Vin(Diesel)

SPOILERS for Skyward, Reckoners, and Frugal Wizard Brandon has said it’s arguably the case that The Reckoners is in the same fictional world as Skyward. Obviously, since each world has a dimensional multiverse, they could just be in the same multiverse, but maybe it’s more than that: Perhaps in Skyward the humans’ ancestors left earth centuries after the events in The Reckoners occurred. And maybe Calamity was a delver. Unless I’m forgetting something, and I may well be, I see no reason Frugal Wizard couldn’t have happened in the same world as both, after The Reckoners and before humanity left Earth for the stars and Skyward happened. This would require that Epics ceased to exist. Easily possible if we assume Calamity made Mizzy an Epic just before he left. It could be that no one becomes an Epic after Calamity leaves. I admit this possibility is weakened by the remark in Frugal Wizard that Runian had found the only known world to contain anything like magic, but I don’t think that completely refutes the possibility. The definition of magic might be a little subjective. Personally, I’d rather think there continue to be new Epics indefinitely than believe the three series share a universe. Either way, though, they could share a multiverse. What do you think?

I was in labor with my son, who’s now almost 2 months old. About 20 hours in, they told me that since my son’s heart rate kept dropping every time I had a contraction they had to do a c section immediately. Making it in some ways worse, c sections are usually done with the mother awake. If you’ve ever wanted to experience your own major abdominal surgery in real time, go for a c section. Ugh. At least they put up a curtain across your middle so you don’t have to watch. So I was scared. As they wheeled me into the operating room, I looked up at the huge, super bright lights that the surgeon sees by (Lirin wouldn’t have needed spheres!), I saw a label on one of them: Steris. That’s weird, I thought. Then I saw the other label: HarmonyAir. It was just weird enough and cool enough that I started wondering if it was a coincidence or some strange wink from God or something, which was much better than just wondering what might go horribly wrong during the surgery. The c section went well, and I have a healthy son. I plan to introduce him to the Cosmere someday.

Perhaps the fifth ideal will be related to Kaladin becoming a Herald and getting sent to Braize to be tortured forever: I will protect others, no matter what the cost. Like the third ideal, it would be a removal of implicit exceptions to the second ideal.

So what is a fain creature?

Hoid could be talking to a group of worldhoppers from multiple planets in the cognitive realm. That would fit with the clues in his narration that seem to indicate Roshar, First of the Sun, etc. I say in the cognitive realm, not on a spaceship, as he caught himself calling a laptop a laptop and switched to calling it a magical board or something. These people don't all know about the technology that is available in some parts of the Cosmere, but they would if they were on a spaceship. Or maybe Hoid had just decided to tell the story in a style that precludes the mention of certain technology. Fairy tale style, or using only language that the people in the story would have understood.

I want to see fanart of Xisis. I'm having trouble imagining a dragon with hair and a beard.

So if Hoid is an Elantrian now, can he stop glowing if he wants to? Will it be hard for him to hide? Seems like glowing uncontrollably would really change his MO. Turning someone into a rat seems like a different kind of magic from what we've seen in the Cosmere so far. Is that just a standard Elantrian ability? If so, dang, Hoid is going to be practically unstoppable wherever he can draw a big map. Hoid said that he and sixteen other people told someone "It's for your own good." I guess they were speaking to Adonalsium at the Shattering, though they could have been speaking (metaphorically) to the Cosmere as a whole. Why would the Shattering have been for Adonalsium's own good? I liked that the story wasn't just "Sometimes the princess does the rescuing." That is no longer a clever twist. The end of this story was. Will the duke's nephew still be his heir? That seems legally doubtful. Silver seems to have the ability to thwart or kill living Investiture around the Cosmere - Threnody, Roshar, and now Lumar. I want to see more types of spores and their uses. Or the aethers the spores are connected to. What was Xisis's real reason for letting Tress go? Tress mentions death himself with nails in his eyes. Those Scadrians must get around, huh?

Wait. Hoid is an Elantrian? Where did it say that?

When Harmonium reacts with Trellium, there is a massive explosion like that of an atomic bomb. It makes perfect sense to me that this would be the result. Why? Because Harmonium atoms should share in Harmony’s nature as a partnership between two, and Autonomy, being, well, autonomous, probably abhors partnership. So of course Trellium splits Harmonium into separate, autonomous parts. And since Harmonium is an atom, when it splits, it splits like atoms do: with a boom. I doubt other godmetals explode when combined. These two metals split because of the nature of their Shards’ Intents.

