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lezian: i’m going to kill you kaladin:

Good memes, but I feel the first and third could have done with the scene where Gollum is tied up (finding a screencap is a new quest altogether).

Also, I just want to say thanks to @Biplet for keeping me sane while I was running this, even though she was playing this and I made her wake up at 8 am everyday to be on for rollover. Plus she dealt with me having to do this while we were on our little anniversary trip a few days ago. And she put up with the stress that me cursing her as an elim put on her really well. She also made a lot of really funny memes both in thread and in the doc, so that was really fun to watch as well. Anyway, I wouldn't be here without her, so just a huge thanks to her. Love you Bip. EDIT: Also also, she definitely called and woke me up ten minutes before rollover at one point because I accidentally slept in, so yeah, huge thanks for that as well.

Thank you so much to everyone who played! It was a blast getting to run this game again! I loved getting to watch all of you play and it makes me really happy to know that you guys really like these rules and have fun with them. It's always so much fun getting to run these games, and it really warms my heart to know that you guys like them too. Just...thank you guys so much. And also a huge thank you to @Elbereth and @Young Bard as well. These games would not be possible without their amazing help, especially with the spreadsheet. Most of this happens because of their work, and I just take a lot of the credit for myself since I made the rules. Anyway, I'll eventually give more thoughts about how the game went this time, and what I think I could do to improve it for the next run (I've already started making a v3 of the rules), but for now I just want to congratulate @Ashbringer, @Biplet, and @Lotus for their win! And also @Araris Valerian and @Matrim's Dice for playing really really well as the Kandra. It got really really close at the end there, and Mat very nearly could've won if things had gone slightly differently, which would've been awesome. It's not often you get to see a SK win. Also, Araris, picking Mat as your successor was such a smart move. If you'd hit a villager, the game would've ended right there. Or maybe would've ended after D5, but it would've been much harder for your successor to try and win. @Archer Thanks for making a really fun character to work with, I hope you appreciate what I did with them in the writeup. It was always really funny seeing you RP with them. @DrakeMarshall I just want to congratulate you on earning the most boxings almost every turn of the game, and I'm only saying almost because I'm too lazy to go back and check that that's actually what happened. Plus it was fun seeing you and Lotus and Bip RP together for the short period of time at the beginning of the game before Lotus died. And I'm glad you and Bip continued that RP banter between your characters throughout the game. @Illwei Thank you so much for subbing in for @Ventyl, even if you died shortly after. You immediately came in and started making the elims sweat a bit, as if they weren't already before that. Also, if anyone's curious about what possibilities they had for their roles, you can look at the version history for the Role Assignment tab in the sheet and go to the version from May 29th at 8:37 am CDT and see what could've happened. Anyway, just a huge thank you to everyone who played. These games wouldn't be possible without you, and I appreciate you all so so much. Running games brings me a lot of joy and gives me something to look forward to everyday. I often need that, so just thank you all so much for playing. It really does make me so happy that you all enjoy my games.

HOOOOOOOOOOLY CRAP. Okay so I'm gonna start by saying that this was SO STRESSFUL. And here I thought the previous MR was hard. Two games in a row Mat and I were teammates! A lot of this game was me rambling in the elim doc trying to figure out the next best plan XD. Huge thank you to my teammates, I had a blast playing with y'all, even if you were a traitor Mat. And hey Lotus, we lived to the end for you! Drake: every single time you said no elim thug would speculate the existence of an elim thug on D1, I lost my mind. Absolutely hilarious thank you for making this one of the most iconic things I've managed to do. "It's a bad plan and it wouldn't work, no one would do it." Precisely! Here's a peak at what the elim doc looked like after Araris died: Edit: Mat in the Kandra doc: "Bip trusts me!" Me, about to submit a coinshot kill on Mat:

