TwoK), so is she just mad, or did she really see something? Whatever it is, it does not make sense that Shallan thinks Testament is trapped in the safe if Shallan went and yelled at Testament after her mother was killed. Something was put into that safe, and to me the most likely answer is "her mother's soul". And firhermore, there is no reason to believe that Lin Davar would think a safe would ever prevent a Shardblade from reappearing in Shallan's hands. 8) HOID and MIDDLEFEST Hoid is downright shocked to see child-Shallan at the Middlefest celebration. Hoid sees something, but that something is unclear. When we originally read WOR, we assume HOpid is shocked to see a Radiant Child or perhaps a bonded spren. However, Shallan does not have a regular active sprenbond at the time of Middlefest, so Hoid did not see Testament or an active radiant bond There are a few things Hoid may have seen: a. Hoid saw Odium's touch on her family b. a dead-blade living-radiant connection line was still active c. the Cryptic team that watched Shallan. d. Shallan is so obviously a part of Chanarach that Hoid was gobsmacked by the resemblance. e. Shallan is noticeably different than other Rosharans due to her strange parentage. But whatever Hoid saw, it was not an active Spren Bond since we know Testament is a deadeye at that point in the story. ---- It All Put Together - A Timeline 1) JAH KAVED Chararach settled in the Davar estate in rural Jah Kaved. Chanarach is involved in several of the secret societies of Roshar just like most of the other heralds we have seen. Chanarach learns of the theory that a return of surgebinders will bring about a desolation. Chararach is completely terrified of returning to Braize and supports the culling of nascent surgebinding. Chanarach is involved in research and is a part of the search to create a method that prevents a herald from returning to Braize upon death. Kalak is also involved. 2) COMMUNICATION NETWORKS Chanarach commands a fair bit of influence and even has a Seon to communicate off world. It is unclear who knows who Chanarach is, but as she did settle in a rural area it is likely Chana's identity is not common knowledge even within secret societies (similar to Restares and Amaram). Chana exerts some form of influence and stays in-the-know with investiture theory and is able to contact others on Roshar or off-world. 3) CREATING THE SAFE Chana tries to devise a way to never return to Braize. She creates a special kind of safe that her soul could be placed in to. She thinks it will entirely prevent a return or will greatly delay her return to Braize. Chana has no way to test this as there are no herald-souls or returned-souls to experiment with. Possibly, the safe is akin to the Seon box in design or the safe may even actually be the Seon Box Shallan remembers playing with as a child? At some point, Chana tells Lin Davar what to do in case she is ever killed (place her soul into the box). In ROW we learn Kelek has some knowledge on this herald soul-leakage issue, so perhaps he was also involved in the Soul Box experiments in some way. 4) SHALLAN IS BORN Chanarach eventually has a daughter and names that daughter after her friend Shalash (Shallan says she was named after Shalash). Shallan may not be a "typical" offspring. She seems to be different from her brothers in some meaningful way. Perhaps Shallanis a cutting of Chararach or maybe Shallan conceived through some form or parthenogenetic process. Perhaps Shallan was created using breaths, as Tyn notes that Shallan seems to see colours better than most other people. EDIT: In a later WOB we learned that that non-returned Cognitive Shadows have had children Edit: In a later WOB we learned that Heralds can have children but it is complicated and effortful to do. Chana has special plans for Shallan. We know from WoR that Shallan's parents fought A LOT about Shallan's future. This implies to me that Shallan is somehow more intentionally convieved than her male siblings, and that Chana had something planned for Shallan that Lynn Davar had moral misgivings about. We are not sure what this is, but I think a lot of us will assume it has something to do with the Oathapact and/or returning to Braize. 5) SHALLAN IS DETECTED BY SPREN The Cryptics find out that one of the heralds has children or they discover a weird child who stands-out and is similar to the child of a Returned. The Cryptics send a delegation to investigate (WOB confirms heralds can have children though maybe it is difficult). At the same time, an unmade is drawn to the family. Testament begins to bond Shallan similar to what happened with Lift. Shallan eventually discovers what her mother is by playing with a Seon box at the Davar estate. The unmade's influence increases in an attempt to get the Herald to go insane and potentially get herself killed by Lin Devar or Shallan. 6) SHALLAN IS DETECTED BY SKYBREAKERS Shallan is discovered to be a surge binder by her mother. Her mother, fearing a return to Braize, refers to Shallan as "one of them". Note that Chanarach does not seem surprised that surgebinders are real. Chanarach has an absolute PTSD breakdown and attacks her daughter. Lin, who likely knew, steps in and Shallan is able to kill her mother in self defence. Lin Devar takes something and locks it away in the safe. We are told this is the Shardblade and Shallan's mother's soul. Shallan goes to the garden to scream at Testament and break her bond AFTER Testament is supposedly locked away in the safe. This timeline does not make sense even if we believe Testament could escape the safe. Why does Shallan believe her spren was trapped but also then in the garden? And how is Testament-blade = her mother's soul? There isn't a connection there logically. 7) SHALLAN KILLS A HERALD AND THEN TALKS TO TESTAMENT IN THE GARDEN After Shallan kills her mother, Shallan goes to Testament and breaks her bond. It is possible Testament told her more here as well. Shallan then begins to repress everything since Shallan has, in her mind, done the most evil act in history. "The world ended, and Shallan was to blame.- Words of Radiance, Chapter 10. Mentioned by @honorblades 8) CORRUPTION SETS IN Lin Devar begins to be corrupted even more. Lin also has mental guilt and wrestles with killing his herald-wife to save his daughter. He beings to protect Shallan at all costs for reasons that may be more than just guilt. Then Davar family hell ensues. The ghostbloods continue to cultivate the family. The Ghostbloods may not believe a herald could be killed by Lin or may not know she was a Herald. The Cryptics stay with Shallan as they don't blame her for what happened. They are still curious about what Shallan is and are researching what happens to a bonded-deadeye to its original radiant. The dark influence in the house may be more than an unmade as well. One of Chana's divine attributes is "obedient". I think this is significant. Lin is driven to rage every time one of his children will not obey him, and the word obey is emphasized many times. It may be possible the Lin's rage was a dark consequence of something Chana was doing, the safe's magical effects, or something else. It is also possible that Lin thought his children would inherit the divine attribute, and the fact they dont obey him drives him to rage. 9) BRAIZE AND SOUL LEAKAGE Chanarach returns to Braize. It may have taken some time for her to get to Braize. It seems the soul is leaking out of the safe over time (ROW: as we see with Jezrian in the gem). Or maybe it takes 5 years to find Chana on Braize since arrival was unexpected and because in earlier returns the heralds were able to "hide" for some time. Either way, the other heralds do not know that that has happened as they cannot detect the pain-bond while on Roshar. Edit: Ishar created the oathpact so he may be able to sense changes in it. 10) HOID SEES SHALLAN Shallan, with no bond, goes to Middlefest. Wit's magic or memory allow him to detect that there is something very strange about Shallan. Wit somehow knows what Shallan fights "is not truly natural" and encourages her to make a path for the light. It is unclear what Wit saw, but he knew more than the fact she was a surgebinder (even though she's actually a deadeye-binder at the time). 11) CHANA IS CAPTURED ON BRAIZE Chanarach is eventually found on Braize. For some reason, Chana either breaks to the pain or gives in to some deal Odium offers. It may have taken a while or been immediate. What is strange is that Chana has not been seen returning to Roshar, either Chana took some deal meaning she did not have to return or perhaps she intentionally landed somewhere remote. 12) TALN RETURNS WITHOUT BREAKING THE OATH Taln returns to Roshar completely insane and without breaking. What happens to Chanarach is unknown. All assume Taln broke. 13) SHALLAN BEGINS TO REMEMBER THAT HER MOTHER WAS A HERALD Radiant is created from memories of Shallan's mother. Or potentially, Radiant is somehow part of Chanarach. Radiant dresses in the same blue and red warrior outfit as the Herald Chanarach in artworks. Radiant is Shallan's repressed memories of who her mother was. It is also possible that Radiant is in someway Shallan's mother (connection mumbo jumbo and cognitive shadow stuff along with cultivation weirdness possibilities) Here is a description of Radiant: “She [Radiant] had chosen to wear her vakama; the traditional Vaden’s warrior clothing. It was similar to the Alethi takama but the skirt was pleeted instead of straight. She wore a loose matching coat with a tight vest and shirt beneath. The bright clothing features vibrant blues embroidered over reds with gold woven between and it had trim on the skirt” Here is Chanarach: 14) TESTEMENT MEMORIES Shallan is forced to confront what happened with Testament, and Radiant begins to see that she must help Shallan deal with her final truth. [Option 1] Shallan knows she killed a herald and that she sent her mother to damnation - possibly ending the world and starting the final desolation. [Option 2] Shallan does not know her mother was a herald, but will put that together in regards to the "hole" in her memory"
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  2. A comment on YouTube was the inspiration for this one.