Wax's explanation for why Wayne doesn't need forgiveness (because Wayne isn't the same man, the man who needed forgiveness is dead) is a common Jewish explanation for how people who have done wrong can end up justified before God. At least, that's my understanding of a Jewish explanation. Wonder if Brandon and/or the Latter Day Saints believe it. I really want more TwinSoul. That guy is hardcore, and his Aether is amazing. I want more Aether stuff too. I think Wayne is probably smarter than Wax. Didn't he say he never went to school? If so, I wonder how he learned to read. Scadrial has been the world being ruled by a sane, ethical Shard/Vessel. Ok, maybe Nalthis is too. Anyway, I fear Sazed's days are numbered. Soon he will likely be consumed by conflicting Intents or murdered. Hope I'm wrong. Marasi and Shallan and the Ghostbloods... Women being tempted by forbidden knowledge? Wonder where Brandon got that idea? Just kidding. I don't know if he was thinking about it, but Eve was tempted by the serpent to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And greek mythology has Pandora succumbing to her curiosity and opening the box. Both ended up half-ruining the world. So far, Brandon's ladies have done better. Why did Wax end up spiked? What did I miss? Sorry for the stupid question. Other stupid question: Is Wax a full Mistborn now or not? I really like Steris. I'm not sure I've ever read a character like her, but I identify with her. I've been diagnosed with "autistic traits," whatever that means, and I often felt like people considered me a pharisee or a self-satisfied stick-in-the-mud or something. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to have done wrong. Maybe I was imagining things, or maybe I actually did something wrong. But it's really gratifying to see a character like Steris. I feel the same about Hraethen in Elantris, in the way he came to accept that he believed for rational reasons and that was enough. Maybe I'm not quite like him in that regard, but I know what it likes to feel judged for not being emotive enough. Like people think you're cold and artificial or something. I feel like Brandon has one or two other characters I felt similarly about. Characters I'd never read the likes of, that I identified with. Hoid had nahel bonded his spren before this story, right? I didn't notice any sign of her, did you?

Interesting. Any theories on how that will be resolved (or how things will end if it isn't resolved)?

That might be the case, but the more types of Investiture involved, the more their Intents balance each other. If all Intents were involved, it would create a balanced personality that would allow for the mental freedom that, I assume, Adonalsium had, rather than the skewed fixations that rule the Vessels. You might need all the Shards before you got that benefit, but I suspect it would often be more gradual than that. Mixing Ruin and Preservation seems to give Sazed some internal freedom, and combining other Shards would probably work the same way, though to a lesser extent. Ruin and Preservation are opposites, so they balance each other. Honor-Valor would provide much less freedom, though I suspect they would give a Vessel a little more flexibility than either Shard alone would. Same for combinations like Ruin-Odium, Autonomy-Whimsy and Honor-Devotion. But combos like Devotion-Autonomy and Odium-Mercy would be more like Harmony because each Intent is so different. The more Shards involved in a combo, the likelier any Intent will be at least partly balanced by one or more of the others. Honor-Ruin-Preservation-Mercy might even allow more freedom than Harmony.

So... bloodmakers, pewterarms, and (most of all) gold compounders like Miles Hundredlives might be able to eat Harmonium and survive. Though even they might have difficulty digesting the stuff. Wonder if Wax and Steris might have a kid with any of those three powers. Or maybe a grandkid or great-grandkid, since Era 3 is planned to be set 50-70 years after era 2. Fun stuff. Brandon really did a very good job with Scadrian magic systems. Era 1 magic dovetailed so well with the setting, with all the flying through the mists, the ballroom allomancer intrigue, and the dystopian dark lord using creepy hemalurgists enforcers. Era 2 magic let us nerd out about twinborn possibilities, and gave us a chance to think about things each ferring could do, as well. We didn't get a chance to see ferrings in Era 1. I suspect Era 3 will let us nerd out similarly, with some extra stuff thrown in - perhaps an occasional full mistborn, maybe a full mistborn who's also a ferring, unkeyed metalminds, space age interplanetary Investiture trading (and interplanetary Investiture combining), and maybe, like I said, a full feruchemist because of harmonium, even a full feruchemist twinborn. Good times ahead. And good points, robardin.