LG77: Aftermath Iden: alive Shara couldn’t get ahead of herself. She had one last thing to do before she could finally take out Iden. Dann: alive The meeting hall where everyone had gathered at Goren’s orders seemed especially quiet today. Mostly everyone was unnerved by Earl’s recent execution and no one was happy with being stuck in one room for nearly two full days now. Especially since Goren wouldn’t even explain why they were all stuck there. Well, Shara thought, I know why. They’d agreed that Shara would be the one to start it. There had been a...disagreement between her and Philico, but Shara had ultimately won out in that argument. And so she had the right to the first blood in what would be the worst massacre in recent history. She gripped the medallion hidden in her pocket. That had been a more recent find, and thank Harmony for it. The medallion had come in handy, especially after her secret powers as a Thug had come out. She tapped the stores hidden in the metal, walking so she could get a better sightline for Dann. She grabbed a glass of water, discreetly mixing in the bits of steel one of the others had gotten for her. She downed it quickly, her nerves seeming to rattle, her heart pounding. She hardly even noticed that her hair was falling out of her neat bun on the top of her head. It’s time. Shara grabbed the coin hidden in her other pocket, took it out, burned steel, and turned to where Dann was. And she stopped for a moment, everything fading away as she saw Iden standing there next to him. Iden, who she had worked so hard for for so long, yet he didn’t care to do anything to help anyone but himself. He wouldn’t even be there if it wasn’t for her. And so, she changed her plans slightly. Moving quickly, because there wasn’t much time and the others could be impatient, Shara moved to get a new angle on Dann and Iden. She needed to do this right. She didn’t have much power left in the medallion, probably enough for one shot’s worth to spare before she’d need the rest for the chaos afterwards. She flicked the coin up into the air, and then pushed it as hard as she could. It flew through the air, shooting straight through Dann and into Iden’s chest behind him. She didn’t see Dann’s reaction before he dropped, though there probably wasn’t much of one considering the shot had killed him instantly. Dann: deceased Iden however, seemed shocked, a look of pure confusion on his face as he clutched his chest and fell to the ground. Shara ran to him, tapping pewter to push others out of her way as people began to realize what was happening. She barely heard the gunshots from the rebel guards as they turned on the few Loyalist guards that were left. Iden was struggling on the ground, clearly struggling to breathe with the coin lodged in his chest. It was a pity that Shara’s shot had missed his heart for a bit. “Shara...why?” He said. Even those two words seemed to be painful for him, and he coughed up blood after. Shara could hardly make herself look at him, nonetheless talk to him. She forced herself to anyway, kneeling down so Iden could see her face clearly. “I’ve been wanting to kill you for so long. You’ve done nothing but help yourself, and help the others who profit off of the work of so many people below you. I worked up from nothing to get where I am now. And you wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for me. You couldn’t even spare a thought for my family, or for the countless other families out there who have been even worse off than mine. It’s finally time that we help people, Iden.” Shara scooted away as Iden let out his final breaths. It was finally over. Or at least, the first step in their grand plan was finally complete. She still had work to do. Iden: deceased ~ After what felt like an eternity of running and hiding from all the chaos, Yoden finally managed to find Goren in the confusion. The man didn’t even seem to be breaking a sweat. “We need to evacuate.” Yoden insisted. “There’s too many of them - your blockade isn’t going to keep the Sympathisers in, it will only lead to a massacre.” Goren returned a level-headed stare. “My job is to keep the problem contained. The situation is… unfortunate, but will be dealt with shortly. If we evacuate now, the Sympathisers will spread all over the city, spreading havoc everywhere they go. For now, it’s contained.” “Is this what you call contained?!” Yoden yelled. “It’s a massacre! If I didn’t know better, I think you’d want everyone here dead.” There was a pause. Slowly, Goren smiled. Yoden backed away slowly. “Goren… What is this. This… isn’t something you’d do. You’re here to help people.” No response. Yoden tried the door, opened it, and felt it slam shut again. Goren was almost on top of him. “We’ve had our disagreements, but we’re colleagues.” Goren smirked, and slowly started to walk towards Yoden. “You have no idea how long I’ve had to put up with your idiotic blathering. Your questions. Your pathetic attempts at policy. I’ve dreamed of this day, when I wouldn’t have to put up with it anymore. And it seems the Survivor has finally smiled upon my request.” And with that, Goren plunged the dagger into Yoden’s chest. Yoden wrapped his hands around the dagger in his chest, clutching it in disbelief, slowly sinking down against the wall as his vision went black. ~ Juno raced to hide when the screaming started. But they seemed to be everywhere, with nowhere to hide. If she’d been a little quicker, a little smarter, a little more willing to run when she had the chance… Nearby, one of the Senators screamed as a Boxing shot through his torso. Juno’s own Jacket should be able to protect her from the same fate for so long, but only if she found a way out first. Juno rounded a corner, and found Goren and Yoden standing by a doorway - could it be an exit? If anyone might know, it’s possible they did. Juno raced forward - maybe this was her chance - but something was wrong. Yoden seemed panicked, pleading, as Goren grabbed a dagger he was carrying and plunged it through Yoden’s chest. Juno stopped, but before she could turn away from the scene, Goren turned and Juno saw his dark smile. Running wouldn’t do any good. Time seemed to freeze. Goren’s awful grin, Yoden, clutching the dagger in his stomach with a look of disbelief and betrayal - dead, but still standing. Juno’s feet seemed frozen to the ground, until she noticed the thin sheen that seemed to lie between Goren, Yoden and herself. She turned, and saw Philico standing behind her, seemingly uncaring of everything in his surroundings. One of the traitors. Either that or something much, much worse. “Philico found your intrusions… troublesome, you know.” Philico said. Only, Juno could see now, it wasn’t Philico. Slowly his face started to shift and switch. First, Sweeper, then, faster and faster, a display of faces. AraRaash, Panini, Shara, his own face, for just a moment. Juno’s mouth was dry. “So you were the kandra all along. I thought you might be.” Juno tried to put more confidence into those words than she felt. “You’re a… Slider, though. I thought you were a thief. Or, the person you’re pretending to be was a thief. Whatever.” “A gift that came with this current body - he and his friends were great fans of playing with toys they didn’t understand. It’s… handy, though. I might keep it for a little while.” The kandra slowly collapsed out of a human form entirely and became translucent, revealing a nauseating mix of bones and, briefly surfacing, a spike, before it got pulled into the swirling mass once more. “Are you here to kill me?” Juno assessed her options - against a Kandra, they weren’t good. And even if she somehow won, Goren was still waiting outside the moment the time bubble dropped. The kandra seemed to consider the question - its faces moved between several emotions in rapid succession - joy, anger, fear. Eventually, it seemed to settle on an answer. “You humans attract chaos like a Koloss attracts flies. Any chaos I did, any that I could hope to do, was far outweighed by the chaos you caused amongst yourselves.” A rumble seemed to emerge from the writhing form. After a moment, Juno realised it was meant to be a chuckle. “No, you’re far more interesting alive than dead. Particularly with what’s about to happen.” Somehow, Juno didn’t feel comforted by that answer. But the kandra went on. “The Sympathisers are wearing green armbands so they can identify one another during the massacre. Acquire one, by any means necessary, and you should make it out of here alive for what comes next.” Juno paused. “Thank you. I think.” “Perhaps we will meet again someday, human. I would take great pleasure in adding your bones to my