Elias

I've already read all of them, as it says on the original post.

I've actually already read that. Maybe I should reread it when I'm done with my reread of Bakker.

I actually loved the ending. I really loved how Kellhus' perspective and that of the Consult Dunyain were so fundamentally opposite, yet both eminently logical. Kellhus leaves Ishual and immerses himself in the Gnosis, the consummate power of arcane reality, and so logically comes to the conclusion that the Outside, the ultimate realization of the arcane, is a source of godlike power. The Dunyain captured by the Consult immerse themselves in in the Tekne, the consummate power of mundane reality, and so come to the conclusion that that the Outside is something to be dreaded and feared. And when the No-God is resurrected, my first thought was "how the hell are they going to kill it now, if sorcery doesn't work and all the spears of light have been drained and lost" only to realize that, with the Carapace no longer bearing Chorae, sorcery can now be used against the No-God in battle. And I especially loved how soul-crushingly shocking yet brutally logical the manner was that the No-God eviscerated the sorcerers of the Ordeal as they turned to annihilate the pursuing Sranc: just whip up all the Chorae arrows in a gale wind and fling them at the wall of sorcerers protecting the men's retreat. Bakker's series is unironically one of the best I've ever read. I would put him up there with Tolkien and Sanderson in terms of how much thought-provoking material there was for me to dive into. The ending of Unholy Consult changed just enough to make the current crisis fundamentally different from the First Apocalypse the characters talk about while keeping the gut-wrenching impact you'd expect from an abhorrent god being reborn and unleashed on a world that is not prepared to stand against it. As for Dune, the thing I struggled with most was keeping track of which character's POV Herbert was writing from. I put that down to being written in 1965, and thus I can mostly forgive it. And while I don't think I'll be coming back around to the next books in the series for a bit (my interest in things waxes and wanes according to, near as I can tell: what movies and shows I've most recently watched, what video games I'm currently playing, the phases of the moon, whether Mercury is aligned with Sirius and Alpha Centauri according to certain trigonometric formulas, and whatever eldritch deity or cosmic abomination has most recently brushed past my temporal or parietal lobe but not my frontal lobe), I do think it will be well worth it to finish someday, seeing as it is one of the seminal works of science-fiction, in much the same way The Lord of the Rings is one of the seminal works of fantasy. There. Treatise over.

I know Tien is a fictional character, but Brandon's writing is so good it still feels somehow disrespectful to joke about his death.

The metals of Shardblades are confirmed to be an alloy of Honor's and Cultivation's god metals, with the exact ratio depending on the Radiant Order of the Blade in question, and the Honorblades are made of just Honor's god metal. That said, I'm fairly certain piercing Realms and severing Connections are not abilities of Honor's or Cultivation's god metals, but rather a characteristic of the Blades, a sort of imbued property. If the properties of god metals are influenced by the parent Shard's intent, I don't really see Honor's intent being very conducive to severing things. Honor is uniquely applicable at binding things together, which was a big part of why Honor was able to bind Odium to Roshar and bind the Heralds into the Oathpact to contain Odium's armies. As for harmonium, it has the effect of reproducing Allomancy or Feruchemical powers in its vicinity, and it might be able to do so with other instinctive manifestations of Investiture, like Surgebinding or the powers of an aviar. This would track with Harmony's stated intent of "make it possible for as many people as possible to make their own choices", as harmonium interacts with Investiture around it by doing more of the same thing.

No, I'm not talking about Allomantic effects; that's too much of a stab in the dark at this point yet. I'm talking about the metals' effects on Investiture, separate from any distinct manifestation of Investiture.

So we know from Rhythm of War that Odium's god metal, raysium, naturally conducts Investiture. Now with The Lost Metal revealing that Autonomy's god metal, trellium or bavadinium, is able to naturally repel foreign Investiture, I start to wonder about the other god metals. The other god metals we've seen are aitum and lerasium, and the unnamed god metals of Honor and Cultivation. I wonder if the Intent of the Shard in question influences how the god metal reacts to Investiture, or, if each Shard is somehow tied to a Dawnshard (vis a vis the mural in the Dawnshard novella), whether the Shard's corresponding Dawnshard determines the god metal's properties. If the former, I wonder if lerasium naturally stores and preserves Investiture, which might be part of how burning it transforms someone into a Mistborn, in addition to granting Connection to Preservation. Following the theme, atium's interaction with Investiture might be to destroy its physical manifestation, returning it to the Spiritual Realm. Honor and Cultivation are harder. Honor's god metal might somehow process foreign Investiture it comes into contact with, maybe into Stormlight, and Cultivation might process it into Lifelight? I'd love to hear other ideas on the subject, as trellium seemingly being able to produce a nuclear fission reaction in ettmetal has really got me thinking.

