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Terrormancy is a magic form that draws its power from fear. The fear is drawn to the terrormancer, appearing like thin strands of darkness. The terrormancer can convert the fear into "phobic energy", which is bright blue-white. However, since fear is such a potent emotion, the amount of phobic energy created is too much for the terrormancer's body to contain. The surplus energy begins to arc over his skin, creating spiraling bands of blue energy that circle the torso. This surplus phobic energy also makes the terrormancer's eyes glow. Once there is a significant surplus of phobic energy, the terrormancer can will the energy into different parts of his body, most likely the limbs. It should be noted that controlling phobic energy on the body is quick difficult, but movement helps force the energy in that direction. This is why it is easiest to transfer phobic energy to legs of arms. This movement of energy appears like a surge of the spiraling bands into that region. Phobic energy strengthens the body where it is concentrated. An experienced terrormancer knows how to concentrate energy in his legs, allowing him to leap walls. Phobic energy can also be discharged. This is done by willing the energy off of the body, in a similar fashion to willing the energy elsewhere on the body. However, discharging phobic energy requires extra force to free it from its host. Once airborne, a bundle of phobic energy becomes a lethal projectile. There is another way to discharge phobic energy, as a web. Forming a phobic web is more difficult than simply discharging it, because the energy must remain in a certain area. To do this, the terrormancer places his two arms, charged with phobic energy, close together, so that the energy begins to arc from limb to limb. Then, he must fluidly pull his arms apart, creating a net of arcing phobic bands. This net can block phobic blasts and large projectiles.

I'm trying to come up with ideas for some sanderson based magic systems. I've got a few, but i'm curious as to what everyone else has done. So, lets hear it. What sanderson-based magic systems do you have? What are the flaws and limitations? Who can use the magic and how are they chosen?

Does anyone know if Brandon has said anything about what would happen if a person were to eat the fruit from Patji's Finger? Would the parasites work in the same way as inside Aviar or would people gain different abilities, or none at all? Lemme know if anyone has any related quotes, information, or just their thoughts on the subject. Thanks!

I've made this topic to theorize about possible ways to synergize few of magic systems, to get something avesome. One of my ideas is a recipie to make new pseudo- sprens. We have seen spren enclosed in rorsharian spheres, and we know that Nightblood is as powerfull as a Radiant Spren. So what if we took a sphere, a 1000 breaths and say something like "bind things together" (honorspren intent) while imagining a spren inside that sphere? Mabye we could even bind with it? And one step further: use words "preserve", "cultivate", or "ruin". We could get a ruinspren! And why is it good? Imagine that you bond with it, I bet that only help of shard can make you a better hemalurgist. (Plus we could have an hemalurgist-protagonist. Kind of.) Other is hack to hemalurgy. Use soulstamp to make a trait, and steal it before it goes away. Why is ti good? Because I belive that a soulstamp could change a metal that misting is capable of burning. How easy it would be to be able to make compounder with that?

here is the magic system I'm starting for the book I'm writing. suggestions would be great The core focus of the magic is the Aan. Everyone has an Aan, but not everyone can use it. Your Aan is kind of like your soul. The ability to use your Aan is called the Talent. The more Aan that you have, the more you can use it. People receive various amounts of Aan right from the begining, making it so that two people who just got their Talent will not have the same amount, although the one with less can work up to recieving the same amount as the other, eventually. A person uses their Aan by channeling it into a Glyph. The way a person can increase their Aan is not as easy as just using your Aan daily. An increase of the Aan only comes after you have worked hard and use as much Aan as you safely can. The reason that people don't do this is because it is dangerous. If a person uses runs out of Aan, the Gylphs will start using an alternative energy source to fuel its power. It will start feeding off of the physical body, making it so that users who are unaware of the amount of Aan they have will often lose limbs in the process of trying to use a glyph that is to powerful. There are two main categories of Glyphs. There are Pairing Glyphs and Change Glyphs. Also, different Glyphs have varying amounts of power. For example, A person who has enough Aan to use a simple Pairing Glyph might not be able to safely use a different Pairing Glyph that is more complex and powerful. In order for the Aan to channel into a Glyph, the Glyph has to be written, carved, burned, or any other way of inscribing it on something. The more exact that the Glyph is inscribed, the more potent it will be. Keep in mind that potency is different than power. For another example, if two people that have the same amount of Aan draw the same glyph, it will take the same amount of power from both of them. But if one of them draws their Glyph more acuratley then their Glyph will work better and faster than the other one. The biggest problem with Aanwielding is this. When you first recieve your Talent your Aan becomes corrupted while in the far reaches of the Night. Every time that a person Wields, it opens up thier Aan to the Night more and more. There is now way to avoid it other than never weilding at all. People who become completely corrupted by the Night become Wanderers. Wanderers only goals are to hunt down other Wielders. When your Aan is corrupted it is effects your body and mind as well. Hidiously deformed, Wanderers will hunt tirelessly, the only thing they worry about is finding others. The fight Aanwielders not to kill them, but over-tax them to the point where the Night can take over. Used only in absolutly necissary Aanwielding is relatively safe, but when used for extenseive periods of time you run into the danger of becoming a Wanderer. The only way to safely survive a Wanderer attack is to retreat or not use you Aan to aid in killing it. The Night grants the Wanderer's even more power than possible while not being effected by the Night, including the power of never growing any older. Wanderers will hunt for years, decades, even whole lifetimes. The only way to kill a Wanderer is severing the body's connection to the brain, and accomplishing that without Wielding is close to impossible. Non-Wielders can become Wanderers too, but only through using a Lifeless. When someone uses a Lifless the Master's Aan takes over the other Aan. That is how the Masters are able to Wield, even if they don't have the Talent themselves. They are using thier own Aan and using the Lifeless' Talent to control it. When they use a Lifeless it is the Master's Aan that is being used so it is the Master's Aan that is being corrupted. They are not as threatening when they become Wanderers, because they can not Wield by themselves.