Here's my rough ranking of Shards, from best to break the deadlock to worst: Devotion Honor Mercy Endowment Cultivation Invention Virtuosity Valor Whimsy Ambition Autonomy Dominion Odium Devotion and Dominion's investiture may be inseparable now as the Dor, which might make a decent candidate. Wisdom or Prudence might be fine if either exists. If Survival exists, it would be low mediocre. I could have ranked Autonomy ahead of Ambition on the theory that Bavadin has influenced the Shard's Intent for the worse. Autonomy could, I'd like to think, have ended up supporting people who make themselves able to live without assistance from others, maybe even those who are independent and therefore more free to help others. But Ambition's Vessel might be able to influence Ambition into a good thing too, even though a bad Vessel could probably make Ambition into a ruthless and selfish thing. Mercy might be considerably worse than I'm giving it credit for. It depends on how much wisdom its vessel can show. Mercy without wisdom might just be permissiveness and therefore be effectively anarchist in its method of governance - or lack of governance. It also depends on whether mercy is defined to include positive action - generosity, grace - or just forbearance from punishing wrongdoers. Cultivation might be better than Endowment, but Endowment seems to be capable of showing discretion with regard to who she endows with things. As far as we've seen so far, Cultivation may just be cultivating everything indiscriminately. So I ranked Endowment first.

Harmony is currently having trouble acting, because he is limited by the conflicting intentions of Ruin and Preservation. Consider Ruin and Preservation as two parties in a negotiation with each other. Since they are equally strong, they are at an impasse. Imagine a third, much weaker party joins the negotiation. Say, a pinch of Devotion's Investiture. As was mentioned in Mistborn Era 1, in a negotiation involving three parties, the weakest party is actually the most powerful, because each of the stronger parties needs the weakest party on its side to defeat the other strong party. So if Sazed had a splinter of Devotion, then whenever Ruin and Preservation were deadlocked, Devotion's splinter would break the tie. Obviously, Sazed would want to choose Investiture carefully for this purpose, since his Intent would probably become a watered-down version of the third Shard. Devotion would probably be fine. Odium would not. The original Vessels would probably be opposed to such a plan, because it is moving toward a re-unified Adonalsium. They should see, however, that it only slightly enhances Sazed's Investiture power, and might greatly increase his freedom, since the Intent of whatever Investiture he eats a pinch of might be so diluted by the neutral Intent of Harmony that Sazed's will might be able to steer the new Intent quite a lot. As far as I know, the Vessels have no problem with freedom, though they may object on the grounds that it gives Sazed too much power in practice. What do you think?

If eating lerasium makes you a mistborn, could eating harmonium make you a feruchemist? Allomancy is considered to be of Preservation, since it is an end-positive art. Feruchemy is of Harmony, since it is an end-neutral art. Therefore, it makes sense that Preservation's metal, lerasium, makes people allomancers, and it makes sense that Harmonium would make people feruchemists. Of course, on this logic, it would seem that consuming atium should make you a hemalurgist, which it doesn't. But I don't think that proves me wrong, because hemalurgy isn't a biological part of anyone, whereas allomancy and feruchemy are.