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  3. I have to stop myself from saying that anytime I'm anonymous . I started saying it just for fun, but it became a habit. Elysian sat at the edge of the camp. Light from the fire played across his back, but its warmth did not reach him. Even if he’d been closer, the flames could not cure the chill his heart felt. Today he had been responsible for the death of an innocent man. Not only that, but he had turned brother against brother, friend against friend. Frederick and Duncan were close, that much was evident. The power of the Forgotten to shatter a bond like that was just as terrible as their command of the chalklings. As the camp settled into its nighttime routine, the fire burned lower, deepening the shadows around him. Longing the escape of sleep, yet dreading the nightmares it might bring, Elysian let the night overpower his mind. Elysian dreamed of fire. Not the warming fire of the camp, but of the raging fires of destruction and failure. He knelt in the center of a village, burning around him, ashamed of his failure. *Thwack* A pain exploded in the back of Elysian’s head as he toppled into the dust. When the stars faded from his vision, he could make out the transparent outline of an old man hefting a staff, standing over him. “Get up you fool. It’s not over yet. This,” he waved his stick at the carnage around them, “hasn’t happened. My story ends this way, but yours isn’t finished. It might turn out like this, but you still have work to do.” “Work. Just like the work I did today? Destroying families…” “Just like that. That’s what you signed up for when you came out here. When it’s all done, if you’re still alive, you can feel sorry for yourself then. Fredrick knew what he was getting himself into, and so did Duncan. Don’t let either of their losses be in vain.” The elder pointed the staff menacingly. “Get back out there and do your job until you drop.” The dream faded from Elysian’s mind, replaced with the darkness of the night. And slowly, he got on his feet and walked toward the fire. Toward friends and toward the light. His soul needed all the brightening it could get, for more dark work awaited the next day.
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  4. Yay, it's so close! I'd break my First Contract for you. And because that one wasn't my favourite... Only you can breach the Warding Line around my heart. That one's iffy too. Two for the price of one! 3 days until Valentine's Day!
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  5. Hey physics nerds. I've been toying with the equations of motion for paired gems (conjoiners and reversers). I'm happy with what I've got so far, but I'm interested in digging for thoughts on the decay factor that comes with distance.... But first let me back up and explain where I'm at. Using Pulleys I think the easiest way to think of paired fabrials is by comparing them to pulley systems. For a simple conjoiner, it's easiest to just think of them as rigidly connected, but the metaphor doesn't work for reversers. Pulleys are also a great way to account for the mechanical advantage discovery that Navani makes in RoW chapter 84. And I think friction is a good way to think of the decay they experience over greater distances. Two major caveats though. The metaphor only works for one dimension at a time, though that's not a big deal. And we have to pretend we can force our ropes in both directions. (can be pushed and pulled) Simple Equation Without the mechanical advantage discovery Navani makes and ignoring friction, we have the following equation: (m1 + m2) a = F1 + R F2 This is simply the equation of motion for a simple pulley, with one addition: that R factor. More on that in a second. The idea here is that F1 and F2 are the sum of all forces acting on the gems. (excluding the force being shared between the paired gems -- that is essentially the tension in our pulley system's rope) The masses m1 and m2 are the masses attached to each gem, plus the mass of the gem itself. If we've attached something fairly heavy to one and not the other, you can effectively say the mass of the lone gem is zero. So all this equation is saying is that the acceleration of the system is the sum of forces on the system divided by the total mass of the system. F=ma. We need to note that the accelerations of 1 and 2 aren't necessarily the same. I'm using a = a1 = R a2. In other words, the equation above is really for the acceleration of a1. If we want to know the acceleration of the other gem we need to substitute a = R a2. This R factor I've added is really just a convenience to account for the difference between conjoiners and reversers. Rather than deal with separate coordinate systems for each, I'm just using this one equation with R=1 for conjoiners and R=-1 for reversers. In other words, with a reverser the accelerations are in opposite diretions of one another and F2 acts opposite of F1 rather than with it. (F1 and F2 are in the same direction--whatever direction we want to label the positive direction.) Simple Examples Let's say we've got a pair of reversers with the same mass floating in the air. Their weights balance each other out just as if they were two masses hanging from a pulley. We have (m1 + m2) a = F1 - F2 where F1 and 2 are their equal weights, m1*g and m2*g. The net force of F1-F2=0 so we have a=0. Note that if we give one a push up or down (and ignore wind resistance) they will move at constant velocity in opposite directions. Point being, this isn't a scale that tries to balance back out. Just two weights balancing each other out. What if the second is twice the mass of the first? (m1 + 2*m1) a = m1*g - 2*m1*g using down as positive direction, which is 3*m1*a = -m1*g. Solving for a we get a = -g/3. So the first gem moves up into the air at 1/3 g. The second moves down at 1/3 g. What if the second is much heavier than the first, such that the mass/weight of the first is negligible? (m2) a = -m2*g so we are left with a = -g. The first gem, basically weightless, flies upward at 1g while the second gem falls at 1g as if it weren't paired. Makes sense, right? With a two equal masses conjoined, they just fall freely. (m1 + m2) a = m1*g + m2*g = (m1 + m2) g, which is just a=g and for conjoiners we have a=a1=a2. Mechanical Advantage In RoW chapter 84 Navani is able to use Raboniel's dagger to transfer the spren of a paired gem into a different, larger gem. When she moves the larger gem, the other moves three times as far. We see this same phenomenon with a pulley system that gives a mechanical advantage of 3. If Navani moves the smaller gem 30 centimeters, the larger gem will only move 10 centimeters, and vice versa. There's some force multiplication that happens here. Moving the smaller gem requires less force, though it doesn't move the other as far. Moving the larger gem is the opposite. It causes the smaller gem to move further, but it requires more force. When you work through the math, the equation above becomes this: (m1 + m2/G^2) a = F1 + R F2/G The G factor here is the mechnical advantage ratio. Usually we would use MA for this, but I felt that might be confusing alongside the m's and a's of mass and acceleration. I've been using gamma in my notes and don't have it on this keyboard, so you get G. Also note that this gives us a different acceleration relationship. Now we have a = a1 = R G a2. In other words, the smaller gem accelerates G times faster than the larger. Navani isn't clear on what ratio produces this observed ratio of 3, though I'm guessing the larger gem in her accidental experiment was 3 times larger by mass? Something like that. More Examples So let's say we have a reverser where m1 is basically negligible, a gem ratio of 2, and both only under the influence of their own weight. We have (m2/2^2) a = -m2*g/2. Which gives a = -2g. For the larger gem we have a2 = a/(RG) = g. In other words, the large gem/mass falls at a normal 1g, while the smaller, effectively weightless, gem moves upward at 2g. Note that if the small gem is half the weight of the larger gem they balance out in this situation. The force-half of the equation becomes (m2/2)*g - (m2*g)/2 = 0. You can use this discovery in two different ways. Let's talk about how they apply to the Fourth Bridge. Two options. One thing you can do with this discovery is reduce the number of chulls required. If you use the chulls to pull the small gems and attach the larger gems to the Fourth Bridge, they can get more force with their pulling. But the downside is they have to walk further to make the Fourth Bridge move the same distance. On the other hand, if you attach the large gems to the chulls and the small gems to the Fourth Bridge, your chulls don't have to walk as far... but they have to pull harder. I'm guessing the second will be what they do with the Fourth Bridge. Most of the time the ship should be moving at some constant cruising velocity. So they'll have a harder time getting the thing accelerated up to that speed... But once they're there, they just need to maintain that speed, which shouldn't take as much effort. And in the meantime, the Fourth Bridge will be moving 2 chull steps (or whatever the ratio is) for every chull step. It would be interesting to work out the math on all of this, but I haven't tried yet. Distance Decay So now we come to the distance decay. Navani notes that there's some amount of decay which occurs over greater distances. The further the paired gems are apart, the more resistance you experience. This is essentially like the friction you see in a pulley system. When you work out the math, this essentially just becomes an extra force on the system. In a real pulley system you have different friction amounts in each pulley, but I'm basically collapsing the sum of those into one value: Ff. (m1 + m2/G^2) a = F1 + R F2/G - Ff I'm... probably not handling the sign on this well. It's resisting movement so we're basically assuming here that a > 0. Otherwise, the sign on Ff flips. Now... we don't really have enough information from the books to figure a correct equation for this value... But I'm trying to think it through and figure some idea of what form it might take. We know that it's a function of the distance between the two gems, but it can't JUST be that because I think spanreeds wouldn't work that way. Think about it. If the Fourth Bridge experiences a notable amount of decay from Urithiru/Shattered Plains to Hearthstone and if we just have Ff as a function of distance, then a spanreed over the same distance would experience that same resisting force. That just doesn't really make sense. I don't think it makes sense for the masses to be involved. Thinking back to the pulley metaphor, the friction between a rope and pulley is going to depend on how much tension is in the rope. More force being transferred through the rope means it's pulling harder on the pulley, and that harder normal force leads to more friction. So perhaps it should be a function of F1 - R F2/G? Note the negative sign there. For a conjoiner, that gives us the difference between forces. So, for example, two reversers (G=1) floating in the air give m1*g + m2*g. If you're looking at a simple pulley that's the total forcing tugging on the pulley. The full weight of one is countering the other, so the full weight of each is carried by the rope. More friction. Change that to conjoiners and it's a little odd though. You get m1*g - m2*g = (m1 - m2)*g which... suggests the amount of friction depends on how comparable the masses are? I would think two falling conjoined gems just basically fall under their own weights, together, and so there's no transfer of force between them. No tension in the rope. So something doesn't seem right here. My brain is getting mushy. Feedback appreciated. If you have no ideas, hopefully you at least enjoyed the explanation of the rest!