Pushed from this @Oversleep 's question. I began to try to find an explaination that in the end made me ask direcly to Mister Sanderson. This is the answer I get about the matter I hope he would reply to the last one, but in the end we discovered something quite juicy. A perks is something developed by small sections though Interactions. Greater Powerhouse in the Cosmere leave no space for this natural interactions. We may use this fact to remove all the strange feats of Mistborn, Feruchemist or Fullborn by the effect of a weird Perk

I put a couple questions for Brandon up, but I'd love to hear your input! so my question basically is "how does the realm you are in influence your magical ability?" As in, if you're a pewterarm, and you travel to the cognitive realm on Scadrial with some pewter, would you be able to burn pewter there? Would it have the same effect as in the physical realm? If it's emotional allomancy, would you be able to use it in the cognitive to influence someone else in the cognitive? (or in the physical or spiritual?) would it matter if you were at a perpendicularity? These were brought on by someone pondering the use of the gravitation surge to travel while in shadesmar. Also, if a koloss entered the spiritual realm, what would happen? What if he was in the cognitive? Would he look like a koloss, or would his spiritual essence look like overlapping people? Can the transportation surge be used to get to another place (either in the physical world, or while in shadesmar) in the same realm, or is it simply a means of travelling between realms? Related to this, would the oathgate symbols for each city have anything to do with connecting the physical symbol to the spiritual ideal of that city, and then from there back to the physical location of that city's oathgate? (How do those things work? Do they even use interrealm transportation, or is it all intrarealm?) So many questions! I open them to you wonderful sharders blow my mind!

So I am trying to build a hanfdul of worlds similar to the kind of worlds we'd find in the cosmere, and i'm struggling to come up with any magic systems with that level of inginuity. I know there are 3 parts to every sanderson system, but cannot remember them properly (something like: fuel, intent and focus?). Has anyone got any advice for making them more creative? So far, I have one magic system based around soldiers in a war (in the same way that allomancy is based around a thieving gang) but have yet to come up with the abilities. I am playing around with a few numbers that could be important to the world, but dont just want to copy the KR. The source is a fruit that grows along the lines of power on the world. Another magic system I'm working on is based on a familiar system, where a large cat will willingly give up their tooth to one of the humans to create a bond between them. However I have no idea what kind of ability or story to craft out of this. On top of all this, what advice in general would other fans of Sanderson's magic systems give to someone aiming to create something similar? How should I come up with such specific abilities (my mind keeps going back to Ironpulling and Steelpushing. It's really clever and I have no idea how to come up with something like that.) Thank you all

So I've been wondering. Every fantasy book that has magic usually has it either misused in some way, or separated into two types; Light and Dark, sometimes more. My question is; What defines, 'dark' and 'light' magic? What defines the other magic 'types'? Other than the age-old dark is evil, light is good thing. Ideas, Comments, Thought's?

I often have problem to sleep and in a long night my mind follow his own thread to unexpected goals, tonight something struck me. Probably it's just a coincidence or some meaningles fact, but here I am. Like everyone of you know, on Sel every Magic System is fueled by the Dor, a source of power from the Cognitive Realm come to be by the merging of Devotion and Dominion's powers (like someone more poetic than me said, "The Selish channel their gods' corpses for thier magic") and we know that on Sel there is actually a single magic system Form-Based who manifest itself different in every region/country (this is actually not really important from my point, but it's better to refresh some memories). On Sel we know at least 6 Magic Systems (some more and some less): AonDor, Dakhor, ChayShan, Forgery, Bloodsealing and an unamed potion's magic. Here I noticed something strange, the only Magic Systems that twist the users are AonDor and Dakhor, now I know someone may argue saing AonDor doesn't twist the user and only "change" it, but really it's just semantic... There is no a great difference between the Shaod and the Dakhor pray to change a monk (just one of these is automated and the other is not). These are also the only Magic Systems that seem align with Devotion (AonDor) and Dominion (Dahkor)'s Intents. Therefore this is my point: Is It possible that the Magic Users were twisted/changed to allow them to filter the Dor and use only the Devotion OR Dominion's Investiture to perform their Magic ? (or some other unbalance in their magic need a not-standard user to be used) I am not really convinced on this idea, but it isn't something a can simply ignore without some counterproof.