I agree with cardinal511 about the winners of the first round, though I'm not sure about Steelslayer vs Obliteration. The books say that one way to kill a high epic is to overwhelm his prime invincibility with a nuclear bomb. Obliteration can make the equivalent of a nuclear bomb, given enough time, so it might depend if Obliteration starts the match with a lot of energy stored up. Obviously, Steelslayer wouldn't give him time to store energy during the match. Are we assuming the epics have their weaknesses? Do epics have weaknesses after Calamity? When is this fight set? I think I will assume that this is after Calamity and epics still have weaknesses, but a weakness is greatly diminished if the epic has faced it. Here's my round 2: Prof vs Wingflare Jax vs Nightwielder Steelslayer has to sit out this round. Prof beats Wingflare, probably. It might come down to speed, since Wingflare can cause your insides to be crushed with gravity and Prof can skewer you with forcefield lances or crush you with a forcefield bubble. I'm assuming gravity doesn't effect forcefields, since they float, and since why would they have mass? Also, even if Wingflare attacked quicker, Prof's massive healing ability might allow him to survive the crushing gravity long enough to kill her. Even if his healing powers don't allow him to do that, from what we've seen of his fighting (particularly against Steelheart and against Tavi) , I think he's very fast. Wingflare must have been pretty fast as a kid, since she did well in sports, but that was a long time ago. Obliteration beats Lifeforce. Lifeforce has no offensive abilities, and he will eventually run out of people to kill. Even if Obliteration didn't have much power stored up, he could just try to strangle Lifeforce, teleporting away every time Lifeforce starts to get the upper hand, until he kills him. On the other hand, can you stay with Obliteration by holding onto him while he teleports? If so, and if he ran out of heat energy at the same time Lifeforce ran out of people to kill, it could just end up being a hand-to-hand fight with no powers in play. I have no idea who would win then. I'm guessing Obliteration wins, but this match is a real wild card. Jax vs Nightwielder: Probably Nightwielder. No great reason. Nighwielder is just a very powerful epic, and Jax isn't. Round 3: Steelslayer vs Nightwielder. Steelslayer wins. His prime invincibility is very powerful, which is why Steelheart was in charge of Nightwielder. David knows Nighwielder's weakness, and can probably introduce UV light before Nightwielder can get him into water and figure out a way to kill him there. His weakness has been diminished anyway. Prof has to sit this round out. Round 4, championship: Prof vs Steelslayer: This depends how easily Steelslayer's energy beams can break Prof's forcefields. If Prof can keep Steelslayer in an forcefield cage he can starve or dehydrate him to death. I will assume that Steelheart needs food and water. Even if Steelslayer can cut through forcefields, Prof might be able to keep putting new bubbles around him until Steelslayer collapses. David is young, and probably will have a more enhanced physique than Prof, and Prof's healing doesn't keep him from getting tired, but Prof did seem to be able to keep running and dodging much longer than an ordinary person could have. As long as Steelheart can only cut a hole in the bubble, not pop it instantly, Prof would have a time and effort advantage. Of course, if Steelslayer can blast through a bubble and Prof's protective fields with one beam, he could decapitate Prof, but Prof can heal incredibly well and he did a good job dodging Steelheart before. If water is nearby, it would be easier to trigger David's weakness than Prof's. I'm biased, because Prof is my favorite, but I'm going to assume that Prof has enhanced stamina and that he even if Steelheart could puncture forcefields, he could repair a forcefield bubble indefinitely until Steelslayer got dehydrated and died. Prof is the champion. Anyone care to refute any of the assumptions I made?

How do I make a poll in these 17thShard forums?

When Lux came out, I seem to remember hearing that there were plans for two more books in the Reckoners world co-authored by Brandon. But I'm not finding anything about that now, and I'm pretty sure I haven't heard anything about that in Brandon's recent publication schedule announcements. Will there be more coming out? If so, are they going to be sequels to Lux, or other stories in the same universe?

I just listened to Lux, and I noticed Lifeforce had a slight accent that sounded familiar but that I couldn't quite place. Does anyone know what that accent is?

If someone picked up enough pieces of Investiture throughout the Cosmere, sort of like Hoid has been doing, and kept doing it long enough, could he eventually become a new Shard?

I think it would be cool to have pewter Cosmere figurines. The plague doctor figurine below is about 2 inches tall and $25, which seems like a good height and a doable price. Look at the detail! They could make a chull, a knight radiant, or a larkin. What do you think? Would you be interested in pewter Cosmere figurines? (Full disclosure: I have no authority to make Cosmere merch, nor to decide what gets made. I just think it’s a fun idea).

Rhythm of War spoilers ahead. Odium's deal with Dalinar says that if Dalinar's champion loses, Dalinar has to become an agent of Odium in the Cosmere. This might happen, but if it does, I think this won't end with Dalinar re-embracing brutality forever, so I suspect that it won't happen at all. Why? Because Brandon Sanderson's son is named Dallin. He is 12 years old now, about old enough to start reading the Stormlight books and noticing that a cool character has a name like his. Maybe Brandon did that intentionally. Maybe not. Either way, I bet this will be meaningful to the young lad. Would Brandon turn his son's special character into an evil monster forever? I think not. Dalinar will not be a brutal monster in the end. Edit: I just watched a Brandon video where he says that his son Dallin, to this day, thinks that Dalinar's name is Dallin R. This supports my theory.

Where can I find out when a Brandon livestream is scheduled?