Jump to content

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing most liked content on 11/04/21 in all areas

  1. Hello everyone! We have some pretty exciting news for you today: we are going to change the logos across 17th Shard, the Coppermind, and Arcanum! These new logos are made by Raul Chaves, who we hired based off a brand identity for Allomancy that he did. We've wanted to make our logos more modern for quite a while, and I hope you'll agree that they turned out awesome: We have had the same logo for 17th Shard since 2016, the iconic glass shard with the 17 broken into pieces over it, and that 2016 logo wasn't very different from our original 2010 design. Both were made by Will Raboin (Shivertongue on the forums, but he's been out of the fandom for some time), and I have always been fond of them. But, we wanted to make the 17th Shard logo flatter and more modern. We also wanted a simpler silhouette, which has a few advantages, in particular, future merchandise possibilities. The old look was quite poor for merch as it did not work well in monochrome, and required a pretty specific color scheme to be visible. You couldn't exactly put the old logo on a dark background! Also, the wordmark (that is, the text on the logo) was a bit too complicated, with a gradient on the word "Shard." We still wanted to try and evoke some of the same feel of the old logo though, with a similar shape that also evokes a bit of shattering. Another benefit to this logo refresh was that it allowed us to start the process of unifying the design of 17th Shard, the Coppermind Wiki, and Arcanum, so that all our three sites feel more cohesive together. Now we have the common silhouette on all sites, with the same accent gold color. The Coppermind logo was... very old, and actually based off of the 2010 17th Shard logo, which had a green glowing gradient around the broken glass. Yikes, that was old. It's a huge improvement to get this updated, since realistically, even in 2010, we didn't love the Coppermind logo. We wanted to evoke a symbol from the Steel Alphabet, but also not use that icon directly. Arcanum's logo is the most recent of our three logos, coming out in 2017. This logo is my favorite of our three, and actually inspired the designs. The old logo was made by KChan--another retired staff member who was on some earlier Shardcasts, and who helped with a lot of colors on 17th Shard--who had the great idea of putting an A inside the cosmere logo. I love the Arcanum logo, but there are some problems with doing that. The cosmere symbol isn't easily scalable to a small icon, and also, having the art directly from the books in the logos would lead to issues in future merchandise. We still wanted to keep that A symbol very visible, as that's the defining feature of the current logo. One other advantage to a flatter design is that it allows us to adapt the logo to fit with various background schemes, such as a dark colored shirt vs. a light colored shirt, or an eventual "dark mode" on our websites. In particular, Arcanum will still have a solid dark color in its header, but you can still immediately recognize this as the Arcanum logo: We will be updating our logos on these sites, as well as our social media icons and Discord server icons, within the next week or so. Arcanum, in particular, will be refreshed with a green aesthetic over its current blue, as 17th Shard will have a blue theme and we want each color scheme to be distinct. Here are some screenshots of how they might look on the sites themselves (but know these are subject to change): Let us know what you think in the comments! Having our three main websites use a similar design language will really help tie them together, but the logos are just one part of that process. You can expect as things move forward that 17th Shard, the Coppermind, and Arcanum will start to have their overall designs change as well so things feel cohesive, but that's going to be a while away. Another long-term goal is to have some merchandise to sell eventually. But, in the meantime, we loved how these logos turned out so much that we want to unveil them now, and bigger redesigns will come much later. Thank you to Raul for some truly fantastic work! Every penny spent on this was well worth it.
    20 likes
  2. I work in branding/marketing and graphic design, and personally, I love the new looks for the logos. Cohesion among the 3 of them will allow people in the fandom to recognize that the 3 websites are run together! I didn't know that you guys also ran the Coppermind, somehow, until this year. It's particularly smart to give new, dedicated logos to the Arcanum and Coppermind. No direct visual reference to the cosmere = no problems with copyrite laws! The flat styles are also just visually satisfying + modern. Great choices! I happened to finish the Shardcast episode today where you guys were discussing the Part 2 Epigraphs in Rhythm of War, and your excitement had me CACKLING! Y'all are ballers. I spend so many hours a week listening to your voices in traffic (I drive a lot from NJ to NY). Thanks for being the best!
    8 likes
  3. Oh I like these! Clearly a lot of thought went into them, and yet it didn't compromise the "feel" of the logos. I like the distinct colour schemes for the different sites. When the websites get updated, will there be any time/energy devoted to adding more alt text and image descriptions?
    5 likes
  4. Just finished reading Nisekoi. It was really really good! I've come to the conclusion that romance manga, like cheeseburgers, are bad for my heart. ...but, like cheeseburgers, I'm going to continue consuming them anyways.