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  6. The discussion centered around one man. Frederick Kerr was seen as too vocal, too controlling. The camp reasoned that he must be a Forgotten. Although several other candidates were floated, there could be no dissuading the crowd. Unfortunately, Frederick's death did nothing to stop the swarm. The Camp had made a mistake, and now the Wild Chalklings were getting their second wind. Vote Count: StrikerEZ (7): Gears, Ashbringer, Lotus, Burnt Spaghetti, Araris Valerian, Devotary of Spontaneity, Kasimir Araris Valerian (2): Flyingbooks, StrikerEZ Flyingbooks (1): Archer Ventyl (1): Shard of Reading StrikerEZ was court-martialed. They were a Rithmatist. Items Taken: Camp Supply: Player List: The Strength of the Wild Chalklings is at 2. This Night will end on February 12th at 8 PM.
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  7. Rylan waited until the guards had turned the corner, out of sight, before pulling the chipped piece of flint from his pocket. Whispering the incantation that Yrtrimn had taught him, he struck the flint against the cool steel bars of his cell. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, with a flash, the metal bars warmed, and began to glow with heat after but a moment. Rylan watched the red-hot metal for a moment that felt like an eternity. Steeling himself, he clenched his teeth, and grabbed the bars, wrenching them apart. His palms searing, the putrid scent of searing flesh filled his nostrils as the bars pulled apart, easily bent due to their heat. As soon as he was sure he could squeeze through, he let go, and stifled a scream. It took almost a full minute before he was able to remember the words to a spell to help his hands, which only reduced the pain slightly. He waited until after the metal bars were completely cooled before he slipped through, and quietly made his way down the prison hallway. He felt the cool stone against his bare feet, and tried to ignore the calls of the other prisoners as he walked past their cells. As he neared the guard barracks, he pulled another object from his pocket, a small, clear gem, and crushed it in his hands, immediately wincing afterwards. He muttered a short phrase, and suddenly blinked out of view, becoming invisible. He quietly made his way past the inky blue-skinned humanoid guards, being sure not to step into their path. Casting a final detection spell, Rylan quickly found the room where his boots, sword, and most importantly, his hat, were being held. In but a few minutes more, Rylan was back onto the street of Graazun, ducking past carts and horses, trying to be sure he wasn't seen by any more of those blue humanoids. It took nearly an hour of dodging and ducking, running from shadow to shadow, to make his way to the city gate. He crouched in the darkness, watching the gatehouse, trying to estimate when the best time to run past was, when he heard the skittering of stones behind him. Rylan turned, just in time to see an arrow streaking right towards his face. He raised his right arm, and felt the arrow graze across his wrist, tearing his skin open, exposing bone, and leaving the very tip of the arrow stuck inside his hand. He yelped in pain, but at least the arrow had been deflected. He looked down at his wrist to see the slash was bleeding profusely. He could just barely see the barbed Arratzzn-steel tip of the arrow keeping his wound open. He felt dizzy as his blood dripped down on to the ground. His vision was swirling, he couldn't see straight. Rylan could barely see as one of the blue skinned creatures from the prison approached him, its snarl exposing jagged yellow teeth, its red eyes blazing with the adrenaline of the hunt. Then he felt it. That familiar gut wrenching tug that he had felt thousands of times before. He was being Kicked. The creature raised its crossbow again, with another barbed arrow aimed at Rylan's heart. The creature curled its oily finger around the trigger, and then froze. A bolt of pure black energy shot down from the red sky above, sucking in all light around it, striking Rylan. All he could do was groan in agony as he was suddenly torn from his current reality. ... ... ... ... Darkness. Rylan slowly opened his eyes, but it made no difference. There was nothing to be seen, only the eternal darkness of the space betwixt the endless universes of the Multiverse. He floated there, unmoving for what could have been seconds, and what could have been years. He was used to this. It had happened thousands of times before, and quite possibly would continue to happen until the end of eternity. Then, he saw light. A small speck, growing closer. A new world, a new life, and yet another round of the meaningless torture that the mightiest of cosmic powers forced him to endure. The light grew closer and brighter, first like a candle, then like a bonfire, then blazing like a star looming over him. Time to put on a show, Rylan thought, as the light engulfed him.
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  8. “I need more feral children” - me filling out this chart I’m not happy with the positions of some people but I’ve tried at least four seperate times to finish this and I’m done with it now (Hoid is more “big therapist energy” but I decided it was close enough. I was also debating on whether to swap Spook and Nightblood but Nightblood is more childish)
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  9. I've gone through and attempted to transcribe the page from Dragonsteel Prime that Brandon held up during the New Years live stream. The first half-page has some really hard-to-make-out parts due to lighting, which are highlighted in various colors to indicate my confidence (or lack thereof) in my transcription, but the rest isn't too bad to figure out. Color key: TL;DR: Orange text should probably not be trusted as accurate, and blue text definitely shouldn't be trusted, because it's not even really properly visible in the video. Red and pink are probably fine, though. The attached DOCX file additionally tries to replicate the layout and formatting of the original in the image best I can, but I'm not going to even attempt that in the post itself (Man, Jerick's an idiot... he didn't feel this dumb in the Bridge Four samples, but I guess that's what character growth does for you.) Dragonsteel Pages, maybe?.docx
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  10. If you give an Inquisitor a spike...
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  11. Within SA we knew: Thaidakar is a title. Thaidakar is an offworlder. Master Thaidakar follows a Scadrian honorific-epithet naming convention Hoid calls Thaidakar ‘Lord of Scars.’ Hoid has ‘slapped around’ Thaidakar. Thaidakar is a Cognitive Shadow. The chapters leading to the first meeting between Shallan and Mraize in WoR were: Scars, Mere Vapors, and Ghostbloods. Scadrial is the Expanse of Vapors. The Ghostbloods resembled the Mistborn crew in some respects. Some Ghostbloods have an almost religious like reverence toward Thaidakar. We also knew: Kelsier would lead the GBs in a heartbeat. Ghostblood referenced specific in-world events. We had seen the proto-Ghostbloods. Then Brandon told us: He expected many of us to know Thaidakar’s real name. Thaidakar had been seen going to great lengths in other books. And then Brandon went on the Shardcast and confirmed: Thaidakar is Kelsier and this was always the plan. The GBs are supposed to dovetail with Survivorism. And Kell is lying through his teeth about the Avatar thing. So yes, we know.