collection.” “Next time, you could just say goodbye.” The kandra briefly materialised Philico’s face to smile, and deformed back into a blob-like entity once more. Then, faster than Juno thought possible, it dashed past Juno. She watched the bubble fall as all the sounds of the outside world came rushing in once more. The blob dashed at Goren, and before Goren had even taken a single step, a fist seemed to emerge from the mass, giving Goren a swift upper cut to the jaw. As Goren collapsed, the Kandra kept moving around him and the prone body of Yoden, leaking through the underside of the door, and was gone. In a moment, there was no-one else in the corridor beside the prone bodies of Goren and Yoden, and the discarded bones of Philico. Juno forced herself to walk down the corridor towards the scene - she felt Goren’s pulse - there was still a beat there, so not dead, just unconscious. She grabbed the armband off his arm and then left to find another exit. ~ AraRaash once again found himself in the midst of a bloody battle over the fate of the Elendel Basin. He had seen many things over the course of his lives, and once again this was one of the deadliest moments he’d found himself in. He was tired of being important when it came to this planet’s people, but well...he did what Lamentation told him to. And so, he found himself talking in the corner of a room to a man with a puppet while people died around them. It was a strange experience, to say the least. “You’re a Rebel, aren’t you?” Bagel, the puppet said. “Well, yes, I am.” AraRaash said. “If the gun I was holding to your head...or, well, to Panini’s head wasn’t indication enough of that, surely the fact that none of the rebels are trying to kill me should’ve clued you into that fact.” “If you kill me,” Panini said, his face grim, “Bagel will hunt you down and enact revenge.” “And how exactly will he do that? He is attached to you, you know.” “I’m right here you know!” Bagel said. “You can’t talk about me as if I’m not here. I’ll make sure that no one ever remembers you after this, mark my words.” “Well,” AraRaash said, “I’m the one with the gun, and because of that, you two are going to do what I say.” Panini quickly ducked under AraRassh’s gun, going for AraRaash’s legs. AraRaash sighed, bending his legs unnaturally around Panini so he just slid under AraRaash. He quickly rearranged his body so that his torso twisted around to face where Panini now was. Panini gasped, and Bagel beat him to speaking. “You’re a Kandra!” “We’re going to tell everyone that you’re a Kandra,” Panini said. “No one will ever trust you again. All your plans will be ruined. You won’t get away with this!” AraRaash rolled his eyes. “Of course I’m a Kandra! Do you think I care if people know that? I’m not even the only one here, though I think MarRiis was trying to keep their involvement here a secret. Anyway, everyone here will be dead by the end of the night if things go according to plan.” He paused. “You know what secret really matters, what’s really important?” He crouched down, and leaned his face closer to Panini and Bagel’s. “Bagel, you aren’t even real. If I’m fake, you’re even more fake.” Bagel gasped, starting to shake his head. Panini looked horrified, and went to cover Bagel’s ears, but nothing could seem to console the puppet. AraRaash stood up. “Yes, that’s right. You’re not real. You thought you could come here and blackmail me with all the little secrets you learned, but I had the greatest secret to blackmail you with. Your own unreality.” AraRaash nodded to himself, watching as Panini and Bagel slowly started to unravel, muttering to themselves reassurances about each other. “And now that that’s done, I can make my way back to….” He trailed off as he turned back to the rest of the meeting hall. There were significantly less living people left. They must’ve spent a lot more time talking than he’d thought. “Rusts,” AraRaash said. “He really did manage to trick me into wasting time. I missed out on all the fun.” AraRaash made his way through the melee, killing anyone who tried to stop him and wasn’t wearing the blood green armband the Rebels had agreed to start wearing once the massacre had started. Once he was outside, he began to feel the pull from Lamentation once again. His part here was done, and he was needed elsewhere. But that could wait until the murdering was done. So he waited. ~ As the sun began to rise on the next day, not even a week after the news of the rebel attack had reached Garmet, Goren and the rebel survivors made their way out of the building. Most of them were covered in blood, and they’d lost a few of their own, but the mission was mostly successful. Goren turned to look at the others. Some of them still seemed a little restless, as if they were almost disappointed that the killing was over. Most of them just seemed tired and ready to be done. There was still so much work to do. “Shara,” Goren said, turning to her. She had been an invaluable asset to the Rebel cause, and her discovery of the medallion had served them well. “I want you to draft up a plan for how to deal with this city. We’re taking it over.” AraRaash walked up. "I wish you all the best with that." Goren and Shara looked over at AraRaash with surprise. "Unfortunately, I have... other business I need to attend to." Goren looked at AraRaash. "You've been of great service - I don't suppose I could change your mind?" "Unfortunately not. You seem to have things under control, though." "Then go well, AraRaash. May you bring message of our victory everywhere in your travels, so that others may replicate our success." AraRaash nodded, and left. Shara paused for a moment. “We are going to do this better than they did, right?” Goren smiled. “Yes, we are. Work on making sure no one gets left behind in our improvements for this city. Even the poorest here will benefit from our coup.” “And as for the rest of us,” Goren said. “We’re leaving the most political minded of our team here, along with a healthy force of soldiers, to rebuild this city from the ground up. I want minimal casualties and minimal destruction. And I want to recruit anyone we think would be helpful to our cause and is willing to make a long trip soon.” He paused, mostly for dramatic effect. “Because our next goal is to make the very long trek to Elendel. We’ve got more work we need to do there.” Dannex was killed! They were a Loyalist Duralumin Gnat/Sparker Twinborn! And that’s the game! Congrats to the Rebels, Ashbringer, Biplet, and Lotus, for winning! And an honorary congratulations to Matrim’s Dice as well, even though he got Kandrafied shortly before the elims won. Oh, and a huge congratulations to Striker for running such a fantastic game. It was a blast getting to co-GM with him again. GM thoughts will come later. Player List: @Ashbringer - Rebel Soother/Skimmer Twinborn @Biplet - Shara, advisor to a representative of the third Octant, Iden. Rebel Thug @Szeth_Pancakes - Earl Euphemie, a journalist from the Elendel Daily, definitely not a highly trained assassin. Loyalist Nicroburst/Subsumer Twinborn @Matrim's Dice - Philico, here to steal Faleast's Kandra thunder. Rebel Thief turned Kandra with a Slider Spike @Lotus - Josephine, definitely not out of her league. Rebel Pulser/Pinnacle Twinborn @Araris Valerian - Sweeper, a lowly cleaner of the political chamber building. Kandra @The Unknown Order - Walker, who...walks. Yeah. Loyalist Slider/Gasper Twinborn @DrakeMarshall - Juno, member of the Board of Somethingorother, and an enthusiastic protestor. Loyalist Archivist @Jondesu - Myra, not witty or even particularly bright, but she’s honest. Loyalist Rioter Misting @Archer - The Great Panini, wealthy patron of the arts and amateur ventriloquist, accompanied by Bagel. Loyalist Smoker/Sentry Twinborn @Illwei Loyalist Seeker Misting and Hemalurgist @Experience - Zara, questionably loyal, but in extreme ways. Loyalist Tineye Misting and Investigator @Devotary of Spontaneity - Magrait, an amalgamation of Adomert and Inedze through their stored memories from a coppermind. Loyalist Spinner Ferring and Thief @Azmine_king Loyalist Hazekiller @Mist - Lumen, a secretary who's trying her best and wants to bring justice to whoever needs it. Loyalist Leecher/Soulbearer Twinborn @|TJ| - Loyalist Lurcher/Trueself Twinborn @manukos - Bill, Bill Door. Probably shaped like a triangle. Loyalist Augur/Connector Twinborn @Dannex - Loyalist Duralumin Gnat/Sparker Twinborn @Flyingbooks - Veren, assistant to the Elendel representatives, playing both sides to get the nobility less influence in politics. Loyalist Oracle/Windwhisper Twinborn! Docs: GM Spreadsheet Elim Doc Kandra Doc Spec/Dead Doc