We've got different magics in cosmere [citation needed]. The thing is, some are not so consistent with what effect they produce as others. The best way to notice this is to try do describe any magic by the least words as you can. Could you describe what AonDor does without listing various Aons? Anyway, let's start: Nalthis Awakening That one is consistent, as it's about animating things. Giving them life and ordering them with Command. Sel We know too little about Bloodsealing. *Shrug* Forgery Consistent. Rewriting past of an object (whatever the correction is and whatever the object is). It's done by manipulating Spiritual Aspect of an Object with changes manifesting in Physical and Cognitive. DakHor magic We know very little about it or I don't remember as much from Elantris as I'd like to. I'm open to help. AonDor Failed to see any consistency with what AonDor does. Teleportation, manipulation of elements, healing... Scadrial Allomancy I'd say it's not really consistent. It's telekinesis, enhancing the body, influencing emotions, manipulating sensing of Investiture, temporal seeing and manipulation... I fail to classify enhancement metals. Even if we assume Pushing/Pulling Internal/External as the pattern of Allomancy, what do Physical, Mental, Temporal and Enhancement have to do with each other? Also, godmetals have yet another quadrants (possibly, as atium and malatium fit too well into Temporal; lerasium and its alloys however don't fit even P/P I/E pattern). Feruchemy Consistent. "Be less X for amount of time, later be more X for that amount of time". It does not matter what X is, only that you lower your level of it and later increase it. Hemalurgy Consistent. "Spiritual Transplantation". Rip out fragment of Spiritweb (whatever what that part does), plant it into another Spiritweb. Roshar Roshar is weird. Or we're uninformed. Only Surgebinding we know enough about: Surgebinding Manipulation of Ten Surges. We know too little to judge whether these are consistent or not, but I suspect it's consistent. What are your thoughts?

This thread is for posting magic systems you have thought up. Here is mine: My magic system is a elemental magic system with 17 elements. The elements are divided into 5 sections each with a focus. The 5 sections are: Classical (Fire, Air, Water, Stone), Advanced (Smoke, Metal, Wood, Lightning), Higher (Flesh, Light, Shadow, Bone), Godly (Space, Time, Reality, Void), and Magical (Magic). Each magic user can only access one of the 17 elements. Classical allows you to control your element. Advanced allows you to turn into your element. Higher allows you greater control of your element (Creating your element out of nothing, changing characteristics of your element). Godly allows you to access the pure source of your element. Magical allows you to cancel out or enhance the magic of people you touch.