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  12. I have ascended! (for a week) Thank you though. I haven't read all of these past winners and I am looking forward to diving in =)
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  13. Fadran dropped onto one knee and proffered an onion ring to Queen. "Are you hungry?"
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  14. It might be more accurate to say that RoW provided more - and stronger - clues, and that Brandon himself then CONFIRMED it.
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  15. You may not be able to explain this but I can, having been on the receiving end of it. When enough players in a game are chaotic enough, the elims can never be sure what's going to happen. The village vig, who had hitherto suspected none of them, might decide to shoot one of them in the last five minutes of rollover (QF50 C2). The exe target might switch to an unsuspecting villager at the last minute (QF50 C2) and if that person was your NK target... (I mean, Ash wasn't but it's still something that you have to worry about with chaos). Or the exe target might switch to an elim last-minute (QF50 C1). and so on and so forth. If the elims can't predict what villagers are going to do, they can't react to it, and it makes their job a lot harder (I'm sorry, but the first 3 cycles of QF50 were a nightmare for the elim team so that's where my examples are coming from).
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  16. I definitely agree with this. I was hoping Rlain wouldn't bond the Sibling since it was brought up. The Sibling basically only was willing to because of immutable characteristics. Which would have felt awful for Rlain after him talking about wanting to have a spren bond him because it wants HIM. The whole Sibling being willing to bond Rlain felt like a different beat on the whole Kaladin ordering that honorspren to consider him. "Please consider our token Listener." I also didn't want Dabbid to bond with the Sibling either considering how he was extorted by them. It is my sincere hope that an honorspren decides to bond him. Anyways, Navani bonding the Sibling is great. They both have their faults, they both have their conflicting beliefs, yet they both mesh together. It was truly enjoyable to see the Sibling get all excited over Navani understanding the fabrials they made of themself.
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  17. I got it killer of white someone is going to kill szeth in the first chapter
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  18. Huh, apparently my subconscious ships Kaladin and Kelsier, despite how much I tell it that wouldn't work at all. I dreamed of training montages and having a minor hero-worship-crush on your teacher. Not gonna lie though, Kaladin dying, becoming a Cognitive Shadow after Kelsier rushes him to Stormlight, having a Dramatic Moment with Syl ("You're not my Knight Radiant anymore, Kal, but I will always be your spren"), and then having training montages in a swimming pool (no, I don't know either) trying to outwit Kell and his Avengers team RoW all sounds like a crack-taken-somewhat-seriously fanfic that I'd absolutely read.
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  19. (Is this meme entirely based on your username? Yes. Do I regret it? No.)
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  20. Some time ago I've put together a timeline of books. I've decided to translate it to English and post it with sources, so I went and searched for the WoBs to put them in the timeline. I haven't found all of those I was using at the time (see the end of this post) but I've also found some I haven't seen before, so... profit? Enjoy. Order of series: Dragonsteel White Sand Elantris Mistborn First Era Warbreaker Stormlight Archive (first pentalogy) Mistborn Second Era Stormlight Archive (second pentalogy) Mistborn Third Era Mistborn Fourth Era ------------------------------------------- Order of the books: (Entries not bolded have not been released yet) Dragonsteel White Sand (before Elantris) Elantris & Hope of Elantris (long before Mistborn First Era, but not thousands of years) Emperor’s Soul (technology didn’t change since Elantris so probably not much more than decades #2) Eleventh Metal The Final Empire Well of Ascension Hero of Ages (341 years before Alloy of Law) Warbreaker (closer than farther to Way of Kings) (between HoA and WoK #1 #2 #3) Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell (in the latter part of timeline but before Way Of Kings: #1 #2, and FAQ – if it’s correct – says it’s after Warbreaker) Nightblood (we don’t know whether it’s after Shadows for Silence..., but it’s before Stormlight Archive) Way of Kings (happens 300ish years after Hero Of Ages) Words of Radiance Edgedancer Oathbringer Stormlight Archive, book four (Rhythm of War) Stormlight Archive, book five (about 15 years before Stormlight 6 but the gap may as well be 10 or 20 years #1 #2 #3 #4) Alloy of Law (341 years after Hero Of Ages)(it’s after Stormlight 5 but we don’t know if it’s before Stormlight 6. It could also be after Stormlight 7.) Shadows of Self (year after Alloy of Law) Bands of Mourning (half a year after Shadows of Self) Lost Metal Stormlight Archive, book six (about 15 years after Stormlight 5) Stormlight Archive, book seven Stormlight Archive, book eight Stormlight Archive, book nine Stormlight Archive, book ten Mistborn Third Era (modern times, around 80s)(probably roughly about 50 years after Second Era) Sixth of the Dusk (just before Mistborn Fourth Era #1) Mistborn Fourth Era (sci-fi) ------------------------------------------- WoBs I cannot find now but I'm sure they exist since when I was putting together this timeline I was strictly going off only WoBs: the gap between Stormlight 5 and 6 could be 20 years (specifically 20 years, 10 and 15 I have sourced already) Warbreaker being closer than farther to Way of Kings
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  21. Valentine's day is almost here. For some of us this is a good thing. Getting to be with the person you love more then anyone else. Some of us this day is one of the single worst days in history. And for people like me it sucks to be lonely but you hate the fact that couples are being couples more then not having someone. Regardless of which "party," so to speak, you fall into I hope you all a happy Single Awareness Day. Spoilers for size. Have some Valentines day memes to cheer you up..... ish. Feel free to post more meme
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  22. CW: It gets a bit dark at the end, but it gets better. Think Kaladin and blackbane in WoK. Please read with caution. Edited to add: Also, as much as I'm apparently externalising my internal angst and psychological conflict in this game by appealing to what the Wyrm in my head would say (Duncan, is that you bleeding through here?), I have been duly informed by my superior in the Inquisition to clarify for everyone's benefit: "I take no responsibility and am not advising Kas on the game. This is his own stupid idea, and really, even if he was listening to me, he knows better than to do that by now." THE EDGE OF NIGHT Duncan badly wanted a drink. Wyatt smiled. Black bled into the whites of his eyes. In the gathering of dusk, he was more charcoal shadow than man. "Good soldiers follow orders," he hissed. Duncan tossed a pebble at him half-heartedly and it passed through Wyatt as if he wasn't there. Maybe he wasn't. Duncan rubbed at his eyes with the heel of his hand. He was having difficulty telling, as the days wore on and he just wanted a drink, something to numb the pain, to forget everything. To forget what Nebrask had made of him. To forget what he had done. Oh, Frederick, he thought, and he'd drunk, just a little, he supposed, but it wasn't nearly enough to cleanse the tar-black guilt from his soul and heart. He'd defended his little brother, but only half-heartedly, and now Frederick had followed him to Nebrask and to death. Another stone to lay against his soul, another charcoal smudge, and Duncan considered this the blackest and darkest. Frederick had never seemed touched by Nebrask. Duncan had never wanted this for him. And when Shimamura Sakura bore away his brother's body to offer him a decent burial, all Duncan could do was to drink from the last of the Respected Madman's stash, but it wasn't enough, and the guilt was there, and clinging to his soul, daubed in charcoal. How many more? Duncan wondered. How many more would there be? He couldn't meet Shimamura's eyes at all as she returned, even though he wanted to thank her. Someone had done right by Frederick at least, even if she, too, had called for his court-martial. Frederick, cold and still. Was this justice? Duncan, still living, still surviving, still drawing breath although he suspected he had died a very long time ago on Nebrask with the rest of his platoon. It was a shadow that had come home, someone who didn't know how to laugh, or smile. He'd left too much of himself on Nebrask, where Dig lay beneath the silent earth. Where Matt had fallen. Where Rlint had been betrayed and murdered. Where Tavi had in turn been killed as they turned upon each other as brotherhood and comradeship failed, at the end. Wyatt tsk-ed. "Did you really think you could get rid of me so easily, soldier?" he asked. "Worth a shot," Duncan