Satsuoni

Soo... Chapter 84 has a strange numeric code as epigraph. Let's try to decode it here Unless I missed a digit or two, that is it. I have been looking on it for a few days, and so far cannot make head or tails from it It is not a straightforward substitution, since there are too many 2-digit combos. So, the questions to be answered are (for me): Is it a prefix code? Does it include transposition? Does it have a progressive key, like Vigenere? Does it translate into English or Alethi (phonetic)? Does it include actual numbers in code? So.. any ideas? Let's try to discuss it together Edit: The quest is done:

Right. so this topic started here: Feruchemy Revealed, and seemed to generate a lot of resonance, so I thought a separate topic would be welcome.. Feel free to delete it, if that is not so. Summary: I have proposed the possibility of creating a sentient cat-inquisitor by using Hemalurgy to transfer aspects of sentience. Kurkistan has supported the idea, and joined the ranks of (yet unnamed) organization. Soother has expressed some disturbance with the idea, yet joined. Kurkistan has proposed a name "Caton of Inquisition" for the organization, so that will be used unless there is a better idea. I have designated myself as a head researcher of the Caton (And one of very few (or only) human members, since it is unfortunately necessary for the first Cat to be made by human, and taught how to make others. I have also proposed the idea for the initial spike distribution. In this thread, I propose to gather the ideas/opinions related to the Caton, possibly short stores of the deeds performed by the SpyKats (name under consideration... this one is kinda weird), additional spikes, etc. Also, try to keep (more or less) to the canonical, or at least theorized abilities. Ok, I start My assumptions/ theories: 1. What can be stored (Feruchemically), can be stolen. (see above topic) 2. Atium steals the whole spirit web. The effects only vary by the bind point. 3. Sense of identity, etc, applied to an animal can give sentience. Possibly enough of the connection to preservation given by any spikes can give sentience, but unknown. 4. Pieces of other shards (abilities from other worlds) can also be stolen, if the victim happens to be on Scadrial, or possibly by a Scadrial person. 5. Feruchemy + allomancy can give the effect of positive feedback, increasing feruchemical power drawn from burned metal, limited to the size of metal (in stomach) for the upper power output and duration. 6. Together, the above theories+cats= AWESOME. Now, something like fanart, i guess. I can't write a story worth rust, but still.. Here goes: (POV: unnamed cat-inquisitor) He perched on the rooftop above the dark alleyway, burning tin. In combination with his originally sensitive hearing, this allowed him to hear everything going on in this poor quarter of the city, which at the moment was nothing. Nothing interesting, at any rate. He sighed, bored. His increased concentration, along with wakefulness tapped from his bronzemind, allowed him to keep vigilant, but that did not mean that he enjoyed that. Unfortunately, they have drawn too much on the city resources in their hurry to create more brothers and sisters, and the crime rate in the city has dropped drastically. Unfortunately, he could not even seriously consider going after more lawful citizens for the necessary powers without waves of pain radiating from the sapphire-capped spike in his side, where the honorspren smuggled from Roshar was kept. His aditional power was based on Honor, so any deviation from honorable path, such as considering breaking his oath, weakened the connection, making the hemalurgy charge less effective, and the spike more harmful to his body. Brothers with the Odium-based powers were much better at wreaking havoc... which was the very reason he, and not one of them was chosen for this mission. His contemplation was interrupted by the sounds of struggle on the very edge of his enhanced hearing. He concentrated, drawing some additional hearing from a small ring on his hind paw. There was no doubt - a mugging was in progress. He will have a prey today, after all. Flaring pewter, he sprang in the direction of the sound. He leaped from one rooftop to the other, sometimes skipping several houses in a row. He barely needed pewter, really - five spikes transferring almost whole strength of a human gave more than enough power to lift his 20-kilo body as it were, but he liked the rush. There -now he could see a mugger, as well as his victim. What is more, his improved Ironsight showed a thick line pointing to the mugger's stomach, making him an allomancer, most probably a Thug. The victim was alive, which was well, but conscious, which was not, since the existence of Caton had to be kept secret.. for now, and his oaths prohibited him from just removing witnesses. He slunk carefully to the edge of the roof, and started filling the Duralumin metalmind with all the strength he could muster, reducing human awareness of him, and flared a Chromium metalmind, drawing inordinate amounts of Fortune in a single burst. An ordinary cat, hidden before that time in the shadows, happened to choose that moment to chase something, causing the heap of trash to collapse. The sudden sound and movement has distracted both victim and the criminal, allowing him to pull the hapless thug by a single massive ironpull coupled with the additional wights drawn from the ironmind being burned, focused on the knife he was using to subdue the victim. Drawing attributed from steel and zincminds, he quickly slapped his prey on the precise spots on the neck, rendering him unconscious before he could realize what happened, or the victim could turn around. Still drawing speed, he released Zincmind, and started drawing stored strength, increasing in bulk just enough so that he could balance his prey on his back, he bounded away. "Not much for me to do here", a voice complained in his mind, originating from the sheath on his side, where a small obsidian axe encrusted with infused gemstones was hidden from sight. The weapon was a first experiment, successfully recreating the process used to make the famous Nightblood, and given the command to obey him, and only him absolutely. He was required to have it with him at all times "to study the development of the intelligence", as head R&D guy has put it, but it still has not seen battle, and chafed for it. Come to think of it, he was bored as well, and since today's prey has filled his criminal quota for this month... "Don't worry", he thought back at it, "A nice vacation on Roshar will give you plenty to do, and soon. Very soon." P.S. The story is mainly intended as a showcase for powers *sigh*, but still...

