Seattle Firefight Signing 1/6/2015

[Shardlet]

So, I will be attending the signing in Seattle this Tues. night.  However, I have been out of the loop long enough that I do not have much in the way of personal questions that I would like to ask Brandon. 

 

Thus, I entreat all of you to offer suggestions.  I will not be doing many questions since I am bringing my 10 year-old with me this time.  So, when I make my selections, please do not be offended if I do not use your question.  I likely will be selecting questions that align with my interests (helpful to older sharders, less helpful to y'all who joined during my drought) and I think the answers may be interesting or valuable.  I generally try to avoid obvious RAFO-bait.

 

So, bring me your queries!

[Kurkistan]

*Pulls out "Older Sharder" membership card. Smiles evilly cheerfully. *

 

Well if you just want a general "what are questions that haven't been answered yet" list, I've kept my list updated so that nothing previously-answered is still on it. Can't guarantee they're all the most interesting/burning questions, though.

 

List:

:Post post-WoR

Could you please explain how light interacts with time bubbles, Realmatically? I know there is handwavium involved to stop redshift/blueshift and microwaving and the like, but what's the in-world workaround?

Do time bubbles "distend" around non-included objects? So if you have a big train going by that's not going to be part of a cadmium bubble, will someone on the opposite side of the tracks still be included in the bubble?
-If any living thing touching a time bubble is affected by it, and the occupants of a train that's not affected by a time bubble are also not affected, then are those occupants still "touching" the bubble?

:Post-WoR:

Is the "jostling" projectiles suffer as they leave speed bubbles mathematically modelable, or entirely arbitrary?

Are there any implications for your afterlife if you're the one a Hemalurgic spike is made from? How about the recipient?

You've said that Drabs on Nalthis don't have Innate Investiture: How are they still sentient, then?

Is there any difference between the healing that Feruchemical gold and held-Stormlight can accomplish? Can use of Regrowth accomplish more than Feruchemical gold?

Why does Awakening need to drain color, and what determines the amount of color needed?

What's the significance of "Zahel's" instructions to Adolin on how to command his Blade when he throws it and the way that Awakening works? Is this some Cosmere-fundamental, or just a quirk of Vasher's particular expertise?

Can a Feruchemist manipulate Identity in such a way that he can make metalminds that anyone else—even a muggle—can tap?

Can a Feruchemist on Nalthis manipulate his Identity such that he can say "Breath return" and steal Breath from someone else's Awakened item?

How long does it take before a newly-made chair starts thinking of itself as a singular object, rather than as just individual components?

Why did Syl turn into a hammer during Kaladin's fight with Szeth? A hammer might be better against Plate, perhaps, but not against squishy flesh.

If a bunch of pieces of wood in the depths of space (without anyone watching) happened to drift into and stick to each other to form a chair, would that object think of itself as a "chair", or even as a singular object?

---

Can iron/steel affect metal on the others ide of a bendalloy/cadmium bubble; similarly can emotional allomancy affect people on the other side?

Does metal have to be in an allomancer's stomach for a leacher to effect it? Or just inside a human? Or just inside a living thing? If Inquisitors could theoretically burn their spikes does that mean a leacher could also affect them?

Could Ruin puppeteer any lifeless that had a single hemalurgic spike implanted?

What would happen to a Kandra with two sets of Blessing spikes (like TenSoon) who was bisected such that one set ended up in each half?

---

:RAFO Bait:
What is Lerasium's Feruchemical effect?

------
Are there such things as "Feruchemical savants"? Was Miles one, a "savant" in Feruchemical gold?

Do Cognitive aspects generally include people's clothing to some extent?
-To what extend to do people's Cognitive selves include their clothing?

Why did Jasnah's combat-soulcasting of the alley thugs affect the clothing of some of them but not of others?

----
FORMS:

Did some "ideal" of what it is to be human act upon TLR such that he still aged, despite the possibility that he ought to have been able to get away with a Cognitive view as immortal and unaging?

Are "ideals" in the Spiritual Realm responsible for why symbols on Sel have magical meaning, like how it's "known" by the Dor that AonAon represents Arelon?

