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  1. hey, I reread the well of ascension last week! it's pretty much a giant game of among us, Kandra edition. I noticed something else during it.
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  2. A sonnet I have brought into the world to follow the others from before. Musician Divine Tune that flows forth most softly and subtly, Come now and cast upon us your healing, You who might shapes reality humbly will be accused most falsely of stealing. Flute of moon illuminate our spirits, We long to bathe in your rapturous waves. Bind us in a passion without limits, Transform us into your most willing slaves. Mortal ears most unworthy seek you out, In shadow, the souls walk harmoniously, Frantic chaos calls even those with clout, Joyous song sung ceremoniously. Call us to you now O' muse of muses, Truly we are yours without excuses.
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  3. This thread is out of the canon plot, any characters can visit at any time. On the edge of the business district in the Alleycity is a large office building, no one is particularly sure of its size. The top of the building is obscured in a multicolored cloud, not unlike a fog cloud that shimmers like a mirage, and anyone that has tried to walk to the top loses count on the way up and gets waylaid as they go. The building itself is a fairly standard office in design, but it seems to be in the process of deconstruction, with doors enlarged and the lower windows broken and repaired with any materials possible. The entire block leading up to the building has been abandoned, not because of the look of the building, but the rhythmic thumping coming from the building around the clock. The windows of this building are constantly flashing and shaking in time with the beat of the music. Entering the building you immediately are bombarded with the sweet smell of a ransacked table covered in platters of cookies, constantly being replenished by a flow of department staff. The sweet smell of pastries is in full war with the other smells, coming from the mass of jumping, moshing, dancing, sweating bodies, coming from the floor and the ceiling. The room is coated in a light fog coming from the DJ booth, with a set of covering the entire back wall of the room and wrapping around the corner to the next wall. The DJ himself, a tall man, with sharp hawk-like features standing behind the fog machines and flashing lights, just working with his mixing table and discs to create the soundtrack for the party. The pale lines on his arms flashing in the changing lights of the rave, His light blond hair shaking every time the bass hits. Each floor of the building is much the same minus the DJ, rows of speakers, tables everywhere with all kinds of confections and bowls of metal powder and an impossibly large amount of people. To accommodate a party of this size the interior walls of the building were removed, although not by a contractor, just by the party goers as the party got too big for the space it was inhabiting. At one point the elevator was broken by the rave and removed along with the walls, but the shaft was kept as a means of transport. The walls having their own gravity that everyone can walk on, the same method that allows the party to extend to the ceilings of the building. Coming in and taking the sights of this place in is a shock to the senses but a welcome one. Welcome to the DA Departyment.
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  4. This is your current votecount (hint, it might be a good time to @ your GMs if your vote does not appear in this count!): Oh. That was...easy. No I was just sick and Devo and I were maining the write-ups this time as you do.
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  5. I very nearly attempted suicide today. I’m going to be admitted to the hospital tomorrow. That is all.
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  6. yeah ok sorry. i know its pride but the panda was getting too cutsey for me
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  7. Gecko pic spam! Her name is Petri (pea-tree, not pay-tree like Fadran says it) and she's very polite and adorable and sweet
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  8. You talk about Kaladin’s views about lighteyes as if he was born hating them. He wasn’t. In his flashbacks, he regarded lighteyes as heroic, courageous people. His best friend when he was young was a lighteyes. But then, ‘it’ hits the fan. Roshone starved his family, married his best friend and conscripted his brother to his death. Amaram, a lighteyes who was meant to be honourable and have never lied, killed his squad and sold him to slavery. Then, another lighteyes, Sadeas, shows no regard for darkeyed life and has Kaladin strung up in a highstorm. At this point, Kaladin has barely even had a conversation with a lighteyes who didn’t harm or kill him or his companions. And you question why he finds it hard to let go of his beliefs? Old habits die hard, especially when those habits are forged by extreme oppression and circumstances. It’s pretty much the same with Shallan. Mental health cannot be pushed aside and dealt with later, in real life and on Roshar. That is one of the main themes of the series
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  10. This is a bit of a bizarre one - but my phone broke, and while my dad was trying to fix it, he saw one of my google searches about depression and anxiety, and asked about it. Which means the ice has been broken and I have more of an idea as to how this imminent conversation is going to go. Oh yeah, and I get to go on a mission trip very soon!