I should probably mention that I've read all of Brandon Sanderson's books save Legion. He's the one who inspired me to actually pursue writing as a career, and it's specifically his cosmere that inspired me to want to create a shared universe with multiple consistent magic systems. I realized that all my favorite magic systems have philosophical foundations, so that's what I'm trying to create. I'm going back to college after an abortive first year specifically to learn what I need to know to make it good, as at the moment I'm kind of flailing around in the dark. As far as being weak of heart, I've read Bakker's Prince of Nothing and Aspect-Emperor books, and those are downright nihilistic, they're so brutal and anarchical. Yet I enjoyed them. Short of actual, pretty severe psychological horror, I doubt there's any series I could get recommended that would be too dark or extreme for me. Oh, and as far as LOTR, while I haven't read the books themselves (the syntax is just too archaic for them to be anything but exhausting for me to read), I have the history of Middle-Earth practically memorized, I'm such a big fan. I've wasted hours just trawling through the One Wiki to Rule Them All.

I'm looking for a Discord server that serves as a kind of writing group, as I have all these ideas for what I would like to write and someday publish but have no one IRL to talk with them about and get constructive feedback. I really don't where on reddit to put this, or even if that's a good idea, and I've previous gotten some great book recommendations from 17th Shard, so I came here with my request. Or, if this is forum is a good place to put my work for review by fellow enthusiasts, that would be good to know too. I'm of the Brandon Sanderson writing persuasion, where I'll come up with an idea for a short story that in my head is just a page or two on Word but will balloon out into twelve by the time I get everything I wanted into it, so I'm not sure.

I'm sure it's a rare thing to happen in original fantasy novels, but the revelation that Spensa jumping through the nowhere portal leads to not just the formless void of the delvers, but a whole other reality full of varied terrain, exotic creatures, and warring factions just seems straight out of a good DnD campaign. Is anyone else getting the same?

I had the same thought, as in all my reading, it seems the most common characteristic of hard magic is that it has a discernible power source (Investiture in the cosmere, the One Power in Wheel of Time, light in Shadow of the Conqueror, the Force in Star Wars, etc). This as opposed to magicks like those in Harry Potter or the Magician trilogy, the former of which seems to be separate from physics completely and the latter of which is described more as taking advantage of “glitches” in reality.

I'm looking for inspiration for designing a magic system with philosophical underpinnings, a la Sanderson's cosmere, and I've come to the conclusion that the best way to find it is to read books (shocker, I know). I've read all of Brandon's cosmere books, which I collectively consider one magic system with many interpretations, as they all share the same philosophical foundation, namely Plato's Theory of Forms. I also stumbled upon the Prince of Nothing series and the subsequent Aspect-Emperor series by R. Scott Bakker, which has a magic system focused on leveraging logic and/or creativity to overwrite reality. Now I'm reading Dune while I wait for the third book of the Aspect-Emperor, which didn't arrive with the other three, to be delivered so I can read that. But beyond that, I'm starting to run dry on fantasy series with interesting magic systems. I've read all the cosmere books (of which I am now an avid fan), the Wheel of Time, R. Scott Bakker's series, and Harry Potter, though the last one is a bit of an interesting case in regards to magic systems. If anyone has any recommendations for fantasy series with interesting, unique systems of magic, I'd love to hear about it. P.S. I'm not sure if this is where a post like should go, this just seemed like the "miscellaneous" forum, so if any mods know of a better place for it, I would not object at all for it to be moved there.