Introduction Since my trip to Wisconsin, and talk with Brandon, I have been constructing a theory in my head about the exact function of how Magic is used throughout the Cosmere. Using various WoBs and different example from the text I planned out a post that went through each magic system and explained how it works at a realmatic level, and how it uses Investiture to affect the Physical, Cognitive, or Spiritual Realm. Today i finally sat down and wrote the whole thing this morning and formatted it this evening. If you see any discrepancies or false claims, feel free to comment after reading. If you have anything to add, please do so as well. See the the WoB and refrences down below that are numbered according to where they show up. The corresponding number will be posted within (parenthesis). Enjoy! Magic Allomancy The genetically inherited sDNA of an Allomancer gives them connection in the spirit web that a person does normally have. When a person is snapped this allows for a shard's investiture to flow through them using these inherited spirit web pathways, I believe these pathways are what endows each power, with each new pathway (or pathways group) giving them 1 Allomantic ability.(1) When the investiture flows through them they channel it into said pathways, giving them the ability to change internal (zinc, brass, etc.) and external (copper, bronze, etc.) phenomena within the three realms. Zinc and Brass both use the investiture to influence a being's spiritual aspect through the cognitive realm. Copper uses its investiture to disrupt the pulses that investiture gives off. This is similar to how Shardplate makes it harder to affect the wearer with emotional Allomancy (2). Bronze uses investiture to recognize these pulses and translate it into something the allomancer can understand. Tin eyes and thugs use the investiture to bolster the physical connections in the spirit web. Brandon has described the realms as the spiritual realm being a light, the cognitive being the beam, and the physical being the surface that is hit. Tin eyes and Thugs circulate more investiture than normal through parts of the light as to make the image on the surface brighter in some areas.(3) Iron and steel use investiture to generate kinetic energy in the physical realm by using connection in the spiritual realm (Kelsier or Brandon, can't remeber which likened looking into the spiritual realm to the steel sight of an inquisitor or the blue lines on an allomancer) to relate the general mass of the allomancer to what ever the investiture is pushing on. I believe that with enough investiture, a steel pusher could push on normal objects and people, but that it more easily affects metal because the investiture is keyed in by metal, so it is a path with MUCH less resistance. This is just a theory, however, and is only backed up by the fact that Inquisitors can see all things with Steel Sight. Duralumin forces all investiture out through the connections instantly, amplifying their affect in that instant by flaring it more than could normally be achieved. Aluminum immediately forces all investiture out through that connection, wasting it all and throwing it back into a shard. Nicrosil and chromium do these things, but to other Allomancers.(4) Gold and Electrum both use investiture to strengthen other connections that could have or will be. This gives images in the physical realm that the allomancer can see. In other words, it shows connections that aren't actually there yet, which gives off a limelight in the physical realm, which only leaves a ghost image in the physical realm. These ghost images grow in power until you are given a near vision, if flared hard enough as a powerful allomancer or when used with Duralumin. Atium does this, but with the external world. When burned hard enough or with duralumin it breaks the Atium Magic connection itself and allows you to glimpse into the spiritual realm. Cadmium and Bendalloy do a similar thing, which is why they are in the same category as Gold and Electrum. They enhance connection to the overall timeline, which brings your physical self closer to said spirit connection, kind of like a timey whimey steel push or iron pull. If it is a future connection, you, and those around you (again, external) rush towards the future. If it is towards the past you put on the time brakes and skid, leaving you and those around you closer to the past than normal. Lerasium gives you all the above connections, but as to its other effects I cannot guess. Feruchemy This magic works in a similar fashion, but instead of snapping in new connections, it utilizes the connection all humans are born with. This is why a snapping isn't required (same with Awakening). It raises the "Investiture pressure" of these different connections or lowers them, and stores the extra inside of the metal mind keyed to that connection via metals. This is why a person cannot use another's metal mind. The investiture that it has been affected by has the marks (or identity) of that person's own spark of life (or innate investiture). I think that new investiture is still added to the soul when the sDNA is inherited, but it just enhances or connections rather than adding completely new ones, so extra space from a snapping is not required. Iron, Steel, Tin, Pewter, Electrum, Gold, Bendalloy, Cadmium, Bronze, Brass, Atium, and Zinc all work this way, very simply. Gold is a little more interesting than those others because it is similar to how Stormlight heals, and will probabaly be similar to how many other magic systems regenerate the magic user. Copper is a bit different. It completely erases the memory that exists and stores it. Adding more new memories back then stored still does not require extra snapped out space because gaining new memories is a function that happens unmagically. Chromium works pretty basically, but has interesting implications. In Secret History [spolier]One of the Ire alludes to people being able to find locations they wish to find by using Fortune (4). Brandon has also said that Hoid uses Feruchemy to be where he needs and wants to be. Nicrosil allows one to completely store away their extra magic imbuing connections in a similar way that Copper can completely store memories. I'm not sure if you regain your connections when you stop storing, but I doubt it. The ability to gain extra connections does not require extra snapped out connections because everyone has the ability to have extra connections added. Aluminum stores your sense of self, or Identity. We have not seen much of this power directly in action but we know that . Duralumin works by reducing and enhancing one's Connection to an area. This allows for someone to have connections similar to someone who has grown up in an area, giving you an understanding of the local languages, etc. When Compounding is used to fuel Feruchemy I believe that the Investiture used in the Feruchemical charge is able to ride the new pathways to the old ones they affect, essentially taking a path of least resistance, and thus increasing the investiture efficiency when used. It's like like getting energy from a poor conductor, then shooting it back through a super conductor rather than using a bad conductor once again. You get more energy back in then usual. This is again, just a theory, as I have no way to prove that allomantic connections are any better than regular ones at carrying investiture, but this makes sense to me. Hemallurgy: Before I explain how I think this works I want to look at the Three Realm Light analogy once more. When the light is turned on, specific portions of the light correspond with the image upon the surface. When a Hemallurgic spike strikes the portion of the image that corresponds to where a magic inducing connection is on the light, it uses ruin's investiture to pierce the three realms (Like a perpendicularly, Brandon alludes to what I am speaking of now in my Madisson report) and absorb the connections and investiture that is there. This spike can then do the reverse, and spit out those connections and investiture back into a new soul. This is why everyone can use Hemallurgy, it doesn't utilize connections inside the host to key into investiture, but rather it uses the type of metal to do so. I can't explain the connection to blood, but I just want to point out that blood is related to the spiritual realm, so there is probably something going on there. Maybe it acts as a insulator for the investiture and connections within the spiritual realm?