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  11. this requires it's own OFFICIAL status update, as well as a pinging of everyone I know of who feels this is important. because THIS IS IMPPORRTANT> VEERY MUCH SO @Szeth's Facepalm @Thaidakar the Ghostblood @Sequence @The Wandering Wizard @Channelknight Fadran @Spook's biggest fan idk who else i think thats all. *ahem* gUYS SHES HERE SHES FINALLY HERE SHE JOINED THE SHARD AHAHAHAHAHAHA HAPPY DAY YAAAAAY
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  12. Thanks, @Frustration. I'm glad there are still people who realize that not every relationship involving strong emotions must be sexual in nature. That would be a poor world indeed.
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  13. he can't harm or inflict pain, he doesn't bind to a spren (although the rest of "Bridge Four" do)... and: #26 March 29, 2022 Share Copy Play/Pause 8giraffe8 Other than Hoid and Sigzil, have we witnessed "on screen" a character actively under the effects of a Torment in your other published works so far? Brandon Sanderson ...Yes, asterisk. I mean, you have, but you wouldn't be able to notice it yet.
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  14. Alright bois!!!! I'M WRITING A TRILOGY. Some of you saw the post I made about the plant based magic system, which will be the magic system of this book, but I hid that post to post the final ideas here. I will put everything contained in the old post in a spoiler right here. Now. This info will be crucial to the book, and the lore surrounding the Verdurian I plan to write into a prelude short story. But I spent two hours last night planning out a rough draft of the plot of book 1. It's going to be totally dope. Some basic info: Book 1 will be titled Verdur, and will mostly be character and world development, with some plot development towards the end and middle. Book 2 will be titled Sanctum, and will follow our main characters on a journey that can be most similarly compared to the journey made by Wax and Wayne (and co) to the bands of mourning place. Book 3 will be titled Pandura, and will follow the culmination of several lost-to-time prophecies in-world, discovered by main crew at the Sanctum. I'm very excited to write this, and I will dedicate the rest of this post to explaining the politics, countries, and other misc details. The continent Glii is also one country, split into 6 provinces. There are technically 7 provinces, but the 7th is just the northern 1/3 of the continent, known simply as The Forest. The 6 provinces hold a host of humans, and every province has a different culture, but they all share the same ideas regarding how they came to be and Verdur. People from the western provinces look Asian, and people from the eastern provinces look Caucasian. As I come up with reasons the Provinces are important, I'll add it. The 6 Provinces (West to East): Galur Fildur Vulno Thalo Alphii Rekni All 6 Provinces are run by an Elected, who deals with law inside the province. The Presidents are under the Hiprime and Shiprime of Glii, who deal with affairs that span the whole country. The Elected are voted in by popular vote by the people. The entire country takes democracy and feudalism, and mushes it together into something I call Feumocracy. (patent pending jk( yes i created a political system)) Feumocracy is interesting, because we have voting, and court, but we also have nobility. the nobility are crucial as they hold a lot of sway in the provinces and the country as a whole. When an Elected is running for office as a Candidate, it's a good idea to have some nobles on their side, as people will listen more. The southern continent, Vurnii, is cold and kinda dark (see my solar explanation (ima explain that more in a bit)) with one solitary village near the Holy Spring. Now let me attempt to re-explain the thing with the planet. So Glii is in permanent Summer/Spring and Vurnii is in permanent Winter because of how the orbit around the sun works. The axis works like a wobbly top going around an object. Except there's a pattern. The thing you hold to spin the top, the handle, is always leaning towards the center object. in this case, the "handle" of Gliivurnii is always leaning towards the sun, as the planet rotates around the sun, thus keeping Glii in Summer/Spring and Vurnii in Winter. I hope that makes sense. Now i think that's everything, so I'm gonna post this. K great. Cool.