    3 likes
  5. Don't expect the same treatment. My energy is exhausted by having to wrangle Wyrm on a daily basis >> Signing up as Kaoren, a retired official with the Glory Faction. Once a paper-pusher for Cang Lu of the Glory Faction who was totally not a backstabbing traitor with the Discovery Faction, he has since retired from politics. Nowadays, he prefers to sit on other people's porches and drink tea and read the future of the Rose Empire in the pattern of the leaves. FYI I'm only on leave for part of next week and things are going to get hectic (I've just come off four consecutive all-nighters and OTing) so I really, genuinely cannot promise high or consistent activity. Will keep to RP style hopefully.
    3 likes
  6. I like the logos! Losing the Coppermind and Arcanum logos will be bittersweet, but an ending can also be a beginning.
    3 likes
  7. I heard a rumor that you can soulstamp your character to be an old grouch, and then stamp wherever you live to have a porch for quiet RP interrupted by occasional yelling at the incompetent youngsters.
    3 likes
  8. Heh, having a marketing/SEO team (or any kind of team really), or hiring even a single person is probably going to be out of the picture for years to come, at best. We try to present ourselves professionally, but we are, at the end of the day, just a bunch of volunteers. Tapping the community for some kind of organized effort might be a good idea though. We'd have to understand a little better what kind of needs visually impaired people have, and how to best aid them with alt text (because I wouldn't even know where to start - though that Hubspot page does look like a good resource). So we'll keep this in mind
    2 likes
  9. Time for whatever this is! (Spoilered so Illwei doesn't think it's vote-related greening) NK: Nobody -Let’s look at this from three perspectives. Last Night, from the elim perspective, I’m a likely Mat voter, Araris thinks Mat and Lahilt are villagers. Dannex thinks it’s Mat-Azmine. Az is a question mark. Lahilt is a question mark. 1. Mat-Lahilt are e-e. Araris is an available ally, but won’t believe I’m evil, so you must kill me and implicate Az and Dannex as teammates. But if you kill me, it implicates Mat, who is still taking heat from the TJ kill. So you leave me alive and push… an Araris exe. Seems like a waste of a potential ally, but it works in practice because he’s suspicious. They’d have to sell Az and Danex on it, maybe indicate a me-Araris team to avoid alienating those two voters. What they’ve actually gone for is Araris-Danex, which has worked out, but I don’t think they’d have known it would work yesterday. It’s fuzzy because it has worked out, but I’m not sure they’d draw it up like this. 2. Araris-Danex are e-e. So Mat and Lahilt are cleared by Araris and I’m fairly trusted. I think the problem they encounter is if you kill me, you have to then come up with a two-man team that convinces the third person you’re right, and Az is unpredictable. Splitting it by Lahilt-Mat v Az-Araris-Danex has the most potential, but Araris already said he trusts those two. Lahilt-Az v Mat-Araris-Danex won’t work because Mat trusts Lahilt. Mat-Az v Lahilt-Araris-Danex might work, but Lahilt seems inclined to trust Mat. So faced with no good set-ups there, you don’t kill me, and instead… well if you kill Mat or Lahilt, I’ll know I’m wrong there and won't vote for them. If you kill Az though, you can push Mat-Lahilt. That probably would have worked actually, but then I might ask questions like why not kill someone who was voting for Mat last round? And Araris had already said they were clear. Going back on a read is fine, but he seemed to quickly think that it was obvious they were cleared, so I can see him not trusting the village to make what he saw as an illogical read to end the game. In this situation, I can see them opting to forgo the advantage of the 3:2 ratio in favor of keeping Az around as either a vote or a suspect. If you assume I’m voting for Mat, then Danex can too, and if you put some pressure on Az, perhaps they’d default to sheeping the majority and give you that extra vote on Mat you needed last round. Araris can hammer at the end for the win. Or if Az’s vote never gets there, you can stay pushing him and hope to get Mat and Lahilt voting alongside you rather than on you. This ended up making more sense to me as an explanation for what the elims were thinking than the Mat-Lahilt set-up. 3. Araris-Az are e-e. Nah, they’d make the kill if they were planning on bussing out of the gate. They’d need every kill they can get. Maybe Araris wanted to give Az an excuse to vote Mat and was counting on Danex and I sticking to Mat, but I doubt it. I think somebody is bussing right now. It's just not you. :P. Oh, speak of the devil, Dannex I have unlocked infinite n's (just kidding, I don't know how math works)
    2 likes
  10. You are right that others come seeking trade: -WoK, interlude I-4 However, this tells us nothing about how many these others are. We do possibly get something of a hint earlier in the same interlude however: -WoK, interlude I-4 This tells us that this is not a major trade route, or even one that an apprentice merchant was really aware of, which I'd argue would be in her interest to have educated herself about. The fact that the trade takes place in a meadow is, to me, also indicative of how little outsiders are trusted. You'd expect trade to happen at a market or port, not a meadow where there's not much of anything. The same interlude also mentions farming villages, and that outsiders aren't allowed there, but you'd think that a trading post of some sort might exist outside the view of any farms. The fact that there isn't trading infrastructure would seem to imply that either they don't really trade, or they don't want to trade. And yet Vstim trades in a meadow? We also see over the course of the books that no-one really knows what the heck is happening in Shinovar, with the most knowledge known to be possessed by an outsider is Taravangian knowing the exact specification of an oathstone. They refuse the invitation to the coalition and basically seem content being Switzerland