grunted. He wanted to stop feeling. He wanted to die. It should have been him, and not TJ. Not Frederick. At what cost? "Rude," said Wyatt. "I'm just trying to help you." "You said that," Duncan snapped. "You always said that. Orders from the CO, you said. Good soldiers follow orders. We'd..." his vision blurred, and he realised his voice was trembling, too. "You said we'd hold the line, until the replacements came. I believed you, and I helped you murder my own squadmates!" And there it was. The first sin, the blood on the earth of the garden, the first murder, the one that stretched back all the way in a carmine chain of blood and betrayal to the first life when brother slew brother (a Ghostblood snaps off an arrow from his Shardplate, wisps of Stormlight leaking from the shattered gems; afraid and ready to die at the same time, a dying darkeyes collapses on wartorn streets from five stabs to his back, still reaching out to his assailant with the last of his strength, still trusting, still—) "Humans," Wyatt said. "Predictable. You never wanted to kill, so all I needed to do to tirelessly root out loyal soldiers was to tell you what you wanted to hear. Orders from the CO. Duty. Do it." He knelt down. "You know the truth? You were afraid. You wanted meaning, structure, order. A tidy story, in which you were the hero. I gave you everything you wanted, Duncan. And now you cry about how that's what you never wanted?" "Go 'way," Duncan whispered. "Go away, go away, GO AWAY!" The last words came out in a strangled shriek, as he hefted the empty spirits bottle. "I have a glass bottle and I'm not afraid to use it!" "Will you?" Wyatt asked. "I don't think you know what to do without me, Duncan. I think you need me. I think you're still afraid. And that's why you hesitated. Two Forgotten, dead, but the last you let live." Kessen and Tory. He did what he had to, but then Wyatt had woken up and—had he hesitated? Was this his fault? (It was, because Wyatt had been kind, Wyatt had given him direction, and Wyatt had been the mentor that a fresh young Rithmatist on his first tour on Nebrask needed, and Wyatt had been the perfect combination of duty and good humour that young Duncan, old Duncan had needed, and Duncan had trusted him and believed him and it was his hands that held the chalk and he would never, ever be free of that sin.) "Go away," Duncan whispered, hoarsely. He squeezed his eyes shut, and when he opened them again, the camp was empty. Talking to himself again. He rubbed at his eyes, until the blurriness went away, but he was shaking and he couldn't seem to stop. He stared at the bottle in his hands. He'd killed before, he thought. He knew how to kill. He could make it fast, or— They would come for him, the Forgotten here. They would kill him. Of course they would. He had taken down two of their own, which made him harder to set up, the way they'd set Frederick up. He didn't have to fight it. He could wait, and welcome death. And maybe... Duncan's throat choked up. Maybe that would be a form of justice, too. If I die, let me die, he thought. Let him live, he'd prayed to the Master, for Frederick. But the Master had done nothing. The Master had heeded no cries, that first tour on Nebrask, and Duncan's faith had died inside him. "Stop it," someone said, and Duncan knew that voice, and it cut through him like a knife, and he was grieving and raw all over again. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut. No. He could not—would not—did not deserve to—look. "I came to Nebrask for you, you know." "Shouldn't have," Duncan managed, with a strangled sob. "Well, I did," said Frederick. "And I don't hold this against you. I wish you could've saved me—" "I don't think I could have." "I wish you tried," Frederick said, and Duncan's heart broke all over again. "But it's done, and I think they would've distrusted me anyway, if I'd lived." But he hadn't. And now Duncan was all alone again. "Don't go," he whispered, when there was silence. He opened his eyes, cautiously. Just a crack. Frederick was smiling at him, and Duncan's vision blurred with renewed tears. "Make me wait, alright?" Frederick said. "I'm not in a hurry, so you shouldn't be, either. I always looked up to you, you know. All the stories you'd tell me in your letters, about Nebrask." "I'm no hero," Duncan croaked. "Just...broken." Just a coward. He couldn't save his platoon, and he couldn't save Frederick, either. I wish you'd tried. "You don't have to be," Frederick said. "We've got enough heroes, I think. We could do with fewer of them. And this whole camp is full of soldiers." "Then what do you want from me?" Duncan begged. "Live," said Frederick, and it was both a cruelty and kindness. "Forgive yourself. Remember us. And Ward the camp. Be their watcher, since I could not." "Okay," Duncan said, and he ignored the prickle of tears in his eyes. "I'll try." And then he was alone again, with only the ghosts in his head and the scars on his soul, and an empty bottle in his hands and two more on the floor, still stinking of alcohol. He wanted nothing more than to lie here and give up, but he'd given Frederick his word. How long can I keep doing this, Frederick? Duncan pleaded. He thought he could see Frederick again, shaking his head. Make me wait, Frederick had said. Duncan supposed he could do that. He took the next step.
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  23. Lol, that’s just an expression. It’s supposed to be the Singer-ized version of “speak of the devil and he appears”. Which is an expression used for whenever you’re talking about someone and they coincidentally walk into the room. As for Ulim, I’m most interested in his language patterns. He and some of the Heralds (specifically Ash) seem to speak more modern-y, more casual. What’s up with that? People have guessed it’s a Braize thing, since that’s the only thing they have in common, but nothing lives on Braize except for them. So where did that manner of speaking come from before it was on Braize? My guess is Ashyn. And considering how none of the other fused speak like Ulim, I think that instead of the Heralds being related to Ulim/Braize, I think that Ulim is related to the Heralds/Ashyn.
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  24. Here is week 6 Poem #6 Epoch of Metamorphosis Dawn breaks with an explosion of gold and peach woven by the skillful hands of Aurora which fly across her loom. The whole of existence stirs as a seemingly endless celestial contest begins to take shape. Jove upon his throne vies with his brothers for supremacy as Minerva crosses blades with the Avenger. Tremors wrack the earth and every deity gathers their armies to wage war. Faunus and Diana clash spilling nature’s blood and painting the ground with silver. On high the winds burn while Phoebus clashes with Boreas. Cities are trampled and all of civilization is reduced to tattered swathes of a once vibrant tapestry. Stark beauty glows in the skies as it is carried across the realm upon a most subtle yet mighty chariot. Rebirth of a new day becomes a nightmare birthed by the Bacchnalian curse cast upon Somnus and held firm by the winged deliverers of vengeance. Lightning boils the oceans and creates molten conflagrations in the depths which do nothing to disturb the fury of the wise one and the master of the fields of war. Minor deities quench the thirst of the parched earth with their meaningless sacrifices. Forests from the earliest times are laid bare. Storms of fire scar the very heavens. Prayers so desperate are unanswered by selfish competitors. Contrast of great beauty marks the very heights and separates it from the destruction consuming the material plane. Horrors driven by the invisible bearers of poisoned blades and whispered judgements exact even from those who rule terrible prices for their failures. Jupiter falls from his gilded seat into the fires and steam below where he rages and wrestles with the lords that were exiled below beside the carnage that two have wreaked on any who would stand between them. Libations laid out in the most desperate ways spill without even being noticed or considered. Yews by river banks weep and watch their siblings die. Humanity cowers. The completion of the artwork that stands majestically and yet smudged by the smoke that rises sends forth a new song. All of the battles instantly start to wither away and somewhere a balanced scale strikes down the nightmare that has broken out. Amidst the muck and mire of their spirits three kings and two bloodied and exhausted warriors are aflame with a shame which before this day they had never imagined that they could know. Spoiled gifts offered now begin to heal sundered places of refuge. The huntress and the wild lord huddle beneath spilled tears. From the rubble mortals build again as noon is born.
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  25. Hey peeps! Well I finished part two of book one in the Mistborn trilogy! I was reading today and I saw Hoid! I was probably a little too excited, but it was fun to see Wit!
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  26. Nice job on the transcription! Based on the chapter numbers given in the published excerpts, this would be some ten chapters before the start of the Bridge Four sequence. Looking at the gaps between the excerpts, I'm guessing there's three or four more Jerick chapters in between the two?