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  15. Not plot here, but I didn't know where to put it. From the depths of the archives comes an ancient document. Lost for the last few hundred years it just turned up behind a cabinet in the R&D lab. The original recipe.
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  16. I’m back fools Hit me up if you wanna sell your soul
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  17. MR58 Aftermath: A Conspiracy Enacted No writeup again. I'll get to this one eventually though. ~======€ The Environmentalist's Guild has won! Congratulations to @Illwei and @Bort! Players Roles: New roles and changes I have thought up: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Up6FQviTIE9F41HcSeU0n-Qlk4Ib9Av1GhbQC16Tp9E/edit?usp=drivesdk Elim Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jzvq5UdWNTK5atvtgpJatG6UQsJ0IeSVN57vibW1XC8/edit?usp=drivesdk Spec/Dead Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HRgkEEzEWtgV838SggPDAT6q5MK1YvEwjt6OR0fpd9w/edit?usp=drivesdk Master Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13I1613OA884G5zxA6nZAP0OAcmRTcIDe7M8KxssKTA4/edit?usp=drivesdk
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  18. Uh... or maybe it will be a case of fate worse than death, and you basically turn into a spectre that can't interact with anything? There's also the idea that the term "Spiritweb" comes from the web of Connections of someone's life. So, unraveling your soul doesn't sound like a great idea. Some method of hiding Connections and creating false Connections might be safer for hiding, assuming they exist (given that Hoid can hide from the Shards, there's probably something, some method that can accomplish this)
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  19. Given this WoB I'm pretty sure plate's melting point is well above what would be reasonable, if it can be melted at all.
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  20. Because they are the only ones with access to the surge of the Illumination.
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  21. I'm planning a campaign as we speak. Well, I'm telling myself I'm planning it. In practice, I'm probably going to improvise the whole thing.
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  22. The books will be realeased to the public at some point after they are delivered to kickstarter backers.
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  23. Here’s Sierra. I’ve had trouble drawing more.
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  24. Wow June went by FAST, stuff has been hecking busy! Also I forget to check the Shard for a week or two and I get so many notifications
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  25. Did a thing: Go answer the question:
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  26. Right, continuing with the pretense that this is a polite discussion... One sided crush, sure, but there's enough representational problems going on here without adding more fuel to the fire
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  27. But, why. Why post this? How does this even make sense. please, please explain yourself
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  28. This fansite it's crazy. I think this is a very cool website, a BrandonFans form to lear about Cosmere (reason why i'm here)
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  29. This probably belongs in the Secret Project section
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  30. My reading of that scene is that Odium was working to manipulate Hoid in some way but figuring out the best way to do it, and removing memories of each "bad" attempt. I think that the significance of Hoid's "everything went as planned" thought is that it is a result of that manipulation, not Hoid somehow predicting or influencing which memories the new Odium would annihilate. Hoid is wrong because that's how Odium wants him to think, not what really happened. But beyond that I think it's even less likely that Hoid wants or needs his bond to Design to be removed, especially with such a complicated method. He's extremely knowledgeable about the Cosmere as well as magic systems, their uses, and consequences. He made a point of bonding Design when he had the chance, and I doubt he'd do that incautiously-- why bond a spren just to turn around a short time later and lose it, along with the power it granted? And if he really needed to, he could just sever the bond himself without risk of exposing himself to Odium. It's not impossible, though, that Hoid had something he needed the bond to do and then did it between the end of Oathbringer and the end of Rhythm of War. We really don't know what he's up to or what methods he might employ to do it. But I suspect that the "something will happen that is relevant" is more likely to involve people with bonds being more able to travel around generally. Unfortunately it'll probably be a while before we find out for sure...
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  31. Welcome! You are on the right track as far as your reading order. The later SA books will only be better with what you are reading now. Only thing I would consider is reading Mistborn Secret History before reading Rhythm of War (and possibly the Wax and Wayne books) but not 100% necessary. Btw Warbreaker is one of my favorite of Brandon's books and I think a little underrated.
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  32. Beware the cookies, they are often Hemalurgically spiked. Welcome to the Shard!