Let me just put it out there: I JUST turned in my final exam and final project for Spanish. On the same day this game ended I am now DONE WITH MY SPANISH 2 SUMMER CLASS

Apologies if any of these have been done before General Sanderson/fantasy books Final Empire WOR OB General Stormlight

Man, I don't even know how to feel about this I actually am kicking myself really really really hard because I was dumb and used the elim kill to try to kill Ash last night and not the kandra kill for some reason. I... don't know why. I'm decently annoyed about that but it's no one's fault and there's nothing I can do now :P. The fact that neither of Drake or Archer were Thugs makes it arguably worse but ah well. This game was really fun, before I was converted and after. I probably have more thoughts but they're also probably in my doc(s).

… everything went according to plan? Huh. On mobile right now so I’ve got more for later, but great game everyone! And Skimmer, Drake. I was a Skimmer.

Alright, it’s official! My new succulent’s name is… Evelyne! Thanks @FriarFritz for the name! Here is a picture of Evelyne:

Huh. Well that was interesting.

It's exciting to post my own topic for the first time! Something I’ve wondered about for a while now is how Helaran appeared on the battlefield from behind Amaram’s lines. It’s been theorized for a while now that Helaran was a Surgebinder. Primarily, this is because of a quick line from Taravangian discussing Shallan as a Surgebinder. Taravangian clearly believes that Helaran has some Surgebinding capability. But he’s absolutely startled by the account of an Alethi bridgeman spontaneously developing Surgebinding on his own. What did he think Jasnah, Shallan, and Helaran were up to, then? Shallan is at the Shattered Plains, but though he suspects her of Surgebinding, she doesn’t apparently warrant activating their agents. He breezes right past her miraculous survival. He doesn't fret about her coming into contact with Szeth at all. But that makes sense if Taravangian knows that the Honorblades are no longer in the Shin's possession, and haven't been for years. He may be assuming Shallan's Surgebinding ability, whatever it is, is granted by a Blade that she was trained to use. In RoW, Szeth learns that his father, who had keeping of the Bondsmith Honorblade is dead, and that Ishar took back his Honorblade at some point after Szeth’s banishment. Taravangian reveals that he knew Szeth’s father Neturo was dead prior to this revelation. My guess is that Ishar recovered his Honorblade about seven years before it’s spotted in RoW. This would coincide with him coming into power in Tukar. Nale seems to have been in contact with Ishar seven years ago, the same year that Gavilar and Shallan Davar’s mother were both killed. Did Nale's concerns, perhaps prompted by his conversations with Gavilar and Venli, influence Ishar's decision to take back his Honorblade? That’s a little bit out of the scope of what I’m thinking but pretty interesting. What I'm suggesting is that Ishar may have also taken custody of the other Honorblades as well. Helaran returns home with his new Shardblade about six and a half years ago, from the current position in the timeline. The descriptions given to this Shardblade closely resemble the Lightweaver Honorblade, which is something I never noticed until I looked at the art for the Honorblades. That gemstone in the pommel is the only thing that doesn’t seem to fit that description. How hard is it to move and set gemstones on a Shardblade? It can be done to regular Shardblades, though I don’t know if that necessarily proves anything. Sunraiser, for example, bears a pretty strong resemblance to the Bondsmith Honorblade, in my opinion. Possibly Helaran’s blade is a dead spren in a form that strongly resembles the Lightweaver Honorblade. But with the Lightweaver Honorblade, Helaran’s miraculous appearance makes more sense. He’d have used a Lightweaving to hide the fact that he was a Shardbearer mounted on a horse in the middle of an enemy army. It also might explain something that has meshed poorly for me with Helaran's being a Skybreaker acolyte, which was specifically his weird glowing effect. Shallan or the things she holds sometimes seem to glow, particularly when it’s implied that she’s using the Spiritual form of her Transformation surge. Tien’s implied bond to a Cryptic also uses the symbolism of things glowing or becoming brighter. To me this is more evidence that Helaran had some Surgebinding ability in that direction. Shallan mentions that there is no history attached to Amaram/Helaran’s Shardblade, in a world where every Shardblade known is recorded and named. It’s not out of the question that Nale would have access to an unknown Shardblade, but if he’s in contact with Ishar and seriously concerned by an oncoming Desolation, he might have access to another Honorblade and the motivation to arm someone who "impressed him" with it. Taravangian therefore might be working under the assumption that the same source (Nale) that gave Helaran his Honorblade might be supplying Shallan. This means that Amaram would have had possession of the Lightweaver Honorblade. If he perceived it as an ordinary Shardblade, perhaps he simply never noticed he was holding an Honorblade. I think this would be pretty deeply ironic for the villain who lies to himself about why he does what he does and truly believes his own lies to have the Lightweaver Honorblade. Someone who would have known, Restares/Kalak, seemed mostly to be in contact with Amaram via spanreed from afar. I doubt he’d share that information with Amaram, who I think he must have been manipulating--but it’s impossible to say. Other people who would recognize the Lightweaver Honorblade would be Szeth, Dalinar, Taln, and Ash. Szeth, Taln, and Ash don’t ever seem to witness Amaram wielding the Blade in combat that I can find, although all three are present at the Battle of Thaylen Field. Ash spends her time looking after Taln, and never mentions seeing her own Honorblade or Amaram. Szeth, likewise, spends a lot of his time occupied by other concerns, and never mentions seeing the Lightweaver Honorblade or Amaram that I can find in the text. It’s either not the one, or they miraculously miss it every time. Dalinar also saw both Helaran/Amaram’s Shardblade, when he confronted Amaram near the end of WoR, and the Honorblades in his visions of Aharietiam. Dalinar also pitched the idea of Shallan doing studies of the Honorblades seen in the vision. Dalinar has published written accounts of the visions, as I recall, but no mention is made of drawings. Quickly reading through the rest of the part, it's not clear to me if Shallan ever gets around to doing that. However, when Dalinar sees Ishar’s Honorblade, he doesn’t have the same recognition he does for Jezrien’s Blade, which is the most familiar to him; this could be a continuity error, or maybe indicative of something else. And during the battle, when Dalinar does the tally of people with him, Amaram wields Oathbringer alone. As far as I can tell, Amaram doesn’t use Helaran’s Blade until he fights Kaladin. Finally, there is the matter of Honorblades' behavior. When Taln drops his Honorblade, it doesn't vanish. This is meant to be a big clue as to its nature. Amaram drops Helaran's Blade twice in his fight with Kaladin, and it vanishes. Szeth also drops Jezrien's Blade in the fight with Gavilar, and the “bond” so to speak doesn’t appear to be broken. Szeth is able to resummon the Honorblade after being parted from it. No mention is made of where it ended up or if it vanished as he dropped it. My only explanation for this is that perception could be at work here. Szeth believes that the Honorblade should take ten heartbeats to summon, and it does. Perhaps Amaram likewise believes that a Shardblade should vanish when it is dropped, and so as it leaves his hand, it vanishes. Ishar demonstrates that the Honorblade, like a living Shardblade, can wink out of existence for a second and return in a flash. To summarize: I think it’s possible that Helaran was given the Lightweaver Honorblade by Nale, who gained access to it when Ishar reclaimed his own Honorblade. It’s not clear to me why he would do that, although Mraize says that Helaran was recruited with “displays of power” and that Helaran impressed Nale. Could Nale have shown Helaran how it would be possible to Surgebind without bonding a Cryptic? Then Helaran uses it to position himself behind Amaram’s lines. Maybe as an enemy combatant on the field of war, the kill is “legal?” This is still a mystery to me. Helaran is then killed by Kaladin. Eventually the Honorblade ends up with Amaram, who is completely ignorant of what it really is, and somehow it conveniently hopscotches anyone who could identify it. The Blades are awarded to then Rock, who "insists that they cannot be used" according to his daughter. They "gather dust in their box" until he returns to the Horneater Peaks. I find this idea extremely interesting, but a bit tenuous! I've done my best to cover all the things I can think of on my own, for and against. I specifically like Helaran's Shardblade being the Lightweaver Honorblade for the thematic connection to Amaram's lies, and because it's a simple, elegant explanation for the things about Helaran that don't quite make sense otherwise. But it seems to rely on those who could see it for what it is to simply not be around, for certain lapses of curiosity, and for Nale to be totally okay with losing an Honorblade. The gemstone is also located in the wrong place according to the art, which I am not 100% is really usable as evidence, and when it gets dropped, it vanishes ... Despite all this, I still thought it would be a fun theory to share.