by way of isolationist Japan. We also see that the caravan is not too far into Shinovar: -WoK, interlude I-4 I'm not so sure this is true, while yes, we do get to know this: -WoK, interlude I-4 However, going by this: -WoK, interlude I-4 As well as Szeth calling Nale "Nin-son-God" might imply that there are different rules at play regarding the Honorblades. And if you, like me, think the Stone shamanate are less than benevolent, it might simply be a case of different rules for different people, just like rich/famous people are often given more lenient sentences for crimes IRL. Or it could be a little of both, the Honorblades being "holy" or "special" or somesuch and the Stone shamanate being corrupt or not held to the same standards as the rest of society. There's also this WoB: The Shin see themselves as having a privileged reference frame, they think they know what happened, that might also play into having special rules for the Honorblades. I wish to highlight something from an earlier quote, "They may be a little too stable. The world is changing outside, but the Shin seem determined to remain the same." They shun outside influences pretty hard I'd say. And I'd say that basically everything we see is that no-one really knows what's happening in Shinovar. - both Oathbringer, chapter 24 -Oathbringer, chapter 122 They don't seem to communicate with outsiders unprompted, and even Taravangian doesn't seem to know much about them. In addition, Bandon describes them as xenophobic, at least historically, and there's not exactly much evidence that this isn't true in the present day. I think RoW explicitly contradicts that: -RoW, chapter 111 Neturo held Ishar's Blade, it doesn't seem plausible that he did that without ever touching it. If nothing else, he'd presumably need to do that to bond it, and how could he ever have summoned it without touching it. We also know that Szeth has trained with all the Surges, which would require the Bondsmith Blade, as the Stoneward Blade was unavailable. Did Neturo summon it without touching it and Szeth catch it in midair? I don't think we can say that for certain, we only have one data point. Szeth isn't allowed in the Valley of Truth, IIRC, but unless that refers to all of Shinovar, Truthless need not be exiled. Fair, fair. I suppose it could be both, in the same way that all Investiture belongs to a Shard, the ideas might be fundamental, but retroactively assigned to Shards. And my gut feeling is yes. If the Fused are Surgebinding, it should affect them too. It would be really nice to see how much is different because they're singers (closer to the Rhythms), how much is different because they are Fused, how much is different because of compounded experience, how much is different because they align with Odium's Rhythms and how much is different because they seem to "live" their Surge (which may or may not be the same as being Fused.) IMO, this is the likeliest option. I could see either of these being the case too, yeah. Fair enough. It still feels different somehow. I suppose it's the fact that she's leaking mist like a Radiant leaking Light, but it's not noticably going into her Push, for instance. But yeah, for how ridiculous the Metallic Arts can get output-wise, they seem to use very little Investiture to do it all. Now there's a thought, given how relatively inefficient Surgebinding seems, what with Radiants leaking Investiture as standard, what would happen if the Ghostbloods actually managed to export Light and were able to hack it into the Metallic Arts? That seems like a recipe for something quite spectacular. Or it just dissipates too fast to do much without recharging, though possibly quite the thing while you have it. Yeah, they are probably WAY more Investiture than I realised. I see. I suppose that makes sense. I'm not one to talk as I think that singers are "naturials," basically. It could be that the interplay between the fauna and the spren in general can be classified as such. Though I of course think that it all originates in the Surges in the end. Hmm, nooo, I don't think I do, actually. I've never given much thought to summoning Shardblades, but I don't think I've ever thought of it as Surgebinding. And if manifesting your spren as a physical object, then manifesting their cousin-spren also isn't. Both are the same thing, but they are not Surgebinding. The Radiant ability to infuse things with Light I'd also categorise as separate from Surgebinding. I'd also not categorise moving Breath around (the standard "my Breath to yours") as Awakening or ingesting lerasium as allomancy. The Radiant/spren interaction is (probably) a function of the Radiant bond and the main spren and Radiant "blending" together, but the "perks" of the tipping points are not Surgebinding. I suppose my main disagreement would probably be calling it a magic system. Oh! Then again, it could be a cheat! If the fauna and spren are a manifestation of the same thing as fabrials, just one happening naturally and the other artificially, then it's possible that the Radiant bond, in the spectrum between tipping point three and four, allows for a bond of that nature to be leapfrogged to the Radiant. Kaladin commanding windspren is somewhat similar to the situation with Rysn and the luckspren at the Reshi Isles. I think this may be the same basic thing. Uh-huh... I don't like this. That feels like saying that physics can be debated. Like, if it exists it has rules. Just because we are at times mistaken about what the rules are, doesn't mean that they don't exist. Anyway... Yes, I second this. Yeah, I suppose they are. In that case it's of course convenient if everyone agrees on the same definitions. ¤_¤
    2 likes
  11. This is something I personally know very little about, but it's been lowkey on my radar of things I think we could be doing better. It's not something we specifically are planning to do, but I agree that we should, and it's mostly a matter of doing it well (and wrangling the sites' software suites into cooperating). So if this is something you know something about, I would value your thoughts, and any resources that might be useful to us in the future.