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  33. Adonalsium's Godmetal is suspected to be Dragonsteel (you can check out the Dragonsteel Prime chapters that are available on Brandon's site for a bit more detail, but there's not much)
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  34. Don'tcha just love it when you discover a folder of cruft in your music app to the tune of, oh, around 200GB?
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  35. Similar, yet so different. I also find Shallan to be my least favorite main character(*) in Roshar. Like TCU, I prefer Shallan's chapters from TWoK and WoR. I dislike the Shallan chapters in OB, and RoW was only slightly better. For me it basically it comes down to: Early in TWoK, Shallan really evokes the type of people I knew in the Military - first time away from home (especially an oppressive/abusive home) and really just a bit unpredictable and weird; mostly because they are in the process of trying to find how they interact with others when not under the (real or perceived) social pressures of home. The "Theft" subplot seems much more far fetched on the first read-through than it does on a second (and subsequent) readings after having seen the flashbacks in WoR. If she had the strength to poison and strangle her father to protect Balat, then I can believe she would design such a long-shot plan to protect her family In the first two books, you can almost feel the tug inside Shallan between her instinctual reactions and the learned-supressed-reactions When Veil is introduced, it's just an illusion and "role" Then we get to Oathbringer - supposedly only a week (or less) after the end of WoR. Suddenly, Veil is a competing identity, then adds Radiant for, uh, why? The DID, and Shallan in OB just never felt like a logical progression from the Shallan of WoR. I actually re-read her first few OB chapters (the first read-through for OB) because I was convinced I missed something somewhere. Basically, I find it difficult to suspend disbelief for her situation. Dissociative identity disorder is rare, and DID where all the personalities are aware of all other personalities are even more rare; so without black-outs and missing time or a personality that is cut off from the others, all of her chapters feel to me like somebody trying to pretend they have DID rather than somebody actually struggling with this illness. Besides, BS missed the chance at a great hook of giving us a chapter or two from one of Shallan's personalities without revealing it was Shallan right away (and having "Shallan" experience the fallout from blackout and missing time) *Note: I say main character because I dislike Jasnah and Lirin more, but neither are main characters (yet)
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  36. Aight, humans, life is getting busier so I probably won't be on as much for the next couple weeks. Just want to let you know so you know I wasn't eaten by a chasmfiend.
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  37. Writing is giving me a new appretiation for Brandon. I had to push myself to get 30,15 words today, and that was hard. Also my finger hurts like crap because of it. Yet Brandon wrote 19,000 words in a day to finish RoW and at one point wrote 29,000 in a day. Words cannot express how much I respect that man right now.
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  38. The Haggis cannot be destroyed, Nameless, by any craft that we here possess. The Haggis was made in the fires of Sheep. Only there can it be unmade. It must be taken deep into the Sheeprealm and cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came. One of you must do this.
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  39. Night Two: Striking Sparks The Frebarind Finisher was, evidently, not yet finished. “Lamentations!” Faleast cried out, in the streets. “Dreadful lamentations! Two bodies discovered—” “—Praise the Ja!” Eiwlil interjected, punctuating each syllable with a vigorous shake of her head. “—likely victims of the Frebarind Finisher!” “Praise the Ja!” “Death stalks the streets of Frebarind!” “Praise the Ja!” “A hundred boxings to the one who can put an end to the scourge of the Frebarind Finisher!” “Praise the Ja!” “Dreadful, woeful, tragic lamentations!” “Praise the Ja!” Except, Landis thought, the outlook was at once both more dire and hopeful than expected. One of their own, though thankfully not a member of the Synod, had proven to be Spiked. He remembered Stick: peculiarly, both the President and the Treasurer of the Tathingdwen Tautological Society of Tautology were named Stick. No doubt