"NO MATING!" *contented buzz*

I feel like Feruchemist is just all around the best for everyday life. Being able to store your memories, store up calories so you'd never overeat, and go without eating if you need to, storing up heat in the summer and releasing it in the winter, storing up wakefulness and speed of thought, manipulating physical weight and physical speed, and storing up health for any future injuries. Of course, someone who doesn't believe a whole lot in preparedness wouldn't get nearly the same benefit, but imagine what a Cub Scout could accomplish with Feruchemy!

This is unbelievable! All those little teeny tiny smidgens of clues, and you assembled them into not just a possible theory, but one with real merit! If this actually turns out to be what really happened, Brandon will ascend to plot twist godhood in my book.

I personally always thought that Nightblood was created from a normal steel sword with the command to "destroy evil". Now, for some grounding facts about the cosmere: We know that at the Shattering, all Investiture in the cosmere became evenly divided amongst the sixteen Shards. This holds true irrespective of location in the physical or cognitive realms. We know that each Shard has a specific color typically associated with it (blue-white for Honor, white for Preservation, and most importantly here black for Ruin). We know the Vessel of a Shard does not have the ability to control all of a Shard's Investiture at one time, or perceive everything that gets done with said Investiture at one time. We know that each of the original sixteen Shards has a single intent or driving motive for its existence. I operated under the assumption that, while Nightblood was created from a normal steel sword with the command to "destroy evil", one of two things happened. Because the concept of destruction was so central to the command, it acquired a little of Ruin's Investiture to incorporate into itself because the rules laid out above would've simply required it to be the case, much like how when cosmologists calculate the curvature and expansion of the universe, dark matter and dark energy simply must be included in the equations for the math to make any sense, or how when Mendeleev reorganized the chemical elements chart into the periodic table, he had to put in gaps to correctly categorize the properties of the known elements, and those gaps were later filled in with previously unknown elements. Those original 1000 Breaths animated Nightblood upon its creation, but as it drew in Investiture, its central command of "destroy", perfectly aligned with Ruin as it is, imprinted the Investiture it gained, and the bit that leaks back out is colored black because whatever intent the Investiture had originally has been overwritten by Ruin's. At first glance it would seem to violate the rule that all Investiture is shared equally between the Shards, but the Coppermind specifically phrases that in the past tense, i.e. that even split of Investiture was only the case immediately after the Shattering, after which Investiture could be moved and shifted between Shards, possibly through application of Intent, powerful enough to overwrite what was already present. In both cases, while it is Investiture tied to Ruin that is leaking back out of the sword, it is really more incidental than anything deliberate, and its likely too little Investiture for Ruin to do anything with, or even be aware of without specifically going looking for it, like how most of the time you don't really notice the presence of any one particular hair on your arm amid the thousands of other hairs.

Like, "You know, I did pretty well with the whole Survivor thing in the Final Empire. What could I do here? Oh, I wonder if I could get them to call me a different title every time they speak to me! How funny would that be?" Sort of Marvel logic, i.e. "How many obscure, insane MCU movies can we make that will still end up being summer blockbusters just by brand recognition alone?"

Soother, which actually fits me surprisingly well, as I'm the one who usually keeps the peace in my friends group!

So I'm rereading Bands of Mourning, and I got to the part where Allik explains to Wax that, according to his religion that worships Metalborn, he has to use a different title to refer to Wax every time. I always found this a little excessive, but this time I had a thought. What if Kelsier made that a feature of his new religion in Southern Scadrial just to see if he could? It seems like a suitably Kelsier thing to do with a new religion.

I feel like I should point out that no one actually said the Ire fortress was between Scadrial and Sel, just that the fortress is on the edge of Scadrial's subastral. It would sort of be like starting in Portugal and going east across Europe, arriving in Moscow and finding the Brazilian Embassy. It's not that you're walking toward Brazil, just that a small population of Brazilians is on the eastern side of Europe, and you just happened to find them.

Marasi and Wayne talking about their powers, and I noticed Marasi saying chromium instead of cadmium. That would maker a Leecher rather than a Pulser.

You know it's bad when you're doing a conceptually simple equation and even the higher end calculators have to resort to scientific notation to display the answer. It's even worse when the exponent for the TEN in the scientific notation may as well display in scientific notation.