    2 likes
  12. Peter's been saying some very interesting things on Reddit about atium: There's a lot to unpack here. I don't recall Brandon saying that everyone ought to be able to burn atium. I know it's been RAFO'd, and I could find Brandon saying "not just anybody could use it." On the topic of hindsight, I've seen him talk about atium breaking rules, and I know fans have discussed the rules it breaks (including who can use it, and also why it can be affected by steelpushes), but I can't find Brandon himself commenting on it. Did I miss something? Or was the questioner mistaken? Peter's answer seems to assume the questioner is correct. Now, I'll be honest, I've proposed that framework over the years (among many others), especially since "refined atium" was revealed on the hemalurgy table. But does this confirm it's an actual, canon fact? Or is this an instance of Peter as a fan, speculating off the cuff, assuming that Brandon said what people actually say he said? (For what it's worth, my proposal was that pure atium could do what any of its alloys could do, but everybody only knew the one effect, so that's what kept happening; actual atium Mistings, but they only had the Intent to use atium to accomplish the atium-electrum effect.) Bonus eyebrow raise: Preservation controlling the manifestation of Ruin's godmetal at Ruin's shardpool? "That answer has already been revealed canonically. RAFO." So... there are a couple ways I could take this. The allomancy poster says "pure atium grants the Allomancer an expansive vision of the future and enhances the mind's ability to accept, process, and hold information. In alloy form, it produces various mental and temporal effects." This could be read in two ways: The effects we see in the books do, technically, satisfy the letter of the description. In this case, it would mean that pure atium does what we see this "impure" atium do, allomantically. It's possible that the "expansive vision" and "mental enhancements" from pure atium are bigger in scale and degree than what we saw from atium burners in the book. We've been reading it like 3.1.1 the whole time, but that's been a misinterpretation. The hemalurgy table says atium "Steals any power. Must be refined." So, technically, we do know what pure atium does. But we only know what it does hemalurgically, not allomantically or feruchemically, which does technically answer the questioner's followup of "what does pure atium do." Peter says "RAFO" instead of explaining it. Is it possible that this gets touched on in The Lost Metal? But that wouldn't be "revealed canonically" yet, in my mind, since the book's not published yet. He may have just been saying RAFO since the topic's OP (who was not the questioner in the comments) is partway through reading Bands of Mourning... but we don't learn anything new about atium after that or in Secret History (the Hemalurgy table is in the Hero of Ages leatherbound), so I'm not sure what he'd be avoiding. All in all, a very confusing thread for me to stumble upon. Have I missed any WoBs? Am I forgetting any passages from the books? Can anyone help me understand this exchange? This could either be Peter firing off the cuff as a fan, or a pretty substantial confirmation of a lot of Mistborn fundamentals that have been argued about for years, so I'm actually not sure if this should be going up on Arcanum or not.
    1 like
  13. As an LDS teenager, I love fantasy and basically any book I can get my hands on, but so many modern fantasy books are full of sex, pornography, and dirty jokes. Are there any recommendations you guys have on CLEAN Fantasy?
    1 like
  14. From the album: Music Glyph

    I was thinking of a glyph for a necklace that you could get cutout in steel, but most of the glyphs have separate components in them (not all the bodies/shapes are connected). So I thought all right, I'll make the word music cuz I like music, but it's really hard to make a pretty glyph when they are kind of huge. So I decided that the necklace would only be one half of the glyph and the other could go to a friend or some bandmate, and between two people you'd get the glyph! (I realize I'm abusing the word but and so: I'm sorry). It's not awesome but it kinda looks like a dragon so i'm happy with that.