(5) Surgebinding When a person who is snapped bonds with a Spren it fills the snapped out space with new connections, similar to Allomancy. When a person speaks their oaths it adds more investiture pressure to these new connections similar to Feruchemy and also increases investiture efficiency within these connections as well as in the enhanced healing, speed, and strength connections. This process allows for the magic we see utilized in the surges, which I will explain below. Before I get to how exactly the surges worked I also want to talk about the spren side of things. I think that as more oaths are spoken, not only are the spren dragged farther into the physical realms, but they are also imbued with more connections and also allows them to key into Honor's investiture to transform into powerful invested objects. Shardblades work by being invested enough to puncture through the realms in a similar way to spikes, and then rip off and destroy parts of the soul. Nightblood is so much so invested that he can completely evaporate a being's entire presence in all three realms. Sharplate works by being invested enough to disrupt other investiture. It basically stops Shardblades from being able to puncture the wearers spirit web. Since it is so heavily invested it also deflects allomantic pulses and other investitures. We don't know much about many of the surges, so I will explain the ones we have seen. I will update this theory as we learn more about the surges. Gravitation This magical connection works by internally affecting the Shardworlds connections and hold onto a person. It does similar things externally to objects that are lashed. Adhesion This works by manipulation the part of the spirit web that deals with air pressure, making the portion of the physical image that deals with air pressure more so bright, which sticks other physical objects to it. Illumination This works by creating ghost images in the physical realm in a similar fashion to Gold and Electrum. I think this allows Truthwatchers glimpse images of the future and allows Lightweavers to... well... weave light. Soulcasting This one is pretty unique compared to the ones we have seen so far. This works by allowing the magic user to create new connections in another soul, and then forces investiture through those new connections to make them the path of least resistance, transforming the spirit web and changing the physical realm image. Adhesion: Works in a similar way to Abrasion, but with friction instead of air pressure. AonDor Now this magic system I don't really understand, because we still don't understand how it is initiated. I will probably update my theory on this subject when it how initiation works on Sel is told to us in Arcanum Unbound. Awakening This works by sending pulses of investiture into an object in a similar fashion to emotional Allomancy, with the command being an analogue to the emotion that a rioter wants you to feel. This investiture then creates new connections in the Awakened Object's spirit web, giving it a kind of sentience. When enough Investiture is used to create this mind it can create near complete Robot like minds, such as Noghtblood. So basicly, Awakening is like coding a soul, and then using investiture to power that soul. Lifeless already have code there, and stone lifeless are a similar enough image to leave an impression of a code, so they are able to follow the new code given to them as if they were a human. The breath cannot be taken away, and I'm pretty sure this is because of the complexity of the person or type IV's spirit web, kind of in the way that the beyond cannot take away Cognitive shadows as easily if they have more spiritual connections. The different Heightenings work in a similar fashion to Feruchemy, in that it enhances various preexisting Connections within the spirit web. Effects of Magic Use of any magic within the Cosmere, or any handling of Investiture, effects ones spirit web. One way it can be effected is by the investitures Intent. Any investiture, no matter how small, affects ones personality with its mandate. In large amounts this can lead to a person subcoming completely to the Intent, becoming a shell with which the power acts. They are basically just riding the power at that point, as opposed to directing it. This happened to Ati, most likely.(12) Another way Investiture is Savantism. This happens when wasted investiture accumulates in l, basicly investing these different connections. When I talked with Brandon at Oddesey Con it was confirmed that things have been invested and are used to the investiture in their souls begin to wither away when there is no longer investiture running through it, such as the stones and wood in Elantris. When this happens to an Allomancer it gives them extended abilities with these connections in the soul, but leaves them in a burned out a damaged state when not burning. Looking at Spook and the Three Realm Light analogy, I belive that he left those areas on the light too bright for too long and ended up burning the image surface. While the light is dimmer, the image remains burned, leaving him with the effects that he had. These damages can be looked as as boons, but are especially dangerous in the physical Allomancy connections.(13)(14)(15) Relevant WoB (1) Brandon: Over time using the magic will invest you, on Scadrial. Most of the power is not coming from, on Roshar the power isn't coming from the person either (He cut himself off, so I assume this is how it works on Scadrial even though he didn't finish his thought) so I'm going to have to back up on that one and say, yes, the mistborn are as invested as a Knight Radiant, because in both cases the majority of the power is coming from somewhere else, but there is the spirit web. Investing the wrong term, but you have all these connections in the spiritual realm, so yanking you away from them, or rewriting them (like soulcasting or forgery) is harder. (2) Brandon: Yes, investiture disrupts investiture. It's harder for her to even soulcast a regular person than, say, a rock. (3) I could find this refrence, although i just read it hours ago. If anyone finds it splease PM me and i will update this post. (4) BRANDON SANDERSON (REDDIT) 1. It's consistent in the Spiritual Realm. Location isn't particularly important there. 2. Very interchangeable, but not always simple to apply. 3. Investiture can not be created or destroyed. It follows it's own version of the laws of Thermodynamics. JOE_____ (REDDIT)So what happens to the investiture that is lost when a person is spiked and the spike isn't set in the new person immediately? Does it return to the big pool of investiture in the sky like the power from wheel of time where if its not actively being used it returns to the source? BRANDON SANDERSON (REDDIT)What happens to someone's body when it's not being used by a particular person? The system is built to work like that.(5) Brandon: Right, Hoid talks about Perpendicularities on Scadrial, if you go look at that there are certain places he talks about that. ,eyes just say that large concentrations of investiture can cause a puncture through the spiritual realm straight to the physical realm. If you know how to use it, you may transition. That's not the only way but is the primary way. Guy: And of of Course you can soulcast (Elsecall?) to get there. Brandon: Yes. Guy who asked about the four armed spren: Now that's a very interesting analogy you just made, you said "punctured" almost as if it were a spike. Brandon: Yes, yes, that was intentional. (6) QUESTION Can Odium pick up pieces of a Shard without changing the nature of his Shard? BRANDON SANDERSON Any investiture, over time, will slowly change one’s personality, no matter how small that investiture. (7) INTERVIEW: Mar 20th, 2014 WOR Signing Report - IronCaf (Paraphrased)IRONCAFIn what ways is the process of becoming an allomantic savant like body building or other exercise?BRANDON SANDERSON [Paraphrasing] That is not an inapt metaphor for it. It's like a wedge gets in the soul and cracks it, and investiture can fill it up. IRONCAFAnd using allomancy breaks it further? BRANDON SANDERSONYes. (15) Random lady: In Elantris it talks about how to wood and stone in the city is rotten and crumbling. Why does this happen? Brandon: This is because when objects become Invested for long periods of time their spirit web changes to accomodate the investiture. When the investiture was pulled up of the stuff in Elantris it's spirit web was severely damaged so it showed that in the physical realm. This happened with the Lord Ruler when the Bands of Mourning were ripped out of him. Conclusion If there is anything you guys think I should add or fix, please let me know and I will update the thread. Feel free to share your thoughts.