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  27. This is true - though in some cases the broad patterns are very simple, it's the detailed feedbacks and stuff that are impossibly complex. (Kind of like climate vs weather - predicting weather even 2-3 weeks ahead is essentially impossible, but everybody knows July will be warmer than January in the north temperate zone...) Sure, but @Jofwu above posted the HOA epigraph that Ruin was messing with it... All I was saying is that the ash being dark wouldn't prevent the overall net effect from being cooling rather than warming. I think that was just to make it concentrate over the Final Empire area (where the magnetic pole was) ... but yeah that part possibly doesn't make the most sense, especially since the ash itself isn't that important climate-wise vs. the sulfate aerosols. Yeah... Given that these are volcanoes engineered by godlike magical power to cool the planet, I think they probably have whatever mix of gases to ash they need to have to get the desired effect... I am not really sure this would work in RL. It seems to me that the ocean away from the Final Empire area, more exposed to light, should evaporate at a horrendous rate and make the planet go runaway-greenhouse. OTOH, we only know that it worked for 1024 years - it is quite possible that the system actually wasn't stable (on geological timescales) and in the absence of Ruin/Vin/Sazed intervention it would have turned into a runaway greenhouse in a few tens of thousands or millions of years...
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  28. Personally I am under the firm belief that everyone else here is actually evil and that I am the only villager left.
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  29. [OOC: Sensible. If you're Village, your LoM+ is pretty good for nailing down actions and inconsistencies, so not being out of chalk makes sense.] [OOC: I agree with this, but I also see the game as being divided into two blocs of connections right now. You, Ventyl, Gears and Burnt are connected by suspicions of/targeting Striker, which means that if TUO was clumsily trying to implement a team plan to frame Striker (by sheeping), you come out more suspicious for jumping on the provided opportunity, as compared to first mover Gears. I am also somewhat suspicious of your narrow vote diversity, that being said. And it hasn't escaped me that this does leave you as our sole public Lantern bearer. I haven't played with Evil Araris since LG15b despite busing jokes, so I don't have your meta to draw on, only the tactical picture - who set up the Striker frame, who is pouncing on it. You would have come across better for busing TUO immediately, yes, and this is where I agree with you and think it makes sense. But busing TUO wouldn't necessarily have led to the desired outcome, either - painting Striker with suspicion needed more work than just sheeping, IMO, and your arguments helped to go there beyond just TUO sheeping Striker. At the same time, I suppose the more I think about it, the more I feel like this would make Ventyl come out even more suspicious of the three of you, for jumping on Striker and then immediately backpedalling when challenged and jumping on TUO. But then there's also Burnt, who PMed me during D4 to ask why Striker was still alive, which could've been opportunistic framing as well. I'll need to keep thinking as the Turn isn't over yet. I'd mildly associate Devo with this bloc for leaning towards the non-Evil Araris side of things at the moment. The second bloc of connections would be Striker, Reading, and potentially, Books - Books is tangential because they fall to the 'Araris suss' side of the divide. Reading is connected by defense/framing of Striker as Village, and there's obviously Striker there. (I don't include myself in my analysis because that kind of messes things up.) Not impossible Team Evil is using catspaws or just sitting back and let us go at each other, but the issue is that it's really hard to tell which is going on, and we don't really want to LAFO this, for obvious reasons. But I think given the work Team Evil took to set this up, at least one player in the bloc of seven is Evil, which...yeah, probably not rocket science :/ Logic I think would dictate to just do the Striker train - if Striker's Village, then we need to look at those within the bloc of four who were running with the frame. Of all of them, I lean most Village on Gears, which frankly isn't saying much. Not much to go on for Burnt, still have difficulty deciding on Araris, Ventyl, and Devo. I'm probably overthinking it at this point. The issue with doing the Araris train is I feel like it's not as informative, to be frank. Say Araris is Evil. Is this enough for us to conclude about Striker's allegiances, or whether Striker was being set-up? After all, our current grinch is heavily D4-based. I guess, maybe? But Araris's known reputation for busing complicates things - if it was anyone else opportunistically jumping on the Striker train, I guess I wouldn't make this assessment, And yet my gut doesn't feel like Striker is Evil enough, but my gut could be a Darkfriend. Frailty, thy name is Kasimir. I know you told me so, Wyrm >> I'm doing the thing, don't @ me. And now I'm rambling to a ghost. God, this game is taking its psychological toll on me >> Sart, I'm sorry for changing my mind so many times On the bright side, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, at least?]
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  30. You've got a LOT here, and I haven't gotten far yet but I want to bring attention to something that may be relevant to one of your early points. There is a Theory posted on Reddit (that Brandon actually responded to with praise and a RAFO) in response to the translation of some of the in book sketches of the daggers, that the housing that Raboniel claimed wasn't relevant to the function is actually Nicrosil, and thus is relevant to the leeching process you describe above. (link to the thread, and the translations is built into the below WoB quote)
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  31. Caden spotted the King's guard coming from down the hall. There were ten of them, and they were hard to miss as their armor was kept spotless and were ridiculously ornate. It was not until they got closer that he recognized two of his personal guard among them, as their armor and uniforms were steel grey with angular plating that resembled Caden's own armor, and covered with countless nicks and scratches from combat. Caden finished with the bindings on the king's wound; he had broken off the arrow's shaft, but left the tip in so that it would keep the wound blocked. The general turned to the men who had arrived, "it's about time you wretches! The king's attacker must still here, gather everyone who's not at a post and search this entire castle. Every way out is covered, if the assassin is still here, then she'll be dead! No one is to leave this castle without my explicit and direct orders, you got that?!" The guardsmen saluted. Caden growled, "then get moving! My two personal guards as well as two of you castle men will stay here with the king, don't let anyone near him unless you receive direct orders from me, you understand?" His personal guards merely nodded while the palace guards bowed their heads, "as you say sir." The general stood up, "two of you will come with me; I will fetch my personal regiment to help secure the castle, we'll need the manpower if we're going to deal with the," Caden took a moment to savor the word as he said it, "guests." Caden turned and stomped down the hall. He then stopped for a moment and gestured for the captain of the guard to follow him, "tell me, do you have a list with all of the King's ladies who are supposed to be in the castle at this moment?" The captain started a partial jog in order to catch and keep up with the general, "uh, I believe that is only meant for the king's eyes sir." Caden glared at the captain, "you'll have to make an exception, captain." "I'm sorry sir, but I don't think I can. Even I'm not allowed to look at it." Caden stopped suddenly, and he grabbed the captain by his collar, pulling him close. The captain yelped as he tried to squirm out of the general's steel grip, but he stopped when Caden began to speak. "My king is currently on the floor unconscious after being shot by an assassin boy. If you think I'm going to let something like a little rule stand in my way of finding the killer, then you're better off dead." Caden finished the sentence uncharacteristically calm, and as the captain looked into his yellow eyes he only saw a seething hatred staring back at him. Beads of sweat began to form on the captain's forehead, "You uh, you don't think that one of his ladies did it, do you?" The general only glared and growled before shoving the captain away, "I don't care if only the King is able to see it, I will catch this assassin! So either bring me that list, or your head." The general stormed down the hall, leaving the captain behind to deal with his insufferable mental quandary. Caden growled as he thought about what he had to do after assembling his regiment, dealing with the nobles. As he thought about their seemingly pointless bickering and endless politicking, his hand twitched as if to vent his frustration by striking something. He could find a little bit of relief from his anger by thinking how they would squirm if he had to deal with them one on one, but that was quickly swallowed up by the idea of dealing with the King's ladies after that. If there was one thing he hated more than pointless politics, it was assassins. His blood boiled just thinking about them.
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  32. I think this might be the earlier post you were thinking of. The gist was that pre-Recreance the spren would still have a valid Connection through Honor and would probably return to Shadesmar. But post-Recreance and the death of Tanavast, when a human breaks their oath, spren do not have a valid Connection through Honor, but they instead Connect to BAM, which results in their minds being trapped.
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  33. Okay, here it is! Thanks, Exotwo, for reminding me! Are you cytonic? Because my thoughts always go straight to you. 4 days until Valentine's Day!!! Also, I need a new pfp. Which one?
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  34. Hello! I just had an IRL friend join the Shard! You should say hi to him! Also, he should post a thread in the Introductions section... *winkwinknudgenudge* @Bennett Welcome to the Shard! We're definitely not a cult!
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  35. Last night, the ongoing family joke of trying to get me to add hot sauce to anything continued. (I don't like it and won't put it on anything.) I had the irrational urge to just grab and drink the stuff. Where did that even come from?
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  36. When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn!