President Stick would be grieved to hear of Treasurer Stick’s passing. Even worse to know that Treasurer Stick had become an informant for the Steel Inquisition, spying on the other Feruchemists. They have so many eyes among us, he thought to himself, dismayed. Worms in the rotten core of an apple. Last night, when the death was reported. He’d willed the other members of the Synod to listen. To understand what this meant. To act. If the Steel Inquisition had suborned a full Feruchemist, they could suborn anyone at all. No one was beyond suspicion. “It doesn’t matter,” another in the Synod had said. Landis knew who the man was, although he wore a mask. Most of the Synod did, these days. They believed the enemy could not see them, could not work out their identities at the meetings. As though they did not all know who their fellow Synod members were, even. “Can we even be truly sure that Stick was working for the Steel Inquisition?” “Those puncture wounds didn’t kill,” said another, who had elected to wear a headband instead of a mask. Landis wasn’t sure why. “They were inflicted before death, and there was very little bleeding around them. She was an agent of the Inquisition.” “But then where are the spikes?” asked a third, apparently confident enough in the anonymity provided by a domino mask. “Spikes do not disappear on their own.” “The answer,” said Landis, having had enough, “Is fairly obvious, isn’t it?” He looked at them, at the men and women of the Synod, hidden beneath their masks and that lone headband, and the others who stood among them, playing their games, burying their heads in the sand, and felt tired and frustrated and irritated. Hadn’t they lost enough? Hadn’t they all lost enough of their number? Ias and Hazen and Pashan and Radur, and the person they’d sent to check up on him had reported that Vardenwith had been killed. Did they know? Landis wondered. It wasn’t the first time he’d considered the Synod had to be compromised, and no doubt Vardenwith was killed for the seat he was filling in. Radur’s seat. “An accomplice,” said Raven. She nodded to him, as she strode into the meeting-place. “Inadeus was killed by a swift toxin of unknown provenance.” “What does that mean?” demanded one of the masked Synod members present. “It means an assassin,” snapped Landis. “It means the Steel Ministry,” Raven said. Calmly. Evenly. “It means that whoever killed Inadeus, that assassin procured a poison that is rare and proscribed enough that I can’t recognise it, which means that person has access and connections.” The room erupted. “But does that mean Steel Inquisition?” one of the Synod asked, who wore no mask. Confident, no doubt, in all gathered there. “How much of poisons do you know, Raven?” “Enough,” Raven replied. “Enough,” Landis said, in the same heartbeat, an echo of hers. “Which of us has an enemy—any enemy—that would pay for our deaths with an assassin, and one who knows and has access to rare poisons?” Silence. “The Steel Inquisition,” said the one wearing the domino mask. “The Steel Inquisition,” Landis agreed, grimly. “Stick was suborned. Stick was working for the Steel Inquisition. But there is another.” “You seem to know much of what transpired with the Frebarind Synod,” Olaf said. “And with Landis.” Kais shrugged. “One does not journey at the speed of thought. It took me time to travel down to Frebarind, time from when the letters were dispatched, and news of Hazen’s death. And then I had to investigate intensively, to assess the situation on the ground, and to understand what had happened in the days following Hazen’s death, and Landis’s leadership of the Synod. I did not arrive in Frebarind until several days after Inadeus’s death.” “A full Feruchemist suborned…” Olaf said, letting his voice trail off. The thought was horrendous, but Olaf knew as well as any House Lord that loyalty could be bought. Any man could be bought, in the end. The real question was one of price. Kais’s mention of the Synod and their interest in rare metals had brought him here. The Jerzy wine deal was interesting—an opportunity to diversify House Ffnord’s portfolio—but it was the suggestion of the Synod and the hint of knowledge, that the Feruchemists knew more about metals than even Allomancers, that had lured him all the way out to the Terris Dominance, and the Sign of Fire. Every man had his price. This was Olaf’s. “I suspect the spikes are capable of subverting a person’s will,” Kais said. “But I don’t think we can really know for sure. In any case, it seemed the Steel Inquisition was offering Stick a bounty on Feruchemical spikes brought back to their agents. And the Tathingdwen