We do know that at the very least medallions and normal F-nicrosil do not function the exact same, though we do not know the differences.

The limiting factor is probably how many Metalborn they can make disappear without people asking questions. Most Metalborn powers are incredibly useful and so their owners would be missed if they got their soul ripped into chunks and stapled to someone else. It is also possible that the decay factor that affects every spike based on how long it sat unattended messes with Compounding's effectivity. Or...it could just be that they don't want to waste good powers like that on grunts and reserve it as a promotion bonus for their higher-rankers.

Starsight (this one's kinda crem but it's funny)

I WAS VERY VERY CLOSE TO KILLING YOU Lol I had that bribe ready to go I was absolutely going to get you exed and claim Kandra in thread and convince the villagers to help me, should you have lived and the game continued.

Psh a traitor only in name wait actually Because I did an oopsie >> WHICH I should probably explain. Cause I figured out why the heck I used the elim kill instead of the kandra kill, and I have a half-adequate reason :P. So, once I was converted I figured out that I needed a misexe, one of each alignment killed, another misexe, one of each alignment killed. And that would be 0-0-1 and my win. Looking at the roles and the lack of a Thug I'm fairly certain that could have worked, making this worse, especially since Drake apparently didn't Blackmail me to target myself which was the other thing that could go wrong. But anyways. On D5 when I worked this out, I figured that since Bip had a Coinshot Medallion (How there were 2 kills plus Araris' death N4) she would try to target 2 villagers, and I needed only one to die otherwise the whole thing would be jeapordized. So right then and there midway through D5 I determined I needed to sabotage the elim kill, which in that scenario is actually exactly what I needed to do. But then I managed to convince Bip to double-tap Dannex, not connecting those dots and inadvertently sabotaging my own plan. If I had used the kandra kill, or if Bip's last-second action hadn't gone through, it would be D6 and Ash would be dead. Which I guess if Bip was gonna exe me anyway there wasn't a whole lot I could do (:P) but if I had convinced her to exe Drake somehow I could have killed her and Archer fairly easily for the win, or maybe she would have beat me to the kill again idk. But it does kind of bug me how... well this could have gone. It always looks that way in retrospect, I feel. Anyway, it was my own fault and I still had an absolute blast playing, thanks to my wonderful (former) teammates @Biplet (who outsmarted me in the end), @Ashbringer (who shares my title as the only players to be all three alignments in the two runs of this game) and @Lotus (who my predecessor slayed N1) and of course @StrikerEZ and @Young Bard, the dedicated and amazing GMs. Do run this again, and again Edit: And I hope @Araris Valerian forgives me for messing this up after he brilliantly set me up in such a good position. You did well.

I was actually surprised at how many other answers I got. I mean, how many rulers conduct ethically questionable experiments with a research partner? Apparently a lot more than I though, lol!

There are many different planets. Scadrial. Roshar. Threnody. These are all a part of one universe, the cosmere. But these planets are in one small piece of a galaxy within an, as far as I can see, infinite universe. The first layer. There are other universes. The various Earths. The land of the Epics, the world of Rithmatists, many others. But the key is that there exist universes governed with different laws: the speed of light, ratio of mass to energy to magic, the… permeability of the universe in question. The second layer. This is where things get complicated. Each of these universes in the multiverse is quite different. The world of Shadowblaze is quite different than the world of Radiants. But there are more. Imagine a Rosharan who enjoys breaking Vorin customs rolls a six-sided die. They have a one-in-six chance of rolling each value. In one universe, they will roll a value at random. In the multiverse, the one universe will split into six, one new universe for each potential result. However, the Rosharan is clumsy, and a third of the time their die falls of the table. A third of the time it lands on a nearby rug. A third of the time it stays on the table. Suddenly the split into six becomes a split of eighteen. An additional die will turn it into thirty-four universes. Of course, the small colony of bacteria growing on the die creates millions of times that number as they grow, divide, and move. The third layer – for every action, a universe will exist for a result. Every. Action. Even with the power I hold, comprehending that is plainly impossible. Fortunately, I do not need to. I no longer exist within a universe; I simply sift between them, a... spider on the threads of the multiverse. Peering in, searching for ones where the die was cast in a favorable manner. They are few and far between... but there are things to look for. Eventually, I will find a timeline that is useful to me. That is where my Harbingers come in. I used to think I was fated to rule the world, to create a peace throughout the universe. But the universe is far too small for my... ambitions. For now, I am lost, pouring through, looking for weaknesses I can exploit, powers I can manipulate, anything that acts as a lead. I have yet to find one. But I have made quite a discovery in my current venture, aided by AraRaash. Not one of the multiverse. Not even one that I should have needed to discover, but my intent has been elsewhere. So it is quite something. Solemnium.

Not magic system but please turn down the metaphors, it feels more like a political statement than a story.

Just thought I'd let people know that I won't be on the shard due to camp for the next 5 days. My rp characters will just be chilling or something until then.

Well then! First ever half-session of D&D, over! Just showed up in some catacombs in a middle of a series of battles, witnessed someone get their soul sucked out of them, then attempted to drag away their body to safety as a magic ice knife flies around the corner, killing an enemy. And that's pretty much it on my side!

In espionage, a "sleeper" agent is just someone who has successfully infiltrated the target country, but is not actively doing anything (gathering intelligence, performing operations, etc). I suspect Taravangian's sleepers are just regular men & women who are loyal to the Diagram or Kharbranth.

Look what I just started…

The guy with the Y who survived the Wind’s Pleasure? He accompanied Shallan in Kharbranth?

Don't worry I'll never be able to pull it off again

Yes! You got it! The obvious clue was going to be: this character was once a Tineye.

Hello there! I'm Roody. Man, this place hasn't seen posts in a while. I really enjoy writing as a creative outlet, and I recently decided to put scattered ideas and daydreams onto actual paper. My hunt for a proper writing group and decent feedback led me to this forum, where I hope to get useful critique. While writing is only a hobby for me, I do hope to publish a novel by the next decade. Right now, I plan to post short stories from the world I am building, to further flesh out ideas and also improving my skills as a writer. Oh, and lastly, my favorite authors are Steven Erikson, L.E.Modesitt, Neal Stephenson, Isaac Asimov, Terry Pratchett, Scott Lynch, Robin Hobb, Robert J. Bennett, Andy Weir and of course, Mr. Sanderson. See you guys around! I hope to get to know more members of this community in my journey.