This theory is based on the fact that every magic system we have encountered so far can stand on its own. While some magic systems such as the metallic arts interact easily with each other (which can be explained by them being on the same planet) most other systems require various hacks to get them to interact. My theory is that the powers stealing aspect of hemalurgy is actually such a hack. This may sound weird because of the way we have seen hemalurgy so far, where it is mostly used to steal powers. We need to remember however that two of the three hemalurgic creations of TLR we have seen so far didn't have anything to do with allomatic or feruchemical powers. It also would have been weird that a magic system would be created with the only purpose of interacting with other magic systems. My conclusion is that the original purpose of hemalurgy is the transformation of creatures and to give yourself limited boosts, such as a bit more strength or intelligence. The stealing of powers is just a (perhaps intended) side effect.

I'm pretty new to the 17th Shard--and forums in general, really--but I've been an avid reader of Brandon's works since I first read Elantris about five years ago, and I've been aware of the greater Cosmere since I noticed Hoid world-hopping in Warbreaker. As such, I figured I might as well join the discussion, but please bear with any forthcoming ineptitude on my part. All that aside, I figure that with Mistborn: Secret History out we know more than enough about Realmatic Theory to be able to start to analyze and classify the magic in the Cosmere. Moreover, perhaps we might be able to explain exactly what is occurring in the Cognitive Realm when certain things happen. (EX: What happens to someone's Cognitive Shadow if they're killed or maimed by a shardblade?) I also thought it might be fun to speculate about how different powers would interact. Like what would happen if a Mistborn tried to burn a gem filled with stormlight, or if a Surgebinder tried to draw investiture from a filled metalmind. I apologize if somebody's already made a similar post to this one.

Welcome to the Mediocrely Lit Alleys! They aren't dark. They aren't light. They're dark alleys- in the day time. What a genius idea. Join up with the Mediocrely Lit Alleys! We don't like anyone in alleys other than ours. We give out croissants with lerasium inside of them. Genius, I know. They're not on the sales package, like the Light Alley, but they aren't deadly like the Dark Alley! The best of both worlds! We aren't above sabotaging our fellow bakers, but we don't experiment on them either. And by the way, our Alleys are teleportation and timetravel and illusion proof. = Medium Level-y, Winter Cloud Member List: 1. Winter Cloud 1.5 THE LUCKY MIDDLE POSITION OCCUPIED BY THE SPIRIT OF THE MIDDLE 2. WayneSpren.

The cosmere has had a lot of truly interesting and unique magic system, so which is your favorites?

I have read quite extensively on this site about a lot of topics on shard theory and magic theory and from what I am coming to understand is that a good (though not perfect and only with secondhand sources to support) way to understand magic systems and the various shards involvement in them is that the magic systems, by and large, were in place before Adonalsium shattered. After the Shard of Adonalsium scattered and settled, they perverted the magic system(s) that were already a part of the world(s) that they settled on. I'm still researching this and looking for sources, so any thoughts and/or sources would be awesome.

I now understand why Mr. Sanderson is repeating the information I originally asked in this thread. For those that might have the same question please read the complete thread as many good points were brought up. My Original post: Mr. Sanderson, You write a phenomenal yarn and I love your books! I have already read Steelheart, the Rithmatist and the first two books of Mistborn. I ask you please to stop repeating how the magic works for every book. It seems that you rehash the way everything works that already happened in two books again for the third. I am seriously hoping this isn't going to be the case for the Storm Light Archive. Your writing style is great but its annoying and takes me out of the story when its explained how the magic works yet once again. I am hoping your newer Mistborn series Alloy of Law and preceding books will not have this issues also.

From the SLCC transcript, someone ask something irrelevant, went like this: This is definitely related to Worldhopping, but what and how? Is it like an aspect of a magic, like Elsecalling to Surgebinding? Or is it like an object, like a Shardpool, or a concept, like Intent or Focus? And if this 'Perpendicularities' is the same concept as what we have in real life, this Perpendicularity has to be perpendicular to something. Maybe the Cognitive Realm?