Tautological Society of Tautology had been in the red for some time…” “Ah. That explains it. You followed the boxings.” “As one does.” Olaf wondered, idly, if the bounty on Feruchemical spikes was still active. But he abandoned the thought; the prospect of metallurgical knowledge for the moment was sufficient draw, and while everyone knew the standard proportions for Allomantic metals, still, metallurgists always hoarded their secrets, seeking alloys of interest. And if the Synod had access to metals or alloys he hadn’t yet heard of… No, Olaf thought, the bounty wasn’t particularly enticing. He smiled toothily. “Well, what happened to the spikes?” The noblewoman at the next table over was nursing her drink. She’d been there the whole time since they’d come in, and something about her stuck out to Olaf. Probably nothing. And yet… “The Synod wasn’t able to establish this,” Kais answered. “But it takes a certain sort of person to recognise the spikes for what they are—to infiltrate Frebarind, the Steel Inquisition, we’d later discover, utilised spikes that were less conventional and therefore less recognisable than those employed by the Inquisitors. And of course, this meant they were easier to conceal. And it takes a certain sort of person to recognise the spikes and harvest them, all the same…” Frebarind didn’t know. That fact leaped out at Landis as he watched the crowd gather in the marketplace, Eiwlil shaking her head vigorously as she exhorted the masses to praise the Ja, and as Faleast did his own preaching, crying lamentations and the news of the day. As far as Frebarind knew, the Frebarind Finisher was just a single killer. And last night, the Finisher had struck again, claiming the lives of both Stick and Vardenwith. Unless someone corrected them. Unless someone told them the truth. He was under no illusions as to how they would react. They would be afraid. The Frebarind Finisher had showed that no one was safe; not full Feruchemists. Not the head of the Synod-in-Frebarind himself. No one at all was safe. But that was the point, Landis thought. Sometimes, you had to be cruel to be kind. “A moment,” he said, laying a hand on Faleast’s shoulder. The town crier glanced at him with a sly smile. Many members of the Synod had privately commented they’d found Faleast…unsettling. Not for the first time, Landis could see why. There was something about Faleast’s eyes, something that wasn’t quite right. “Lamentations,” Faleast said, as if it was a greeting, as though he took some secretive joy in the word. “What is it that you need, Landis?” “The Frebarind Finisher is dead,” Landis stated. “And how do you know this?” “Puncture wounds,” Landis said. “But she didn’t die from them.” Faleast’s mind worked quickly, Landis would give him that. “Spikes? Torture?” “Spikes.” “Lamentation,” said Faleast. Landis had the impression the man said the word the way a skaa would have sworn by the Lord Ruler’s name. “And you want them to know this.” “I want them to know they are not safe.” “Lamentations! Dreadful lamentations!” Faleast was shouting the news in the marketplace, punctuated by Eiwlil’s preaching. “Stick was the Frebarind Finisher!” “I knew that,” Izzy Dedyet declared, proudly, as a crowd stopped and milled about, listening to Faleast. “I put out the kill contract myself.” “I…” Jeral said. Izzy’s smile was just a little too bright, reminding him of a sword. His knuckles tightened about the hilt of his cane-sword. It wasn’t the golden-hilted cane-sword though. It was just a regular cane-sword, a gentleman’s fashionable gentlething, that Jeral had taken to carrying through the streets to feel a little safer. Safety, security, and peace. Frebarind had none of that right now. “...I can actually believe that.” “Praise the Ja!” Eiwlil intoned, shaking her head warningly. “The Ja has struck down the Frebarind Finisher! Praise the Ja! If Izzy lies, the Ja will strike her down too! Praise the Ja! Or whoever did the actual deed will silence her for good. Praise the Ja!” “Izzy says she’s reformed,” Steel muttered, after a long, mostly-mumbled diatribe on stab-happy Izzy Dedyet, with the air of a man reliving long-buried trauma. “I’d sooner believe that the Lord Ruler himself has turned Jaist.” “Well,” Izzy said, advancing on Faleast. “Where’s my hundred boxings?” “Claim it from the watch,” Faleast informed her. “I plan to.” “Right,” said Jeral, after a pause. “So I guess we know that Izzy isn’t the Frebarind Finisher. That’s great.” “The Frebarind Finisher ist dead, then!” X exclaimed, nodding approvingly. Her dogs milled about on their leashes. “This ist very good. Ve need to kill even more