    1 like
  15. ShahTand is an invested art from Sel which uses plant-based wedding stain/makeup as a conduit to manifest its effects. The makeup is worn by the female relatives of the bride and groom, as well as the bridesmaids, and is applied in special geometric patterns on the hands and feet the night before the wedding. Sometimes, the stain is also used to dye the hair of both the bride and the groom (as well as the groom's beard, if he has one), though this has no bearing on the effects of ShahTand. The most basic effect of ShahTand is to increase the rate at which inter-personal Connections are formed and strengthened during the wedding, and this effect is especially pronounced between the bride and the groom. After the wedding ceremony is completed (including one or several traditional dances that follow certain geometric patterns) and the marriage is consummated, an investiture bond forms between the newlywed wife and husband. These bonds universally confer enhanced emotional fortitude to both parties, with additional effects determined by the exact patterns used in the bride's makeup, called "blessings." These blessings encompass a variety of good fortunes wished for the couple, including but not limited to faithfulness, good health, safety, fertility, and success in business ventures. While the benefits conferred by blessings are real, they tend towards the subtle. Extreme care is taken when applying the bride's ShahTand makeup, since it is believed that poorly drawn patterns will not only fail to work, but actually call down misfortune on the couple. These beliefs are held strongly enough that it's considered perfectly acceptable and reasonable to delay a wedding entirely to give the makeup a chance to wear off entirely and be reapplied if something disrupts the application process and results in poorly-drawn lines. The bond conferred by ShahTand and any benefits it offers can be weakened or even break entirely if the couple's devotions to one another wavers enough. The bond also weakens the further you are from ShahTand's land of origin, though in this case its effects will return as you draw back towards it. ShahTand is inspired, in part, by the various traditions from around the world that use henna dye.
    1 like
  16. In some traditions it's both the bride and the groom, in others it's just the bride, and I didn't particularly pick any one irl tradition and stick with it when looking for inspiration. In the case of ShahTand, it's considered a feminine right/tradition/duty, so its use is focused on the female relatives and the bride herself. That could be for predominately cultural reasons as opposed to something hard-coded into the system, but then at that point you get to deal with fun things like Intent and whether or not it would even work on the groom with the people drawing it expecting it not to. Partially, I was influenced by the fact that ShahTand is a heavily Devotion-slanted invested art, and seeing as we know Aona was a woman (and Skai is usually presumed to have been a man, from what I've seen), it felt natural to make ShahTand something that 'belonged' to the bride.
    1 like
  17. Been having some jaw movement past few years that has now left me with difficulty biting into food. Had to get braces at 41 years old 2 days ago and omg it SUCKS! Hurts to even have air move across my teeth. Big adjustments I’m having to make. And the McRib is back and I want 5 or 6 of them and can’t. Im so hungry but even macaroni makes me scream right now.
    1 like
  18. Corrupted Hero walks toward Love Interest, falls in Plot Hole 1, and Dies. @WrathofaShardKitten @The Unknown Order
    1 like
  19. We've got some new Mini-Con news this week! Also, Brandon and some employees at Dragonsteel Entertainment will be participating in NaNoWriMo this year, and sharing their word counts multiple times a week, along with encouraging others to do the same. First, though: prewriting on Defiant is finished! This means he can start (and has started) the actual writing of the novel, which brings us to the first major piece of news. In case you haven't heard of it, National Novel Writing Month, more commonly known as NaNoWriMo, is a nonprofit organization that is most known for its eponymous annual program, encouraging authors to write a 50k word manuscript during the month of November. This year, it just so happened that the start of Defiant's writing was close to lining up with the start of the month, and so Brandon intentionally planned things out so he can participate. Around four times a week, he plans to post his wordcount for the day to r/Sanderson, with the goal of hitting as close to exactly 50k as possible, allowing him to provide an example of a constant pace to finish, as well as to encourage discussion in the comments between other writers who are attempting it. Additionally, various other members of Team Dragonsteel will be participating in this "SandoWriMo" and posting their word counts, such as Isaac (his art director), Janci Patterson (co-author of the Skyward Flight novellas), Adam (his head of publicity), Kathy (his sister-in-law and head of facilities), and Kellyn (an employee at the Dragonsteel Store). (Their usernames can be found in today's check-in post.) In other news, an updated guest list for the Dragonsteel Mini-Con has been released. Currently, the site includes (spoiler box for length): While the full event schedule is not out yet, they also announced Howard Lyon will be running a live painting session, along with Steve Argyle and Hayley Lazo. Audience participation is encouraged. The event will be at 7PM on the 22nd, in L2 Ballroom A. In a final bit of Mini-Con news, the badges have been revealed, and are by Jian Guo, cover artist of the Chinese editions: Beyond that, in order to celebrate the release of Cytonic, several new T-Shirt designs are available from the Dragonsteel store: Larger images and purchase links (hidden for length again): That's all for this week! As per usual, Brandon's Weekly Update video is on YouTube, as is this week's episode of Intentionally Blank.