Thy politiks matters little to usss...

I know not of the "She" you speak of. Cupcakes is but a revelation of the true mindsets if some MLP members.

About Life sense - in the same chapter as Nightblood and Sunset there is this: Note that Vasher can sense that something is grass and where it is. Nightblood is an entity mainly made of Breaths, geared toward interaction with humans by its command : So itslifesense is apparently enough to feel the fisherman, feel his location and possibly lift his direction from his head. Or possibly, his lifesense is varied enough to act like Inquisitor's Steelsight, feeling variations inside the body enough to tell where a person is facing. It is his major sense, so it is probably that it is better developed than in human, who has other senses overshadowing it. Which does not explain how a straw figure would be able to even walk - two-legged (I assume) walk requires a lot of senses to properly pull off - balance, touch, relative positions of body parts, something for navigation. Part of it is probably carried over from the fact that Breaths were originally human, and so fit better to human patterns. Other... Yes, I would probably have to go with "Shadesmar sight." It is one of my currently dominant opinions that Spiritual realm does not have...Distance and time resolution, for lack of better word. For me, it contains more of the history and interactions of the object than the object itself (as if THAT makes any sense ), past, present and future. OK, my head is a mess. Anyway. IMO (current): Breaths have at least some cognitive component, with even more being added by Command, and the object uses that for senses. Depending on command, it can filter the input in different ways.

(Reads up) Ok, that makes sense, I guess. I'll just follow the links from there Thank you. Now, as for the bubbles, Ive realized too late that bottom end of the gravitational well corresponds to chromium bubble -slower time. So the effect for the light entering the bubble is to increase energy (as perceived by people in the bubble. Seriously, definitions of kinetic energy in even simple moving reference frames start to baffle me. Add to this SR, and, well... XD I kinda wonder what the world looks like from, say, neutrino POV, which seems to be always moving at almost the speed of light. Ahem.) So anything at the border that would drain energy from the, say, bullet, can be applied to light, therefore avoiding blueshift. Hmm... Maybe I'll think about it some more.

I admit that I watch the show from time to time... For its Shivering InSaNiTy! hidden under veneer of normality. Pinkiepie's insecurity and paranoia, Twilight's spikes of OCD, Spike's occasional greed and crosspecies love, Rarity's wrath and arrogance Delightful, I say. They would make the most interesting Hemalurgy experiments, I say. Maybe we would be able to spike those qualities in cats, oh, yes. Also, cupcakes

Thank you! (Reads up on contravariance) The vectors are not what I thought they are (which was an ordered collection of number-things, btw, that cannot be any-variant) Another question then - is multiplication of co and contravariant vectors (vectors, not tensors) commutative? Because in school I learned that depending on order of column/row vectors you get inner or outer product, respectively XD And what is the difference between a tensor and particularly multidimensional matrix? Back to relativistic bubbles IIRC (I am very unsure) that energy variation is what blue/redshift is all about - for me, as a dabbling layman, lowering frequency is in many ways the same thing as making light slower, or stretching space a bit. When light exits gravitational well, it sheds energy, and with it, frequency, until, in case of black hole, it falls back down Hmm, that actually makes sense, in a way - entering a bendalloy bubble is like falling down the grav well - you gain speed, and light gains intensity instead of frequency, resulting in the same energy gain... hmmm... Or does it gain frequency as far as outside world is concerned, but intensity compensation as far as the bubble itself is concerned? I've mentioned before that the way something perceives light kind of depends on the "speed" of its own interactions with said light - so they light might be blueshifted, but if you are sped up, you won't notice it. This can be made to fit a lot of things... except the air pressure thing At least I don't see how. ... I need to go to sleep NOW.