people!” “What,” said Steel, flatly. “Actually, about that…” Faleast coughed. “Lamentations! Joyful lamentations!” he raised his volume back to an all-out shout, meant to carry across the market square. “Frebarind Finisher had accomplice! No one in Frebarind is safe until this phantom menace is stopped!” “I say we go to Artwyn’s store and ransack it,” Stann said, loudly. “Artwyn dropped by my place for a chat last night, and he said he’d made it to someone else’s home too.” Stann was paging idly through an immaculately-maintained flipbook, as though in boredom. “Old man like him, where’s he get the energy to run about so quickly? I bet you anything he’s lying.” “Lying doesn’t make someone the accomplice of the Frebarind Finisher,” Jeral said, sensibly. Though he certainly thought there was a decently-sized chance that the accomplice of the Frebarind Finisher would lie. “Well, yes,” Stann admitted. “But it’s bloody unnatural.” Artwyn scowled at the clerk. “I exercise,” he snapped. “I use a personal planner to schedule my day, and I hydrate.” “Unnatural isn’t the problem,” Steel interjected. “Evil is. Izzy’s unnatural but that doesn’t mean Izzy works with the Frebarind Finisher. If anything, I’m pretty sure we all agree that getting someone to stab Stick means that Izzy’s got her heart in the right place. …If she has one.” That last bit was said very, very quietly. “Look,” Stann said. “I don’t have much time today to stand around the marketplace and start yelling to and fro until we decide to take matters in our own hands, save ourselves, and go find the Frebarind Finisher—well, the Frebarind Finisher’s accomplice. What about we skip the argument and get to the bit where we show up to ransack Artwyn’s shop with torches and pitchforks?” Sparky was awake and peering out the window when the crowd arrived, though without torches, and in one case, armed with a plain-hilted cane-sword. “I still think this is a mistake,” Jeral grumbled. “We should be looking at someone more suspicious, like Eran. Giving out cookies like that is suspicious.” “Mmmfffm,” said Steel, brushing crumbs off his fingers. “I think,” said Stann, “We should be applying pressure to Artwyn. What are we even doing here?” Eran smiled beatifically, a basket of freshly-baked cookies tucked under an arm. “You don’t think Stick was too quick to distance herself from Sparky?” “Lord Ruler,” Sparky muttered, unable to look away. They felt their knees go weak. It wasn’t torches and pitchforks but having a mob at their door made their heart sink to the pit of their stomach. Stick hadn’t even stood a chance. If they tried, they could make a break for it. They had a back door. “This is the end, isn’t it?” Sparky said aloud, scrubbing furiously at their eyes with the back of their hand. They thought about the others, left alone, left to fend for themselves in this cruel world. Run away, the spikes whispered. Save yourself. But Sparky was rooted to the spot with horror, with fear, with anxiety, and with regret for those they would be leaving behind. “So this is how it ends…” they whispered. “Sparky!” Artwyn called out. He thwacked the door briskly with his staff. “Sparky, we know you’re in there! Come on out now, make it easier on yourself.” Jeral gripped the hilt of his cane-sword, alert, ready for anything. He wondered if the agents of the Steel Inquisition were among them, laughing. “Praise the Ja!” Eiwlil was screaming, shaking her head aggressively at the door as Artwyn thwacked it. He resolved to keep a closer eye on her; Eiwlil was too bloodthirsty for Jeral’s tastes. There was no response. Artwyn, his patience evidently at an end, smashed the door in at the hinges. “He’s too strong for an old man!” Stann complained, as the mob entered Vedel manor. “Lord Ruler, Stann,” Steel said, exasperated. “We need to find Sparky immediately.” “They’re running, or maybe they’re hiding like a rat!” X shouted, and let her hounds loose. “Ve vill find them, won’t ve, my lovelies? Ve vill!” Eventually, they found the room overlooking the porch. “Don’t move,” Sparky said. They levelled the tip of their sword at Jeral, who was in the lead. The hounds were baying now, and the sword in Sparky’s hand trembled. “Come on,” Jeral said, and now he let go of his cane-sword. “Sparky, we can talk about this, I’m sure it’s all a misunderstanding—” “It isn’t a misunderstanding!” Sparky snapped. “You killed Stick and now you’re here to brutally murder me too just because I listened to a great story, a very good story from that Inquisitor and he told me I was doing the right thing and maybe it would matter, and I would matter, and I would make a