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  37. Hello, double post of a month because I have a dumb pun that I absolutely must share. I was making a stream to try and catch queer stuff (I have severely underutilized this feature in my time here) and decided to name it The Gay Agenda because that's more fun than 'Queer'. And then I think, If someone had an accent where they dropped the R at the end, 'agender' could read like 'agendah'. You could have a gay agender person and they could be the gay agenda. Which is endlessly funny to me because yay puns
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  38. I love it so much, thank you.
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  39. The theory I remember from before was that the Expanse of the Broken Sky is Taldain, as it has two distinct permanent skies, one for Dayside with the visible star, and Darkside with the twilight, thus their cognitive belief and view of the sky would be different, two views for one planet. So Densities is Sel, Vibrancy is Nalthis, Vapours is Scadrial, and Broken Sky is Taldain.
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  40. It seems unpopular depending on where I look, but Shallan and Adolin’s plot was easily the most interesting part of the book for me. The Urithiru plot felt too self-contained for me, as much as I enjoyed it. The Shadesmar plot made me feel like the world was bigger, gave me more minor characters to love, and had some genuinely excellent moments. I found myself brought to tears on a reread as Formless emerged, and Maya’s “WE CHOSE” made me feel everything. I think a large portion of my love for this plot came from my identifying with both Adolin and Shallan. Adolin’s earnest drive is inspiring to me, and his conflict with his father while he still strives to make Dalinar proud is something I heavily relate to. I certainly can’t say I struggle with DID myself, but Shallan’s struggles were portrayed in such a way that I related to her too. The idea of repressing the darkness within myself is something I see a frankly disturbing amount of the time, and wearing many different faces is something I’m experiencing as well, her integration of Veil an exaggerated version of me learning to let myself be genuine. Perhaps that’s unpopular, I’m not entirely sure, but it’s my opinion nonetheless.
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  41. I agree with @Rainier, the structure of their relationship heavily implies that Moash's part is only partly played out, and that his fate is inextricably bound up with Kaladin's. I think it's interesting that he is largely an unsympathetic character because his actions are such obvious foils for Kaladin, he is the shadow form of Kaladin, the living embodiment of the old saw of "There but for the grace of god go I". I think we are well on our way to a tragic yet satisfying redemption arc for Moash because of the following: Moash is an embodiment of the consequences for choosing the wrong path, a mirroring of Kaladin's heroic choices, a moral exemplar for failing to follow the better path. Moash has given up on all things in life, he gave all of his pain to Odium, he tried to embrace the void, but the thing that connected him to a life not devoid of feeling was his admiration for Kaladin. He clearly sees that Kaladin cannot coexist with the nihilistic world view that he currently operates under, and his attempt to break Kaladin was really just a symbolic attempt to prove that his worldview is the correct one. But, again, he was proven wrong, because Kaladin was the spear that wouldn't break. At the end of RoW Moash is blind. He has an honorblade at this time, so he should be able to heal from this. I think this is the biggest clue we have about his potential redemption in the future of SLA. This blindness is symbolic, this is something that he won't be able to heal from because he sees an element of personal truth in this condition. The path that he has walked since he left Kaladin's side has been a blind path. If you live for vengeance,what's left to live for after the vengeance has been enacted? Like @Seloun stated in his very fine post, everyone has the possibility of redemption (because it relies only on their actions), but not necessarily the capacity to be forgiven (which is dependent on the estimation of others). The murder of Teft is unforgivable, but the capacity to rise from the ashes of his delusional existence (where he believed he was free from the burden of the consequences of his actions) is there before him, and the fact that part of his spiritual identity is an incurable blindness leads me to believe that he is ready to acknowledge his past mistakes and is willing to atone for his past errors in judgement.
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  42. I love this theory as it makes me wonder what Shallan's relationship with her mother would be if/when she comes face to face with Chanarach again. Plus, Brandon's accidental "Unnamed Mother" trope might actually be a plot point!
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  43. HoA Chapter 19 epigraph: Black ash wouldn't have accomplished the goal of cooling the planet as far as I know. Would have blocked sunlight from reaching the ground, but only because the ash particles are absorbing the energy themselves rather than reflecting it away. Meaning the energy goes into the atmosphere and spreads to the rest of the planet from there. So yeah, I think we can assume it was Ruin's influence.
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  44. This is not true, and there’s WoB to that effect. I’ll see if I can find it. EDIT: I think this is the one, but if not, there’s one that R’Shara and Karger cite every time we go down this dead end. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/332/#e12312
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  45. So let me just preface this with some stuff: 0) This will also be obviously shaped by my experience of queerness as a white Ace Bi Transwoman from Switzerland, so maybe keep that in mind as you read this. 1) This is also not supposed to be a dunk on Brandon for his inclusion (or lack thereof) of queer characters. While I wish there was more in his work (and I’ll talk about how you could do that in the cosmere), it’s not like there is none, which is already more than many other Fantasy writers have. He is also not queer himself (as far as we know) and I can respect it that he doesn’t want to include harmful representation in his books (as he has stated before). 2) I’m mostly writing this because I got a friend (who has not (yet, as I hope) read any of the Cosmere books) to take the Knights Radiant Quiz (I guess mostly by saying it’s essentially the Sorting Hat Quiz). Following that I realized I truly had a lot of thoughts about the Cosmere at large, but since none of my friends is into the Cosmere, I had no one to talk to (it’s much easier for me to talk to friends than strangers online, so I didn’t really want to go on Discord and start a conversation, so I’ll just plop it down here and let people decide whether they want to be part of that conversation or not). 3) This is essentially me rambling, there’s probably going to be holes or stuff that I missed or aspects of queerness that I did not think about. Calling it “Queerness in the Cosmere” might have been a bit ambitious, but I honestly didn’t know what else to call it. I’m also not really active on here, so maybe other people have already said all of this, but I had a desire to write this. 4) I think this will mostly concentrate on Roshar (specifically Vorin culture), Scadrial and Nalthis so I’ll structure it accordingly. Nalthis and Scadrial will also probably much shorter than Roshar, both because we know a lot about Vorin culture compared to the others and because the Magic on Roshar gives a bit more to talk about. To start with, let it be said that there is a WoB that clearly states trans people can use Investiture to change their body (he specifically says this with regards to Bloodmakers, Stormlight and the surge of Progression). So let’s start with Nalthis. There’s not that many Characters to begin with and none of them appear to be queer. Of course, many characters have their own situations going on where we don’t see anything regarding their sexualities or identities (Vasher and his history with Shashara, Denth being consumed by vengeance, Vivenna being brought up with the singular purpose of marrying the God King with the implicit understanding that she would be killed eventually, etc.), so I can’t talk about what is, because there isn’t any. As for what could be: the interesting thing for me on Nalthis are the Returned. We know their bodies change upon being returned and we also know that they have the ability to shape-shift to a certain degree. This is confirmed by Vasher (in deeds and words) and also evident in the Court of Gods, where Returned tend to fit their given domain (Blushweaver being extremely attractive, Lightsong being muscular/toned) physically. You could easily fit trans people into further Nalthis works via Returned and their place in Hallandren society. For one, you could have person return and in the process have their body change to one matching their identity. Now, we don’t know whether the Returned consume investiture when they shape-shift. Given that investiture is highly quantized on Nalthis, this seems unlikely. However, as the process of Returning is a result of direct shardic intervention, this investiture could easily come from Endowment directly. This would be a bit more complicated in terms of non-binary, agender or genderfluid people (as well as other marginalized identities which I don’t know about), but this goes beyond my experience and I don’t want to speak for them. Once you have a trans Returned, this would obviously have an influence on Societies where Returning is viewed as a divine act (e.g. Hallandren and Idris (I’m actually not sure whether Idrians see it that way, but I do believe so)), legitimizing their existence beyond doubt (as clearly, God says trans rights). Even if this is not the case, the process of bestowing a divine breath on someone to heal has also implications regarding trans people. Healing in the Cosmere generally works, as I understand it, by restoring the body to the spiritual ideal, with possible influence on self-perception (see Kaladin inhaling Stormlight doesn’t fix his slave scars as of now). From Renarin we know that you can be born with a body that does not conform to this ideal (his bad eyesight was corrected upon inhaling Stormlight). We don’t know whether bestowing a divine breath requires the Returned in question to know what they are healing, although considering Brandon has described this process as “supercharged healing” my guess is not. So it is easily possible that a Returned will bestow their breath and give a