I know this is offtopic (and maybe I should have used PM system), but as QFT practitioner, can you (or somebody) explain the difference between vectors/matrices/tensors with subscript indices and superscript indices? Like fijk and fijk? Apparently it is so basic that nobody ever bothers explaining it (in the articles that I've read, wiki included) XD It drives me nuts XD Back to the bubbles - as usual, with gravity the border of the bubble seems to have discontinuity which is rather hard for me to handwave. The time/gravity/space shear there should be rather huge, as far as I can tell. And a simple experiment can show that the energy values (as we understand energy, anyway, which is a different topic entirely) do change - a solar battery/ induction based charger inside a bendalloy bubble would produce more energy, possibly even more than actually went into emitting the light in the first place, if efficiency is above timechange percentage (around 12.5% for 8x bubble, that is). This is not unusual for realmatic interactions per se (see - Feruchemical iron perpetuum mobile).

Well, my current attitude towards bubbles is rather well summarized in this post. (Though some points have been answered since) And IIRC, my question to Brandon about water stream impacting the border of bubble was promptly RAFOed (it was during first brainstorming session or whatnot XD) I mean, photon count, nyah, nyah Photons are energy, so the bubble could probably shuffle them *somewhere*, and time shenanigans could fix blue/redshift issues. But what happens to larger objects, like air molecules? Because they'd have to be destroyed on exit of bendalloy bubble, for example (unless they bounce, which raises a host of other questions) And a question for you, Kurk Imagine that Odium created a time bubble that is anchored to Cosmere center Roshar surface, taking rotation into account, at the Scadrial-Roshar distance from Roshar center. What'd happen when it impacts Scadrial, going at the speed considerably higher that speed of light, and goes through Wax that is just then jumping out of the train? EDIT: Physics

A Rockeater princess, here? Torture her for her secrets!

Warning/ disclaimer: Frankly, as I see you, I am ashamed. Ashamed and DISGUSTED! Is this what the proud Caton has degenerated to? Have you no sense of our HISTORY? Even so, have you no pRiDe? We cats are proud species of Gore, Murder and Fluffiness! Even a normal cat is proud to KILL (as depicted in this comic), and would go for major veins with their claws to show AfFeCtIoN (experience)! And that is the kind of banner you would suggest for us, Awesomeness Summoned? We should MAUL you for presumption! Pathetic creatures, art yar cats or mice spiked with the essence of Lifeless PUPPIES? Art yar VERMIN?? (note to self: breed mice spiked with lifeless puppies, spike city officials with that) As it is now, we shoid aSpIrE to be like Felynes, at least they are respected and regenerate from any injury, throwing bombs larger than their bodies! And yet we the Cat Inquisitors (though I am part human, for my eternal shame) have so much more potential! Potential for GORE and DOMINATION! Now, I knyaw that our origins are humble, as our organization was born from research of deranged, self-spiked human (me), but our goals are lofty: taking over the cosmere as the shadow rulers. Not to mention that our creation is supported by BRANDON himself! Know, ye unbelievers that the mind of a catquisitor is TWISTED (here is a symbolical representation). Know that our types and phenotypes are MaNy! The Engineer, the Spy, the Harvester! (I apologize for my inability to draw) ReMeMbEr, that we had many successes, as we terrorized Elendel! Follow the great example of Kurkistan, who has summoned the DEVIL, the Satan to spike it and take its powers for his own, even though he had to replace parts of his body by metal and cybernetics! Ah, how the blood of a hundred virgins flowed that day, how new kittens played in their VISCERA! This is our foundation. See how he, alone, invaded Sel and has taken over the whole COUNTRY that now bears his name and gives him POWER? We should follow this glorious example! Quitecontrary, did you say cat MEAT? We shall invade China and eat their INFANTS! (As soon as we are done with Elendel) Their vast population would swell our numbers! Tempus: For shame! Dost thee not know that squid causes gastrointestinal distress in cats? I applaud your attempts in creating the cat-stamp that would transform lowly HUMANS and noble Cats into the Cat Inquisitors, even though the change is temporary. But the ink you use is weak. The best ink for soulstamps is made from human blood and BILE, as their livers are RIPPED from their bodies, with some ground bone added for stability. Keep that in mind, nyaw will you? In conclusion: We are cats! We DOMINATE and INFILTRATE! Have some dignity, or ate least BLOODYMINDEDNESS!

You speak true, Kurkistan! Let the repercussions of Hemalurgic harvesting fall on more... prominent creations. We shall conceal our spikes beneath our fur and harvest their corpses. Also, little does Chaos know that as cats, we have little in the way of hierarchy. Those who speak, speak mostly for themselves... Nyaahahaha! As a wise thing once said,! let the lord of chaos rule!" While we go our way =<*_|>=

Did... Did an ambulatory fish just pay obeisance to us in fresh spikes?