    1 like
  20. I don't think she's said, but she's mentioned that due to the novellas she has a backlog of things she needs to work on this year, so I'd guess it's probably not more Skyward.
    1 like
  21. Here's the WoB talking about it: (Spoiled for length)
    1 like
  22. Every Ideal so far has been said in a moment of pure agony. Charging Parshendi, standing up against Moash, and now, after having, essentially, committed suicide. He hadn't hit the ground yet, but he'd jumped. He was fully ok with smacking head first into the ground, and would have if Dalinar hadn't intervened. Wouldn't it be interesting, then, if the fifth ideal was spoken in a moment of quiet peace. Like, he's working with people, helping them overcome their problems, and he just smiles and says the words. Boom. No big traumatic event. He just...says them, and moves on. Like the Lopen, saying the second ideal. He wasn't having a traumatic moment. He was comforting someone else, and just said it flippantly. It doesn't have to be traumatic. You just have to be at a place where you can say it, and mean it.
    1 like
  23. Hi everyone! I'm not really artsy but I love glyphs, so I made a subreddit to upload glyph designs and other works in women's script in order to make a fan Archive/Library, and also make requests and posts. I don't think it'll get used but it was worth a shot to make it. Here's the link https://www.reddit.com/r/CalligraphersGuild/ if anyone's interestes to upload their glyphs.
    1 like
  24. Ooh, I'll take a look! I'm trying to write a fanfic a week as a Nano project, so it'll be squeezed in when I have time and brain space over the next couple weeks. (Note to self made so I don't forget )
    1 like
  25. Hopefully I got everyone I know, (sorry if I missed any of you!) Happy Diwali everyone! Even if you're not celebrating it this year, go give yourself a nice treat at least!
    1 like
  26. Y'all ever just get in a mood that can only be satisfied by music from "Over the Garden Wall," or is it just me?
    1 like
  27. I don't know, I liked all the Stormlight Physics lessons in the book. I'm interested in how it all works, so having a lot of Navani stuff where she's learning all that was some of my favorite parts. I actually wound up liking Raboniel, or however you spell her name. I could just FEEL how tired she was when she killed her daughter, and was like "No more rebirths!" It really drove home how LONG this war has been going on. I was never a huge fan of Venli and Eshonai. I mean, I like them ok, and they do provide a good perspective, so they're certainly necessary, but I just never got the love. Though, I do feel for Eshonai, just wanting to go out and see the world but not being able to. I don't really understand what Timbre sees in Venli, but whatevs. And Kaladin...goodness, I feel him. I've struggled with Depression for a long, long time. It just hits me. And it feels exactly how it's described here. I go through Kaladin sections and I just FEEL it. I relate so hard. The crushing agony, which is eventually replaced with a profound numbness to everything and everyone. And how in that place, the dark thoughts come, making you believe it was ALWAYS dark. No one EVER cared. Goodness. He got that nailed right on the head. At first, I was horrified at Kaladin being relieved of duty, but it just makes sense for the character. And as I read, I began to get excited about the prospect. Because he was trying to help people who feel like me. I don't have battle shock, but Depression can make it feel like that, sometimes. I've posted this elsewhere, but I think that Windrunners can't get to the 4th ideal until they've left the battlefield. But that's another topic. Lift has grown on me. And finding out WHY she asked the Nightwatcher what she did hit me in the feels. It's the type of thing a kid worries about. Growing up. Becoming someone different. Before they realize that we all become different people throughout our lives, even throughout the same year. It's just part of who we are. As for Shallan...I actually enjoy much of her stuff. In the first book, her chapters were a nice change of pace, being less about epic battles and more about this girl getting in over her head. In the second book, she was learning to stand on her own two feet, and learning her powers. She provides a nice counterpoint to Kaladin, and has different issues, which help her feel real. In book three, she started the whole Persona thing, and I wasn't a huge fan, and now, in book 4, she's full blown psychotic, basically. Having listened to the books over again, there are definitely signs that Pattern wasn't the same cryptic she'd bonded the first time, and there were definitely clues that she'd killed her spren. But she did seem to have a breakdown in this one. I suppose that's needed, though, to progress to the next ideal, in any Order. You have to break more. Kal had to not only admit, but accept, that he couldn't save everyone, and Shallan had to finally admit the last secret she'd been refusing to acknowledge. The previous Ideals were all hard to admit, and each one required the soul to break a little further in order to get to a place where they COULD say those ideals. So it makes sense that the anti would be upped when going for this next one. And I love Wit. I just love him. And I absolutely love that he is bonded, permanently as far as we can see, to Design, a Spren who has absolutely no imagination and calls him out on all his dumb sh*t. He totally deserves that. Either way, I enjoyed the book. It was a needed addition. Much was explained, and the characters developed well.