I'm aware, but I just saw that on Spensa's page on the Coppermind under Trivia and felt I should probably include it so I don't look like I'm just doing Mistborn characters.

I'm putting this here 'cause the other thread I found about it was closed to new comments. I reread Rhythm of War recently, and I was reading on the Coppermind about Nale, and there's a section of his abilities titled "Lawman". As I've always been interested seeing what Radiant order other cosmere characters would belong to if they could (Wayne being an odd Edgedancer, Rashek being an okay but not great Skybreaker, Spensa likely being a Dustbringer, etc.), I started thinking about Wax. Wax's chosen calling is to uphold the law, especially in the Roughs, where he tells Granite Joe "You might not need Elendel's laws, but that doesn't mean you don't need any laws at all." Later on in Shadows of Self, he breaks up a protest blocking Tindwyl Promenade, and when one of the beleaguered constables expresses empathy with the strikers, Wax says, "Whatever their grievances, it doesn't give them the right to block an important thoroughfare." The more I read, the more certain I become that Wax is most definitely a Skybreaker. The final thing that pushed it over the top is when he's contemplating the differences between lawkeeping in the Roughs and lawkeeping in Elendel, and he thinks to himself, "Out in the Roughs he hadn't just enforced the law; he'd interpreted it, revised it when needed. He had been the law." That more than anything struck me once I thought about the oaths of the Skybreakers. The Fifth Ideal of the Skybreakers is to become the law. Now that I think about it, It seems that Wax's Second Ideal would've been the standard "I swear to seek justice", his Third Ideal might've been reached when he decided to begin his career as a lawman with "I swear to bring to justice those that break the law", his Fourth Ideal might be "I swear to hunt down my uncle Edwarn and thwart his plot to take over the Basin", and finally reach the Fifth Ideal, where he becomes the law, which he seems to have achieved out in the Roughs but not in Elendel. In the other thread about this, there were people saying that Wax is too willing to bend the rules to qualify as a Skybreakers, and to that I say, Nale and his Skybreakers in modern times are not the be all and end all of Skybreakers. The Skybreakers in modern times follow the law unquestioningly, but that's largely a result of Nale having his empathy tortured out of him on Braize, and not being sure of his own morality, so he seeks morality in the legal codes of others. But we're given a glimpse in RoW of a time when Nale says, "The law cannot be moral, but you can be moral as you create the law." This seems to align much more with Wax's philosophy, and Nale's insistence on Skybreakers following an external code might be why no Skybreaker has achieved the Fifth Ideal in centuries, as the Fifth Ideal seems to about recognizing the mistakes the law can make and being willing to change it to uphold justice. Wax seeks to do good in the world by enforcing the law, but he's willing to change the law or bend the rules when the rules are unjust, and remember that Nale, and also the Skybreakers, in the old days was associated with the attributes just and confident, and Szeth, when he swears the Second Ideal, swears to seek justice, not follow the law. Windrunners, meanwhile, are associated with the attributes protecting and leading, which don't fit Wax quite as well as the attributes of the Skybreakers. And if you think about it, Wax is feared and held in awe by most people, similar to how Nale is by Ulim, Venli, Lift, and so many others on Roshar, but Wax isn't looked up to as a protector and inspiration in the same way Kaladin is. Wax isn't a person who inspires you to follow him, but is very much a person who will hunt you down if you break the law. While I do think Windrunners and Skybreakers are very similar in motivation and both good fits for Wax, I think the main difference is that Skybreakers seek to do good within the law, while the Windrunners aren't as concerned with the law and would prefer to do what they think is right. As such, given that Wax tries to better the world by upholding the law and bringing justice to those that break it, I think he is most solidly a Skybreaker, likely one able to achieve the Fifth Ideal.

Marsh: Emotional masochist rebellion agent, then double agent, then triple agent Vin: orphan girl who joins a cult then gets really into governmental reform Kelsier: living (debatable), breathing (probably not these days) plot twist Sazed: metal nerd, rebel servant, savior and destroyer, god of oxymorons Era 2 Wax: nobleman gets way too into a game of cowboys and indians Steris: self-aware anal-retentive and looking pointedly average doing it Marasi: blows minds with crime statistics Wayne: Hoid, but mortal, on Scadrial, with a twist