EDIT: Some information about another part of the world has been added in a new post. In a time long since forgotten, the Eidolons walked this world. But that was long ago, long before their wrath was kindled against mankind, before their children, the fledgling gods, these our Wandering protectors, rebelled, and were cast down from the Lune. Before the cycles of Skyfire began. It is a miracle that we continue to stubbornly cling to life on this blasted, scarred world we call home. Civilization should have ended that day, when our own gods turned against us. It was the children of those same gods, those beings we now call Wanderers, that came to our aid that day. Funny, how little we know of our saviors now. We rely wholly on them for our survival, just as they rely on us for our Hearts, and yet they are totally alien to us. They walk in the shape of a man, but they are as akin to a man as we to the stars, or the sun, or the Lune. It's strange to think that cities once covered the surface, where nothing but savage bands of Heartless now roam. Entire cities, built on the ground! No wonder so many historians felt the need to travel. Naelus is a world that literally rains fire and brimstone. A constant hail of deadly meteors shower the surface of the world, raining destruction upon anyone and anything unlucky enough to be caught in a Skyfire fall. Civilization as it had existed could never have continued in such conditions. The Skyfire is not constant, but it is consistent enough to make a static city impracticable, as it would be torn apart by meteors on a regular basis. The inhabitants blame the disaster on the wrath of vengeful gods, believing the Eidolons of their myths to be responsible for this terror. Anyway, civilization lives on, literally borne on the backs of a race of titans known as the Wanderers. The Wanderers are vast creatures of stone, shaped roughly like men, but towering as high as mountains. Cities are built on the shoulders of the Wanderers, who are able to safely navigate the Skyfire, keeping their inhabitants safe by constantly moving ahead of the meteors. Naelus has several moons, as well as a planetary ring dubbed by the natives the Lune. A more literal translation would simply be "The Curve" or "the Arch". The Lune can be seen as a series of closely bunched pale white bands filling nearly the center of the sky and running from east to west. Naeluan mythology often depicts the Lune as basically a "bridge to heaven", or a gate dividing the realm of the Eidolons from the mortal world. The Eidolons, the ancient gods of Naelus, are often seen as living beyond, above, or at the top of the Lune. Back to the Wandering cities. Be aware that I'm using the terms "city", "Wanderer", and "Wandering city", interchangeably. On Naelus, the word city refers both to the living Wanderer, and the city it carries. Each citizen on a Wanderer is equipped with a harness as they come of age. This harness is fused to the skin of their back, and designed to adjust as they grow. Each harness holds a single Blazeheart, a metallic sphere carefully harvested from the molten Core of the Wanderer. A Blazeheart forges a powerful connection between the person and their city. Blazehearts are what sustain the souls of the Wanderers. Each Heart bound to a city grants it a measure of power, so a city's strength is directly tied to its population. A city with few Hearts will move lethargically, while one holding many is quick, strong, and agile. This presents a danger, as a famine or war that leaves a city low on Hearts will often also leave it stranded under a Skyfire fall. When two Wanderers cross paths, they will sometimes simply ignore the other, each continuing on its way. Occasionally they will fall into step alongside their fellow Wanderer, travelling together for a time. During times like this, travel and trade between the two cities is common. Once in while, however, for reasons that unclear to their human inhabitants, the Wanderers engage in a sort of battle. When this happens, it can create massive devastation for both sides, and each fatalities meaning one less Heart to power the city. In a case like this, often the only choice is to join the fight, rushing the enemy city in an attempt to force them into surrender, bringing their citizens back as Heartless war prisoners. The outcome of these battles is generally the death of one of the two cities. For when a city has no Hearts left, it dies, no longer having anything to sustain its lifeforce. Dead cities stand motionless, their eyes, once blazing with an inner flame, now hollow and empty. The citizens of the conquered city are usually given the choice to join the new city, taking on Hearts from its Core and bolstering the victorious city's power.

I've been working for some time on a "magic" system for my universe. This system was built to support a more mystical element of my story for readers, but I needed to understand it's limitations clearly as the author. So, I'm wondering. If I give you guys three rules, could you tell me, if you had those abilities–what would you be able to do? Some background. In my universe, there is a discovery of a particle that effects the status of elements. Meaning, these particles are what tells elements what they are and where they are (imagine the code in a computer. Change it and you change the program itself). Here are the abilities: Manipulators can... Aggravate/Adjust the location of these particles inside atoms, resulting in the movement of the entire particle. Can force a shift of particles from one element to another. Repair decaying atoms and rejuvenate them by renewing their structure from another source. The constraints (Most important part and they correspond with their listed power. 1 to 1, 2 to 2) Aggravation means that you can speed up or slow down particles, resulting in hot/cold. (restrictions tie into #2 as to cascades) Particles can be moved if their location is changed, but only a specific distance. So you could move an object 100 kilometers away, then another 100, then another 100. It is restricted to 100 kilometers per shift Shifting an element is easier if it cascades. So you could take a block of 26 Fe: Iron and shift it fairly quickly to 25 Mn: Magnesium or 27 Co: Cobalt. But changing a whole block of composite stone would likely fail because of different particles. You could change pieces of it though, one at a time. Decaying atoms take the energy from other compatible sources. So a plant could be kept alive if you have another plant near it that you transfer energy from. Two more things. Adjusting the particles is tasking, meaning that burnout can happen quickly the less training and skill you have. Also, Manipulators live for a long time, roughly 250 years because of their abilities to rejuvenate. But they go insane. There is no known cure. This is a lot, but if you have questions, just send them my way. I'm excited to hear what awesome stuff you could do with this! Have at it