Who be. Edit: also where does Fortnite Kelsier fall in this layered multiverse.

Inconceivable!! This defense has torn through every one of my very serious reasons leveled against you! My vote has been scoured away in the searing light of truth and superior common sense (but a metaphorical light, of course, because it is a night cycle and the sun is down). Matrim's Dice what do you have to say for yourself? Your argument is sound and I see no reason not to trust you, have a nice day night.

What do I have to say for myself? I say that it’s a night cycle.

This is largely done for fun instead of a serious dive, but I wanted to calculate various factors of Roshar, We can assume the distance to the sun of Roshar through Sqrt[3]((GMT^2)/4π) If we assume that the Orbital Period is 36000000 Seconds, due to the information that the years on Roshar are 10,000 Hours long (500 Days of 20 Hours each), and that the Sun is the same parametres of our own, we can find that the distance to the sun is approximately 1.091886 AU or 1.63343821e+11 Metres on average. This is in the habitable zone, but is farther out, and thus likely colder than Earth. Knowing this, we can find the average temperature, which comes out to 244.789108567 Kelvin, though do note, this is not the actual temperature, as Greenhouse Effect causes planets to heat up more, and it is the reason that Earth is able to sustain life and not freeze. As mentioned before, it is still in the habitable zone, and through its atmosphere it would be able to reach survivable heights. But despite this, the method to calculate the true temperature of the planet is beyond me due to a lack of information on all of the aspects needed, such as Axial Tilt, Atmospheric Density, Wind Patterns, etcetera. Only idea we have is a higher density of oxygen than we have on Earth. I will try to find the distance from the sun at the various months, though this I am not as knowledgeable on the methods of. So would take me a moment. Rotational Speed of Roshar, assuming a radius of 5663 km we get a circumference of 35583 km, and we know the Rotational Period to be 20 Hours, therefore, (35583)/20 = 1779.15 Km/h or 494.2083333 M/s. This is approximately 1.44084062187x the Speed of Sound, and 1.06281362x the Velocity of Earth.

I know this isn’t exactly what you’re looking for, but I recommend The Chosen. I think you will not be disappointed.

DatS 12:

hmm I wasn’t active for some time… I can’t really return yet though, because of school and life generally being kinda tough. So hello and goodbye I guess?

I will address only points others did not, or to add some point. Wax never even approached what Vin was doing. Vin: 1) Pushed on trace metals 2) Pushed on metal inside peoples bodies (including very full metalminds) 3) Pushed on hemalurgic spikes 4) Flattened a giant castle just by trace metals in stone Wax: 1) destroyed one wooden building, but pushing on nails holding the building together. And since he was above the building, the metal items needed to support his increased weight. He did nothing else that would be comparable, and in fact cannot do those other things (he does not even see trace metals, if he could push on metalminds impaled in hands, he would do so against Miles, in BoM he never pushes on spikes (but I am not there in my re-read yet)) EDIT: One last point, Wax was unable to realize that Bands were not aluminum, and those are even less invested than Shardblades. If nearly full metalminds is too Invested for him to push on, Shardblades are completely out of his reach. Oh, we do have a baseline. Rosharan gravity is ~0.7 that of Scadrial, and since humans did not evolve there but only adapted it would stand to reason they would be at worst roughly 0.7 times weaker than usual. Then again, there are bridge crews that support bridge that weight ~2000 kg (in Rosharan gravity) at minimum for hours on end and can be lifted by 25 men, giving them strength comparable to normal human (lifting 80 kg overhead). So for worst case scenario, If we assume that warform is 2-3 times as strong as Rosharan human, that gives it 2*0.7 = 1.4 / 3*0.7 = 2.1 strength of Scadrian human, potentially nearly that of someone burning pewter. Again even Regals are stronger, and Fused stronger still. The one that hit Jasnah was of Progression so could grow his muscles as he desired, and he knew what plate can withstand so he had no reason to hold back. Conservatively he was as strong as ~4 Scadrian humans, and he was hitting her with both hands. But if Rosharan humans are closer in strength to Scadrial ones, as the bridge crews suggest, then the Fused hitting Jasnah could have been as strong as ~5-6 people. I re-read that section, Kal lashed exactly two stones and neither at Amaram. He lashed (multiple lashings) one at one Fused to stop it from going after Dalinar, and another to spook Amaram's horse to carry away Shardbow. In neither case does he comment on it consuming a lot of stormlight, in fact he does not comment on it at all he just does it. In that fight he fought Amaram (with plate, 2 Shardblades, and Yelig-Nar so learning to use all surges), couple of Fused with Gravitation (2-3) and a couple of Fused with Progression (6-7), and he had to split his attention between Amaram and protecting himself and Dalinar. He mostly used up his light to heal his wounds, because Kal sustained the following injuries Broken both ankles. Broken shoulder. Some internal injuries from being hit and flung with a club. Stabbed into stomach. Grabbed by a foot and slammed into ground (2x). Again hit by clubs at least two more times, causing internal injuries. Stomped on (by Fused with Progression), shattering multiple ribs and causing most likely massive internal injuries. After all this (and with Fused carrying away spheres) he runs out of Stormlight, but is still healed well enough that his injuries are no longer life-threatening. Even Bloodmaker would use up at least 1 month of health to survive this (Wayne used up 2 weeks to heal two bullet wounds and having his back burned). That is only ever mentioned by Mr. Suit, while talking with Wax who holds Bands, and trying to get him to stand down. He had every reason to overstate what the explosives could do. Considering that ship was only meant to destroy relatively single temple, it does not make much sense they would carry this level of ordinance. Also, when previously in Mr. Suit's head he was mostly thinking about the airships themselves, not about how impressive the weapons are (this is admittedly not that strong an evidence, but you would think he would also think about city destroying weapon when thinking about how will warfare change). But we can calculate how much speed they can get up, and how long it will take them, very easily. And it is a couple of seconds to move at hundreds of km per hour under few lashings. We also now that Kal went from Shattered Plains to within a few days of walk from Hearthstone under half a day, and that distance is ~1800 km (since we know roughly the size of the continent), giving speed ~150 km/h of sustained lashing. All Shards have related anti-investiture. In the latest youtube Livestream someone asked what would happen if you introduced proper anti-investiture into Sel's cognitive, and per Brandon that would be a bad idea. In fact he himself used the words 'anti-investiture of right type', so clearly Investiture of other Shards also has anti-investiture. (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/467/#e14713)