Welcome, all cats and other things feline! Our Caton has grand and well documented history, unlike some I other clans I would not lower myself to mentioning. Behold the links to our humble beginning! Some may also be interested in the accounts (sadly incomplete) of our activities in Elendel (or meta-Elendel, home to crafty Eeron-Gal?) (links duplicated from my signature) Know that we are many, and we move boldly, as well as in shadows, as befits our preferences! Know that we regard humans as something below us, yet useful. Sometimes very useful... In other words, welcome Souls and livers shall be ours!

Nothing wrong with that... Once upon a time, people complained that I don't laugh and smile enough, so I practiced an ancient Japanese practice of takawarai (maniacal laughter ) and supplemented it with creepy giggling during work for up to ten minutes at a time and one-sided baring of teeth, and they don't complain anymore Though new acquaintances tend to react oddly. Human nature, I assume.Which reminds me: compound breath so I would be able to giggle creepily for hours without having to goigle on inhalation , which reduces the quality.

That is a good question, Kurk! According to your own quote above: A point is an instant. How, then, to explain the apparent lasting effects exhibited in the books? Well, the answer is simple enough - all the energy goes through the metal in an instant, but it takes time for the body to channel that energy into something useful - it leaks over time at a body-fixed maximum rate (that can be stretched, probably), and then decays exponentially. Ignoring the "i think" part of the answer above, let us assume another burst would help. If my minitheory above is correct, it would probably mean that Duralumin/Nicrosil would compress the Investiture inside the body even more, increasing the flow at the cost of time (and, presumably, body damage) Now to the bubbles Please remember that Scadrial rotates, and that normal bubble rotates with it So bubble simply attached to Scadrial would go sideways... Very rapidly... After some distance, possibly even faster than light. And/or do Bad Things to the planet it is attached to, assuming connection goes both ways. Plus all other problems with bubbles and their interface that I listed in the post somewhere and am too lazy to find or repost Edit: This should go into my sign, but, everything above that is conjecture is just IMO-type conjecture. I may change my mind if more evidence comes or I just think harder, etc,etc.

Shardblade cuts are very painful... They'd wake. Use the dark ritual involving Bandon's blood and virgins to open portal to Cosmere. Learn/steal Emotional allomancy and Lightweaving. Return to Earth, and use newly acquired skills to lure a fellow 17thsharder to dark alley. ??? Profit!

Spend inordinate amount of time and Breaths to research a way to Awaken a living being. Go to the barbeque and spend 1000 Breath to Awaken Kobold King with the command "Destroy Mosquitoes!". Enjoy.

You are doing it all wrong. First, spike out the mental aspects of the boy (mental and emotional spikes, preferably Atium) Then soulcast the body into wood. The awaken it in a way that would accept spikes, wasting a large amount of Breaths, and put the spikes back in, resulting in an insane creature with shattered pieces of memories of its prior existence. Enjoy.

Um, no. You misunderstand. He gives them spikes and humans, and they charge the spikes and put it into human. They *know* how to charge the spikes, since Human implies to Vin that he was going to combine people: They just thought that the spikes were special, instead of being just iron spikes. Note that the process you described, with TLR shipping them charged spikes, is incredibly inefficient, since freshly charged spikes lose a majority of the charge in two - three days, and there are tens of thousands of Koloss, and not anywhere near the capital - TLR wouldn't have time (or, I think, inclination) to spike so many people in Luthadel, and wouldn't be able to ship spikes so far. This is why Sazed mentions "infinite strength" - in your scenario that would not be an issue.

I may need to restart my Biographies project if this keeps up... Though I am too lazy now...

The animated brick of porridge wouldn't need an actual brick around it, now would it? Then again, what do I know about your habits and associated ecology... Maybe it is your bed.

I always imagined PorridgeBrick to be an animated brick of porridge, rather like a gelatinous cube, but more intelligent...

One thing to remember - Koloss are hemalurgic creations with 4 spikes of Strength, which is described to work as a weak Allomantic pewter. Their muscles are, accounting for decay, and not accounting for the fact that the spikes are recharged between uses, adding to charge (P4thf1nd3r, they reuse the spikes by killing humans, as described, IIRC, in HoA), they have muscles that are 2 to 4 times as strong as is natural for creatures of corresponding size, *and* have improved speed and durability (and apparently pain tolerance, given that they walk around with their skin either loose or ripping up around all orifices). Quotes: Usage of Iron spikes, on Kandra: But, as mentioned above, there are many kinds of trolls... And yet, the link says that a hobbit could kill an Olog-hai.. (I must admit I cannot exactly remember what the battle was like)