So the world I'm creating has an elemental magic system that is fairly typical. In a nutshell, the magic is an innate, hereditary power giving the user the ability to perceive, manipulate, create, or destroy one of the world's eight major elements: Fire, Earth, Life, Water, Air, Spirit, Light, and Dark. At a glance it resembles a cross between elemental bending in Avatar and channelling in the Wheel of Time. (I might make a post discussing the system in detail at some point, but for now it's only relevant that it exists.) But I really liked the idea of a scientific or mechanical way to access magic that we see in Roshar's fabrials, and that is hinted to exist in southern Scadrial. So I started thinking about how something like that would work in my world, and this is what I came up with. The basic premise is in utilizing elemental energy stored in gemstones (which obviously must glow when they are charged) by imbuing the energy into geometric symbols which have (more or less arbitrary) spiritual connections to the different effects the energy can produce. Now, don't look at me like that. Sanderson isn't the first author to use gemstones as magic batteries. The magic system I'm developing here is not a blatant rip-off of fabrials. It only looks that way. I'm interested in what kinds of technology you, my friends, can come up with using this system. Airships? Railguns? Laundry machines? You tell me. Now, in more detail: there's a strong connection between light or colour and the elemental energy that makes up this world. The spiritual character of different substances causes this energy to take on different elemental colours. Here's an overview of the different colour associations. - Red: Hot gases and incandescent material undergoing combustion - Orange: Metal, molten earth, charcoal - Yellow: Minerals, salts, ceramics, soil - Yellow-Green: Wood, hair, silk - Green: Organic matter - Green-Cyan: Oils, fats - Cyan: Water, ice - Azure: Heavy gases and vapours, steam - Blue: Light atmospheric gases - Violet: Rational mental phenomena - Magenta: Vital psychological phenomena - Rose: Emotional phenomena - White: Visible light, elemental colour Once elemental energy acquires colour, it is restricted to interact with the associated substances. Ambient elemental energy pervades the world and takes on colour according to nearby substances. Importantly, the substances within living beings are protected from interaction with elemental energy by a natural magic associated with all life. Okay. So there's natural magic on this world which causes any transparent material, upon intense illumination by sunlight, to form into a reservoir for elemental energy. Further illumination causes the material to charge with elemental energy, with an elemental colour identical or at least similar to the colour of the material. Deformation of the material ruins its ability to store energy, so you need rigid, high-strength materials to create good reservoirs. Hence, gemstones. When a reservoir material is charged, it glows with the appropriate colour. Certain arcane symbols can unlock the power of elemental energy, expending it to produce different effects. These symbols are all built upon a circle and are referred to as activation circles. (You may be feeling an FMA vibe right now. As an aside, I'm thinking the basic elements of the symbols will be circular arcs inscribed in the main circle, rather than straight lines.) When a high density of elemental energy, such as that stored in a reservoir, is brought near such a symbol, the energy begins to flow through the activation circle, expending it and releasing its power. (Electrical analogy: the reservoirs are capacitors and the activation circles are resistors.) The symbols are discovered by experimentation or from ancient texts in reference to the innate elemental magic system. It is pretty difficult to discover new symbols. Modifiers can further specify the behaviour of the activation circles in some ways. Activation circles can be constructed from anything - they can be built from a material or carved into one, drawn on a surface with ink or chalk or whatever you like, formed from a shadow or a projection - as long as the symbol is there, there is some amount of elemental energy that will cause it to function. However, the circles function better if they are constructed from a material associated with the element, allowing the energy to flow through them easily. They function even better if they are made from specially prepared conduit materials, which are near-perfect conductors of elemental energy. (One of the kinds of activation circles can transform a material into a conduit for a certain colour of elemental energy; it so happens that this works especially well for copper, silver, and gold.) So one could build elemental energy activation devices to access the various effects for the different colours of elemental energy. For simplicity I'm going to call devices, activation circles that are constructed from conduits and powered by reservoir gemstones, fabrials. This is just for fun and I'm not planning on publishing any time soon, so I can change the name later, haha. Here is the list of the different possible activation circles: Perception - the circle stretches the energy within it into a perception field that extends throughout the vicinity of the circle. The more energy placed within the circle, the greater the range. When elemental material is detected, some of the energy is pulled back into the circle. This will either cause the reservoir to light up, or it can be siphoned away by a conduit to power another circle. Modifiers can focus the perception field in a certain direction, or create a strongly focused perception field within the circle (which has some uses later on). Attraction or Repulsion - the circle generates a force field, anchored on some elemental material at the center of the circle, that acts on similar elemental material in the vicinity of the circle. The reaction force on the anchor is equal, opposite, and collinear with the force on the outside material. Modifiers can focus the force field in a certain direction, or anchor the force field to the reservoir material within the circle rather than an elemental material. Energy is only expended when an actual force is being generated. The circle can be tuned to target a specific material by coupling it with an inside-focused perception circle containing a sample of the target material. Heating or Cooling - the circle expends energy to add or remove heat to elemental material within the circle. Bend Light - the analogous activation to Attraction or Repulsion for fabrials utilizing Light (white) energy, it can bend light towards or away from the circle. Creation or Destruction - the circle converts elemental energy into elemental material, or vice versa. This is extremely energy-costly, as there is a high activation cost on top of the large amounts of energy that go into making physical material. (Though you still gain energy from destruction, there is a net loss in converting from material -> energy -> back to material.) Creation circles can be coupled with an inside-focused perception field to duplicate the sample material, otherwise they create the most representative material for energy of the given colour. Modifiers can help to constrain the structure of the created material. Possibly, creation and destruction circles could be combined into a single transmutation circle that transforms the material while mostly keeping its shape. (Such transmutations have to stay in the same element, however.) Colouration - the circle expends energy to change the elemental colour of material within the circle. This is used to create conduit materials; it can also be used to protect material from interaction with elemental energy by supressing its elemental colour entirely. There may be activation circles for interacting with living beings, related to the elements Life and Spirit, but by necessity they would be incredibly complex. I may need to come up with a secondary process for generating these interactions, maybe by somehow capturing the essence of a natural process and replicating it. I'd like to see fabrials that can do healing or emotional manipulation. Alright. I believe that was sufficiently long. How does it look?

So I've been toying with a magic system for a while. It involves verbal commands to accomplish tasks, control objects/elements, etc. The more eloquent the command, the more powerful it is. That's all I've got. I've been trying to write a full length novel for some time now and I just need a magic system before I start. Thus, any help and/or criticism would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.