first off please separate the paragraphs/sentences you are replying to it makes it much easier to read second off no one aside from the spren can determine thier size. That doesn't mean anything, true a coinshot might have more fine control, but the healing and speed Fullborn get is more important than those few degrees of skill He only even came close to Vin's mist powered pushes when using the bands 2-3 bullets is a lot, plate's breaking to blades is likely similar to Atium being pushable, there is so much investiture in one spot the rules start to break down. Changing direction won't ever be a problem for them, because of the way lashings work to them hey seem to always be moving in a single direction, as gravity switches which way it pulls them, but it switches for all of them at once. A-aluminum might neutralize thier most effective weapon, that is not confirmed, and even if it does, single plated puch kills them and it doesn't matter. And A-aluminum doesn't effect metal outside the body, why would it effect sotrmlight? Or heal soul wounds for that matter. Soulcasters do the same so Roshar already is used to this, and using the CR they won't be surprised as thier souls will give them away. I don't think we have to orry about chemical warefare anytime soon, and again CR, thier souls will reveal them. Everyone in the Cosmere is inatly invested, Roshar probably more so than Scadrians, so that doesn't work, bronze can tell what surge is being used, so there is no reason for them to be different one suppressor, at least one art. if Kal had lashed Lirin up he would have continued to accelerate until he reached terminal velocity, without ever slowing. Changing direction doesn't affect them. please stop repeating this, we have gone over how soulcasters are capable of mass production. How? And a single Bondsmith and Elsecaller could go around and soulcast everyone on Scadrial into stone killing them all, your point? We've gone over technology, but why does Scadrial get cunning and skill that Roshar doesn't? Pushing on a part of something is harder, so doing it on a shardblade would be harder than pushing on all of it, which is already out of his league. anti-investiure is quite obviously a Cosmere wide interaction.

The white clothing was a Parshendi tradition, foreign to him. But he did as his masters required and did not ask for an explanation. He sat in a large stone room baked by enormous firepits that cast a garish light on the revelers, causing beads of sweat to form on their skin as they danced and drank and yelled and sang and clapped. Some fell to the ground red-faced, the revelry too much for them, their stomachs proving to be inferior wineskins. They looked as if they were dead, at least until their friends carried them out of the feast hall to waiting beds. Szeth did not sway to the drums, drink the sapphire wine, or stand to dance. He sat at a bench at the back, a still servant in white robes. Few at the treaty signing celebration noticed him. He was just a Shinservant, and Shin were easy to ignore. Most out here in the East thought that Szeth's kind were docile and harmless. They were generally right. The drummers began to beat a new rhythm. The beats shook through Szeth like a quartet of thumping hearts pumping waves of invisible blood through the room. Szeth's masters - who were dismissed as savages by those in more civilized kingdoms - sat at their own table. They were men with skin of black marbled with red. The red is what I got wrong from writing it down. I'm generally better at reciting it. This is how you know you're a sanderfan

It's all guesswork. What I'm doing is looking at the specific moments that don't have an explanation and seeing if I can apply anything that makes sense, improves my enjoyment of the story, or both. My example here is that I really enjoy the theme of lies, truth, and ignorance: Amaram wanted to find the Honorblades so badly, never realizing that he already had one. He wanted to bring back the Heralds, when they were already here. He was deceiving himself, and being deceived. His inability to perceive the world as anything but what he wanted it to be eventually destroys him when the truth is revealed, and cannot bring himself to account for his actions. It also explains, in a simple way, certain things that Helaran does that don't make sense to me if his Shardblade is dead, or doesn't have a Radiant bond, or isn't Surgebinding, etc. And if that's the case, then I like that a lot. But the presence of an operational gemstone that flashes when the bond is initiated when Honorblades don't need one bothers me; the fact that the Blade vanishes when he drops it does the same thing; there is nothing concrete about Ishar taking or the Shin holding the Honorblades; and so maybe this isn't the answer. Someone else reading the wrong answer might suddenly realize something else that fits better, though, so I thought it would be interesting to put it forward.

I think it does a great disservice to Hoid (and, by extension, to Brandon) to assume Hoid had no objective. It would be completely out of character for Hoid to take such a risk for no good reason. @Leuthie is correct - Hoid tells us exactly what he's doing in his "performance" for Design: the subtle art of misdirection. He definitely wants Odium's FULL attention on him at this particular moment, which is carefully planned to allow someone else to do something without Odium noticing. Could be Design; could be Jasnah; could be Dalinar. There might even be more than one such secret mission. But I'm confident that we will eventually see a very satisfying reason for Hoid to risk his precious metaphorical hide trading pointless insults with Odium there. I'm also confident that once he realizes the significance of the loss of his perfect pitch and infers the removal of some Breaths, Hoid will be able to deduce much of what happened, including the events he no longer directly remembers. He will know, at the very least, that Odium is somehow different than he was. Thus this meeting will serve two important narrative purposes going forward.

I don't think he had a goal. I think he wanted to go taunt Rayse because he believed he was protected from anything he could do. I think Taravangian was the one who made the mistake here. First, he acted out of character and Hoid began to suspect something. He then covered it up by erasing the recent memory. I think Hoid is going to discover that fact which will lead him to figure out what happened to Rayse and who Odium is now. But, I think it will be too late to warn Dalinar that Odium is not who he thinks he is.

it's only going to be about 20 more years.

I personally think that Hoid did make a mistake there. We know that he sometimes fails (on Sel for example), and Fortune is not fool proof. I think that he had no goal outside of taking some potshots at Rayse, because he managed to get him to agree to contract which should protect Hoid from his direct action. Hoid seems to love when he gets away with stuff right under other people's noses, and this would be one of the best things we pulled, and he pulled it on Rayse whom he has a grudge with. So now thinking he is protected, and knowing that Rayse is not the sort to try anything but brute force due to his arrogance (Rayse seems to act like textbook Narcissist in both Oathbringer and RoW), decided to bask in his own greatness and thumb his nose at Rayse. However, Hoid lacked a crucial piece of information, that Rayse was replaced by Taravangian. Even with Fortune this information would be denied to him, as it happened due to actions of Renarin. Everyone thinks that Szeth killed Vargo with Nightblood, and evidence seems to support it so he would have no reason to suspect anything else. So lacking this crucial knowledge that his opponent is now someone much more crafty and measured, he goes to the fateful encounter and we get to see someone best Hoid for the very first time.