    1 like
  28. Hey guys! I’m back for a little bit. Sorry for just leaving I kinda forgot about the shard and started focusing on school.
    1 like
  29. Agreed. A talented Radiant wielding Nightblood with plenty of Stormlight or any of the Heralds (with their native sword or Nightblood) could probably take down a Fullborn in an ambush. The biggest factor would be the Radiant or Herald could cut away the steel and gold metal mind in the first moments. That would make the playing field almost level. A (very) clever Elantrian could probably separate them from their metalminds or turn them to corn. The AonDor can do almost anything on Sel, including make disguises, and Elantrian have higher mental capacities at all times. That suggests that an Elantrian with a grudge could figure out where the steel and gold metalminds are then take them away. A different Elantrian could at the same time create a very hot fire in the Fullborn's belly and melt all of their metals. The metal would then form into an random alloy that is probably not allomantically useful. A Threnodite could cut themselves and smear the blood on the Fullborn to attract all of the ghosts in the area.
    1 like
  30. 1 like
  31. I will sign up as Araolis. Rather grouchy old man with a porch and a rocking chair.
    1 like
  32. Thank you so much! You are so kind. I do obsess too much over Kaladin. I would love for you to let me know if you like the first one I wrote, which takes place immediately after Oathbringer. It is called “Elebet Kholin” and is on this site. Different character and story—just like the name— mine Sandersonized.
    1 like
  33. 1 like
  34. I meant the phrasing itself: "Periodically throughout Scadrial’s history, a man or woman gained access to vast amounts of power, with incredible effects. The most obvious evidence..." seemed to imply Ascensions aside from the ones which had massive effects
    1 like
  35. Try Orson Scott Card’s stuff. If I remember correctly he has a series or two that were fantasy. I listened to one semi recently, but I don’t remember what it was called and I no longer have access to it. Sorry I can’t be more helpful.
    1 like
  36. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
    1 like
  37. I’m back! Depressed and struggling, but alive all the same!
    1 like
  38. I'm writing a thing! Specifically, a story called Chosen. It's like, a weird, trope-subverty thing. The premise of it is a classic "Chosen One" story, but told from the perspective of the mentor. It also does, like, other things with the plot, as you'll see as I write more of the story. I just have the rough draft of Chapter 1 written right now. Don't expect any more from me this week - I've got school crem to do - but I expect to be doing a lot of writing this summer. Constructive criticism would be very much appreciated. Chosen 1.
    1 like
  39. Imagine you are torturing someone for 4,000 years and they never break. What is the new thing at year 4001 that actually makes the person crack? That's weird. If Taln did in fact crack, what's it that Odium found to use? And Odium seems MAAAAD. Odium trashed the Taln temples above all to the point where the Theylans even noticed it. Was Odium pissed at Taln for holding out for 4000 years, or was he mad Taln never broke at all? I am saying that Taln breaking at year 4001 makes little sense to me. What if he never broke? Some people think the Everstorm somehow made Taln's torture moot, but I am saying what if another herald was sent to Braize (Shallan's mom) and then that Herald broke? The idea Taln broke at year 4001 is weird, and the idea the Everstorm made the Oathpact moot also doesn't exactly work. Taln came back before the Everstorm crossed into the physical, and since the ever storm took millennia to tug across Shadesmaar, I just don't buy that that the everstorm caused Taln to return.
    1 like
  40. Of ALL the places for Brandon to reuse this totally made up word, he uses it in a passage about a character writing a bunch of nonsense so that the people trying to decrypt her messages will waste a bunch of their time??? I think this is 100% a case of Brandon having a good laugh about how hard we've worked to figure out secrets where there are none.