difference, and I regret everything, not the killing, no, you all had to be stopped, but that you’ve found me and it’s going to end like this and I’m going to leave them all alone. I never really had a chance, did I? I wasn’t going to live!” Jeral blinked at the unexpected diatribe. “Er,” he said, intelligently. “I knew it! You’ve come for me, to hunt me down like an animal!” Sparky’s eyes were wild. “Well, I’m not going to go down without a fight, I’m not helpless, I’m going to make Stick proud!” Sparky lunged. Almost without thought, working on reflex, Jeral drew and turned. He felt the hot sting as Sparky’s sword slashed past him. He heard the hiss of the sword-stroke turn into the meatier sound of sword meeting flesh, watched as Sparky crumpled to the floor, a scarlet line opening from left ear to right collarbone. “It mattered…” Sparky wheezed, and then Sparky was dead. “Please tell me they were spiked,” Jeral said, aloud, as the other inhabitants of Frebarind gaped behind him. “Because if not, I’ve just killed a kid, and I think I’m about to be sick.” JNV / Sparky was struck down with a cane-sword! They were a Spiked Sentry! Vote Count: Night Two has begun! It will end in a little over 23 hours, on Sunday 5 June 2022 at 10:00 PM EDT (-4:00 UTC). Get those actions in! Thank you to @Fifth Scholar for handling PMs and spreadsheet actions. This write-up was brought to you by apparently too much interaction with Wyrm. If you tapped or filled a metalmind, you should be receiving a PM shortly. Please be patient as we send those out. Good luck! Player List:
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  40. I think part of what really turned Moash into a full villain is that he continued on his vengeance after the larger external threat of Odium became obvious, and indeed turned to Odium to achieve that vengeance, and also after it became irrelevant. His original intent against Elhokar was arguably justified, depending on your political/moral philosophy about when it's justified to revolt against a bad government/monarch... at that time, also, Odium wasn't known to anybody except Dalinar as a current threat. But now that threat is obvious, and anyway Elhokar is dead and Jasnah is beginning to put through major reforms, including abolishing slavery, with an eye to weakening/balancing the power of the Alethi monarchy. I think there's a parallel to the Fused pursuing their war after it's lost its initial purpose- now they're basically parasites enslaving and even stealing the bodies of the singers, not fighting for their freedom in any real sense.
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  41. Isn’t hoid a mistborn? Unless it’s though a different means he should be proof that anyone can burn the god metals
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  42. My lad for Greatowl University along with a lil sad elf girl (Adily, I started using her in one RP, but now she's in a short story of mine)
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  43. Great job digging that up! Looks like only 150 people will be able to get in the traditional "signing line," selected randomly through a lottery. (Edit: 150 tickets, 2 people per ticket, so up to 300.) There were, like, 2000 people at the last release party, so those odds aren't too good. It might be better to book a last-minute trip to FanX, for those whose goal is to meet Brandon.
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  44. Shallan by a large margin. not funny. not interesting. nothing. this is with the entire story so far in mind. Shallan became better at the end and the chapters were less of a drag to read. on average, shes still by far the worst and most boring character. nothing wrong with that though. I don't have to like everything about a book to enjoy the book in general.
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  45. This is a reference to Dalinar. Should I spoiler it?
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  46. Crawling out of the shadows of anonymous reading... I may be a little late to the party, but onto the original subject, might it me that Rashek was influenced subconsciously by Preservation's Intent from his time in the Well? A lot of tech involves change, which Preservation has been accused of opposing to the point of stagnation. Other things like gunpowder are explosive, which leads to ruination and destruction. No one has, to this day, blown something up to preserve it. What technology did he encourage? Canning. Which is a form of food preservation. I read that as a tip-of-the-hat from Brandon.
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