LenKai looked back at the wall of ice and snow. Storms this late in the season were not unheard of, but the look of those clouds set fear in the heart. Traversing the mountainous region of Sel was difficult. Plenty of people die every year from starvation or exposure. Even experienced trappers had to be at least a little kayana to make your home up here. This storm looked more like the mountain was tired of dealing with those noisy neighbors and was ready to sweep them off. LenKai returned gratefully back to the small inn that served as a trapping outpost. It didn't look like much, but it was sturdy and would withstand the storm... he hoped. As he entered he saw a room full of trappers and travelers alike all huddled against the storm and the biting chill brought on by the winds of the weather changing. "Cheer up! This will be the last storm of the winter. I am LenKai, who are you?" ----------------------------------------------- Welcome to Quick Fix 43! You are a group of travelers, trappers, and occultists just trying to survive the last snowstorm of winter in a Duladel trading outpost. This storm coming through would certainly mean death for any who ventured into it. Unfortunately, staying here may be just as deadly because not everyone trapped in the outpost is here for refuge from the storm. Roles: All players: You sought shelter in this waystop, but found no rest. Between the frozen snow and the murderous zealots, survival is up to you. Work together to find the Followers of Mysteries and force them outside where they will freeze to death. To do this, send a vote through your GM PM once during each cycle. This vote can be changed until the cycle ends, does not count as an action, and will be made public at the start of each cycle. Only final votes will be made public." Follower of Mysteries: You will stop at nothing to learn the mysteries of Jesker. Each cycle you must send one vote for who to sacrifice to the GM (Elkanah) via your GM PM. This is in addition to your vote of who to throw out into the snow. The player with the most votes will be sacrificed to your mysterious purposes. Priest of Jesker: You have seen these signs before. As tensions rise and signs begin to worsen, you alone know how to find the Followers of Mysteries. You may investigate one player each cycle to learn if they are a Follower of Mysteries. Jindoese Soldier: You trained in the art of ChayShan from your youth and built up the strength to protect others. You may protect one player from Followers each cycle. Rulo: You are the fool who got themself stuck in a trading outpost you had no business being in. You're a bit kayana, so each cycle you scratch a message in the wood somewhere in the outpost, too bored to sleep. Seon Holder: The seon is a great tool for communication. As long as at least one Seon Holder is alive, there is no limit on PM's except they must include the GM. Order of Actions: Rulo Message Soldier Lynch Priest Sacrifice Additonal info: This is a quick fix with 24 hour cycles. Day and night are combined. Anyone who does not either talk to the outpost's owner (Elkanah), come to the community dinner meetings, or meet with other traders for two consecutive cycles will freeze to death in their room The game will start when we have enough players or next Wednesday the 18th at 10 pm MDT (4 am GMT) whichever comes second. Sunday March 22 for sure. Player List Spec Doc Quick Links

Hi - I wasn’t able to follow along with this discussion over the weekend, so apologies if I’m retreading old ground, and that this post is so long. I’m going to try and organize based on topic in an (unsuccessful) endeavor to make this a little shorter. Shipping and Character Discussion Like others have said, my perception is “shipping” is a bit of a dirty word around here. I think that is part of the attitude which led to ASK becoming what it became. In my mind, when people say someone is a “shipper”, that means your emotion is overriding your analytical ability and therefore your opinions and analysis is not as valid. I liked @Kogiopsis's post on the subject in another thread, as I think it helps lay out the various positions when it comes to “shipping”: the emotional side, the theorizing on where the author is heading, and the fact that any complete character discussion of almost every character (for better or for worse, depending on your position) will include a discussion of that person’s interactions with romance. Yes to this. I’m not artistic or creative (in the slightest), but I drafted an entire post on Kadolin (my emotional ship) after encouragement from a mod actually (@Greywatch), but around that time there was a lot of pushback against the idea of discussing even the canon romances, so I didn’t want to put myself in the line of fire for posting something which was 100% based on emotions. I can clean that up and post it though (tomorrow) if people would like? Does that even belong in the regular OB board though? Along the lines of new posts (but on a totally different bent), I don’t want to poach @maxal's work, but I can also tomorrow pull our posts on Adolin’s fashion into a new thread. I thought that was interesting as well and the shut down happened right after the discussion got started. I gulp at saying this, but I also had some thoughts on Adolin and why he is so divisive (which I put in a spoiler, in ASK, if you want to see how far I buried that) from right before the shut down that I can also post… I don’t know how far we want to go with this as that goes into an area which can be more contentious. It became an important space because it was the only place some of us felt like we could discuss the things we wanted to discuss, as there was an extreme amount of negativity towards discussing romance and especially anything love triangle related anywhere else. I think as long as there are rules against people rejecting the idea that such discussions can happen (see below), having new threads on character discussions could definitely work. As I said above, I also like the idea of delineating whether a discussion is pure fun shipping, theorizing on where the author is headed with a romance or discussing a character in which romance will be part of the discussion. I personally don’t feel like I need this as long as the changes below come to fruition. As long as I feel like I can talk about the things I want to talk about openly, that works for me. Others may have a different opinion though! Moderation Generally I like all of these ideas. I’m someone who likes knowing rules. I think if I had known I could (and was even encouraged to) report posts which made me not want to contribute character/romance posts it would have changed how I interacted on the forum. It seems like some of the people who I felt were hostile did not mean to be, and if it had been addressed as the beginning, perhaps a lot of the unpleasantness could have been avoided. I agree with this. I think there is definitely a time and a place for public scolding. One of the things which I think would be nice is if there was more transparency about actions taken, but to tell you the truth, I think that cuts against limiting public scolding to more intense situations. The other forum (about a sport) which I’m involved in notes when posts are removed by a moderator or edited by a moderator. (It seems like here usually the staff asks the poster to edit, so I’m not sure if moderator editing is possible.) I’m actually not sure how a staff post in a contentious debate would be received along the lines of “This discussion got out of hand. I talked to the users involved, and it was resolved” or something like that. Not sure about this idea myself, but just a thought. Sorry if I’m getting repetitive, but I like all of this. Moderators and their Opinions Honestly, yes? I think part of the problem is the perception, especially when it came to ASK and there seemed to be a cohesive mod opinion, and if you were against the opinion, you really had to watch yourself. (As others had stated, the Shardcast didn’t help with this perception.) I think I would have interpreted actions differently if I hadn’t known the opinions of the moderators. (I’m not saying this forum needs to go this way, and I don’t think it will, but since you asked…) I like these ideas, which counter a lot of my issues with moderator opinions. I will say in the other forum I’m involved in, mods just run “mod accounts.” There are two or three of them, so you don’t know which person behind the mod is doing which actions. The mods also have their own usernames, but when they are a “mod” that’s all they are doing. Other No worries. In retrospect, I maybe would have liked to be asked, but considering I expected the post to be deleted, to be put on mod status and to be told I could only discuss the issue in PM, I was completely fine with how it was handled. I remain impressed that this discussion is even happening, so thank you for that. Not related to any of the above, but thank you, and I agree. I’m guilty of it too, and given this is only online interaction without the benefit of other social cues, language becomes much more important than it would if there was other context involved. It's sometimes very hard to ascertain someone's tone!

It's Wayne though, he consistently talks like that.