    1 like
  41. So today I was at work and was thinking about allomancy and FTL technology when I realized that speed bubbles compress space. I can't believe no one has mentioned this before, so I'll act as if this has been proposed before and try and add as much detail as possible. Since I had many hours to work this out, here's what I have: I am basing this on the idea that the cosmere still has einsteinian physics, because I don't think Brandon is just throwing out all that stuff. He's relying on that. And here, there was an idea for a FTL drive called the alcubierre drive. The basic idea is that while no THING can move faster than light, space-time can. So, like surfing a wave, you compress space in front of you, and expand space behind you, and end up going faster than light. So, what I realized is that a speed bubble can't be dilating time without dilating space to some degree or another. Obviously it's not a huge amount, because it's not affecting the people inside enough for anyone to go "huh, this is weird." But, if you're compressing time, you should also to some degree be compressing space as well, based on the whole idea of space-time. And that means with 2 bubbles, you could potentially achieve FTL travel. This idea has several things going for it, but obviously there's a bit more to this process than just a slider and a pulser in a rocket ship. First, this is a relatively viable method of FTL travel, given that unlike many other methods in stories, it doesn't break hard physics. The main issue in the real world is that we don't have a great way to compress space and expand space in the way that an alcubierre drive would require. But huh, look at that! Coincidentally, Bendalloy and Cadmium EXACTLY fit the bill for what you would need! It's almost as if Brandon read about the alcubierre drive at some point, and decided to create speed bubbles to fit the bill, so that they could be around as a power but then later on be realized for their greater potential! Even recently, he's mentioned that there's more to speed bubbles in relation to FTL travel that we haven't figured out yet, and we've gone on and on about the ability for cadmium to enable a "cryosleep" of sorts. This would exactly fit the bill for something reasonable for them to discover in the future once they have a better understanding of realmatics and physics. Speaking of which, real quick, I'll list off what Scadrial needs to get to to have this be a viable technology. First, they need to get an understanding of Einsteinian physics, specifically space-time. Furthermore, they need to understand that speed bubbles are locked on in location to things like the planet, or a moving train. This would allow them to extrapolate that a bubble would stay in place on a spaceship as well. Finally, they need to have completely mechanized the metallic arts in order to get the ship off the ground so that this drive will even work, because it won't work on a planet. Furthermore, I expect them to have figured out how to create spirit webs with allomantic powers that can draw more investiture than even lerasium mistborn would be able to, much less any allomancer born to their powers in that era. So, here's what I'm imagining Era 4 to look like. A long, thin ship stands up on the ground, surrounded by a large, ringed tower. The tower activates, each ring activating a constant upward steelpush on the ship, sending it up and up, faster and faster, like an allomantic rail gun. Once in space, the ship stores its weight as it determines its course by going through similar, larger rings in space. Then, in the back, a large, powerful cadmium bubble activates, and in the front, a similar bendalloy bubble activates. Space time is compressed in the front, and expanded in the back, sending the ship to speeds that are faster than light. In the middle of the long ship, between the large bubbles, smaller, nested cadmium bubbles multiplicatively slow down time for the people waiting through the voyage. It probably also has another form of propulsion, perhaps a solar sail or ionic engines or something. It could land something on a new planet by simply finding a large enough metal deposit to push against as it descends. Now, my hope is that either I will get the chance to ask him about space compression next time I see him, or that someone else will get around to asking it. Given that he worked with Peter closely on the physics of speed bubbles, and that an understanding of space time is fairly universal, I can't imagine that he would create a power like speed bubbles where they manipulate time in such a way, and NOT have it affect space as well, especially as it affecting space leads into exactly the sorts of discoveries we expect from scadrial at some point. Frankly, I'm more surprised that I can't seem to remember this being mentioned before. edit: oh, and I figured I should mention this thought about Era 4 here. Brandon has always made it clear Era 4 isn't going to be the Avengers. My thought is that instead, it's going to be more akin to Star Trek. With a more focused plot line.
    1 like
  42. I just read something near the end of OB and immediately came to 17thshard to search “Renarin austism.” It was suddenly obvious that he’s on the spectrum somewhere.... I really enjoyed the WOB regarding psychology, as it put us all on a spectrum of varied ways of being, which I think is closer to the truth of it. i can easily take his word for it that Renarin isn’t quite where Steris is while at the same time accepting without doubt he is dealing with some of the associated issues... It is helpful to have the other WOB regarding Renarin and anxiety - a different story altogether. I just suddenly saw Renarin when I clicked about him being on the autism spectrum. How crappy must that be with Adolin as a brother and the Blackthorn as a father? a brother who has more than his fair share of social intelligence. As an aside: Steris has Aspergers. Kal deals with depression. Renarin has anxiety and stuff. And, jumping planets really quickly, Kelsier is as mad as a hatter. Lol
    1 like
  43. Renarin's definitely on the spectrum. The depth of that is the only thing in question. Considering the two WoBs I posted, and looking at the dates, I err towards the more recent of the two, which is the one about Steris. There are others though, even if they aren't technically about Renarin directly. I mainly wanted to share this one which I'll spoiler, since it's about Steris (and it's long) and not Renarin, but it gives good insight into why he includes these things.
    1 like
  44. It's like every scene with Renarin in it just exploded.
    1 like
  45. Yes, though we've got conflicting WoBs about it.
    1 like
This leaderboard is set to Los Angeles/GMT-07:00
×
×
  • Create New...