trans person a body they are comfortable with, at which point, again, God says trans rights. From there, you could make Hallandren either a very trans acceptive place or (and I personally don’t want that, but it’s a legit possibility) a place where you have to “medically transition” before you are treated as your real self (as in get a Returned to bestow their breath) and where the Returned essentially judge your trans-ness (as in, if a Return doesn’t bestow their breath on you, you’re not “really trans”, as otherwise they (and by extension God) would have given you their breath). Again, that would suck as much as that attitude sucks in real life, but it would at least be something that isn’t cooki-cutter Fantasy stuff “gay people bad and gender binary rulez”. Awakening itself might also provide people with the mechanism to shape-shift. There are “mental commands” that Vasher uses to make a girl forget Trauma, so there is a possibility there to apply this also to “physical commands” that change the users body in a certain way. Let’s look at Scadrial, specifically Era 2 onwards. For starters, we have lesbian rep with Ranette (although I guess she could be Bi), we have disaster Bi rep with Wayne and kandra, who are an interesting subject with regards to gender identity (even further, we have TenSoon, a kandra who spends most of his time as a dog). They are probably the queerest books in the Cosmere and as such, there is not much that I want to talk about. The kandra are super interesting, because they have a distinct gender identity. This could obviously be a remnant of either the spikes that are used to give them thought or because they were human at some point and then transformed by Rashek (this point depends a bit on whether mistwraiths can procreate or whether all mistwraiths were once terris people). Still, they are a super easy way to introduce queer characters. You can easily have a kandra that uses they/them pronouns or who presents differently at different times (apart from the fact that they do this anyways in Era 1 to spy), so they are always the same person, but switch between male/female presentation including pronouns. I hope we get to see something like this in the future. Bands of Mourning and the medallions the southern scadrians use have a huge implication for trans people. In essence, you could build an industry (healthcare should be free though!) on providing unkeyed gold metalminds. If they are charged enough, they would allow trans people to change their bodies. This could also be added in the background, like an ad in the newspaper pages Era 2 books have every now and then or that a character reads in the newspaper. I’m not sure how that would impact a society. Like, in real life there are many medical tools that allow transition, but our society is still incredibly transphobic. So it is not a given that, even though the effectos of healing would be impossible to ignore evidence that trans people are real and valid, there would not be effort to deny trans people access to unkeyed goldminds. You could then still, through Wayne for example, show that there is a black market going on where trans people try to get access to them. So, Roshar. More specifically though the Vorin nations and the singers. Again, Stormlight healing and healing via the surge of progression allow for very easy ways to introduce trans characters, either only as background characters (like in a scene where Renarin heals people) or in a more direct way as a Radiant that changes upon inhaling Stormlight the first time. Apart from that, Vorin culture allows for very interesting explorations on queerness. Vorinism heavily enforces gender roles through the book “Arts and Majesty”. It’s not really clear how this system reacts to the emergence of new professions. It might be the same as with stable hands, where it’s not part of the book so everyone can be one. It might also be that it gets amended, similar to how the bible was changed at various councils. That may sound like it’s beside the point, but whether or not it can be changed does have implications on queer people. Like, could it be changed to include the existence of non-binary people? Or gender fluid ones? That is something I think could be touched upon (assuming Vorinism survives much longer). As the system is right now, there is an obvious (and I think boring) way how Vorin culture treats marginalized gender identities: It’s a heavily gender segregated, binary society and thus, moving between the two camps or outside of them will be suppressed as heretical. However, it could also naturally support trans people, but only as long as they conform to society. You could show this by having a man that can read (maybe in an emergency situation or through subtle reactions in a span-reed conversation or like this) but doesn’t do it openly because it’s unmanly (the implication being that he was taught as a child an came out after). Or maybe there are professions for people that don’t identify as either male or female, but transitioning from one to another is not possible. I think the heavily segregated Vorin society is a really cool playground on queerness, which I hope Brandon will explore a little bit. If there is any fanfic of this, I’d be glad if you could recommend them to me! I also want to shortly talk about homosexuality in at least Alethkar (but I assume this is again a Vorin thing). There seems to be no real prejudice against it. Kaladin does have bit of a different reaction, where he finds it weird how uncomfortable Bridge 4 is with Renarin possibly learning to read but they have no problem with Drehy courting a man (Dru) and Bridge 4 reacts very strongly in favor of the relationship. (I just checked as well, according to Brandon Vorin culture doesn’t have a problem at all with homosexuality). To me, the acceptance of homosexuality seems at odds with Vorin culture, which heavily reinforces the relationship of man-woman not only in a personal sense, but also a professional one. The fact that only women can write and read means that they are pretty much essential in almost any profession (as seen by the fact that Alethi at least reeealy like their ledgers). In my head canon, at least one of the Heralds was gay and this persisted as a part of Vorin society even past “Arts and majesty” (which might have been written after the fall of the Radiants, as they were open to all people). With Sigzil, we’ve seen that at least the Azish are not so supportive of gay people. In his own words, Drehy would have to apply for “social reassignment”, which is exactly what it suggests according to Brandon: You can’t have a gay relationship, instead one of the involved parties has to “socially transition” and would henceforth be treated as their opposite gender (in a WoB, Brandon references ancient India as a inspiration, although let it be said that Iran for example still does this today). This might suggest that, while being wildly homophobic, Azish culture might actually be trans-supportive (in a certain sense). This is also something I hope we get to see more of. There are also the Iriali and their religion of the One. According to Brandon, the more conservative/religious Iriali are supportive of gay people (and I think that would extend to any other marginalized gender identity) on account of them all being part of the One. I very much like the inversion happening here: the “modern” Iriali have outlawed it, but the “conservative/religious” ones accept it with no problem. The singers have 4 distinct gender identities. I know that this is sometimes contested, whether they are really genders or not, but we have not seen much of singer society as of now. Brandon promised that we would get more of that, so I guess we will see. I don’t think Brandon would call them gender identities if they weren’t such, but again, he is a cis man, so his view on “gender identity” might be flawed. I think you could do some interesting things with the singers. They are explicitly shape-shifters, taking on forms as demand dictates. Again, you could easily have a singer that is femalen in one form and malen in a different one or even change from malen to female in the same form (this all depends on how forms exactly work; we’ve only seen a limited amount, and gender seems to be tied to some). This could also indicate how singers would treat, say, non-binary people. This ties in with the Sibling, who we know does not identify as male or female and also not as malen or femalen, so they are either older than the singers and thus not shaped as much by their perception, or it was enough of a part in singer society for them to pass it on the the spren, as it were. According to Syl, some spren do have 4 gender identities, which I think Brandon has confirmed is because of the singers. I also think it would be neat if singers would be referred to as they/them if they are children or even teenagers, leaving it up to them to decide. At least, I guess you could say the first time they go into the storm to adopt a form would determine their pronouns. Again, we don’t have much information on singer children, so we don’t know what form they have when they are born. Also, I love the idea of an entirely Asexual race (well, mostly). I think Brandon has alluded that not all forms are Ace, mate form included. Personally, I think this does Ace people a little bit of a disservice. Lots of Ace people have sex, some enjoy it themselves, some enjoy it because their partner enjoys, it really is (as always) a spectrum. At its essence, Asexual only means that you do not experience sexual attraction and is not tied to sex drive or the desire to have sex. The singers could easily all be Ace and still reproduce enough. I… guess this is all? If you’re still here: thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed my rambling thoughts! Maybe this starts a discussion on queerness, maybe not. But I wanted to post it regardless because I've been thinking about it, like, a lot. (I hope there are not too many spelling or grammar errors.)
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  46. The magic systems themselves are created by the interactions between the investiture of a Shard and the worlds that they reside on... But the magic systems, in most cases, aren't bound to them. Just means of access. You need a spren to be a Surgebinder, and you can only get that in Roshar. You need to be an allomancer genetically, and for that you need heritage from allomantic bloodlines, the more recent the better chance. Taldain's seems to be a mixture of those two in that Sand Mastery is genetic and you need the Sand itself. Breath originates in Nalthians only, but can be gieven to anyone, and once you have it, it can be used to Awaken. The only magic that is locked to the world in terms of use are the varied Magics of Sel. Edit: Multi ninja'd!
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