Are "ideals" in the Spiritual Realm the reason why "instinctive Awakening" works, or why specific Command phrases are "discovered" rather than Awakeners being capable of formulating new ones out of whole cloth?

Do Soulcasters draw upon some kind of "ideals" in the Spiritual Realm when they transform a material, such as an "ideal" (or "Essence", in this case) of blood when soulcasting something into blood?
-Me: Almost certainly, given Brandon's comments on soulcast allomantic alloys.

----

What exactly was Shai's Soulforging of Ashraven comparing itself to to see how well it sticks? His Spiritual aspect? Cognitive aspect? The totality of other people's conceptions of him?

How, exactly, does Hemalurgic decay work for Feruchemy? Do Inquisitors have a cap on how much they can store at a time, or do they "waste" Health when they store (so they'd be lying around at 80% health but only storing 10%, for instance), or do they draw it out less efficiently than real Feruchemists?

Why does Feruchemical Gold sometimes leave scars and sometimes not?

Why do new wounds healed by Feruchemical Gold sometimes heal into scars and sometimes not? Like how Kar had facial scars right after Vin arrowed him, versus Miles not having any at all?

-[Altered to remove some degree of ambiguity, as some reservations were voiced as to the clarity of the original phrasing]
http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/4258-questions-for-seattle-signing-1014/page-2#entry67127

---

So what's up with frame of reference for time bubbles?
-Who's decides what "still" is? The bubbler? The bubble? The object the bubble is "anchored" to? The objects in the bubble?

Are Feruchemical attributes stored in the Physical metal of metalminds, or in their Spiritual aspects?

Is there any meaningful difference between the metalminds of a Feruchemists who stores 10% weight for 10 hours in the first metalmind, and then 100% for 1 hour in a second metalmind?

Would an embedded Brass metalmind melt at high temperatures? What about one that's completely buried in the skin?
-Me: Probably not: Water in your stomach oughtn't to boil away

If Dalinar were a Feruchemist, would he be able to tap a metalmind (in either world) while experiencing one of his visions?

Does the Blessing of Presence help a Kandra against takeover by emotional Allomancy, or only against Ruin?
-Me: Probably both.

Could you please explain how Feruchemical brass goes about being a "Cognitive" metal? I know you had to retcon it in, and had originally intended it to be a physical metal, but how does it work Realmatically as Cognitive?

 

That aside, would you mind expounding on your most recent areas of interest and perhaps we could narrow down some good/new questions from there? There might still be one or two not-RAFO-bait questions on time bubbles left.

Edited January 5, 2015 by Kurkistan

[Twenty@20]

Hi Shardlet. WoK spoiler

I posted a theory yesterday regarding Jasnah and Ivory that Ivory took away Jasnah's soulcasting after the incident in the alley with the murderers because he didn't approve of Jasnah's action that's why we don't see her soulcasting for sometime after that incident. Could you ask Brandon about this.

My question: Did Jasnah actually stop soulcasting for sometime after killing the footpads in WoK or is Shallan mistaken about that? Did Ivory have anything to do with that?

Thanks in advance. Have a great time at the signing.

Edited January 4, 2015 by Twenty@20

[Shardlet]

*Pulls out "Older Sharder" membership card. Smiles evilly cheerfully. *

 

Well if you just want a general "what are questions that haven't been answered yet" list, I've kept my list updated so that nothing previously-answered is still on it. Can't guarantee they're all the most interesting/burning questions, though.

 

List:

:Post post-WoR

Could you please explain how light interacts with time bubbles, Realmatically? I know there is handwavium involved to stop redshift/blueshift and microwaving and the like, but what's the in-world workaround?

Do time bubbles "distend" around non-included objects? So if you have a big train going by that's not going to be part of a cadmium bubble, will someone on the opposite side of the tracks still be included in the bubble?

-If any living thing touching a time bubble is affected by it, and the occupants of a train that's not affected by a time bubble are also not affected, then are those occupants still "touching" the bubble?

:Post-WoR:

Is the "jostling" projectiles suffer as they leave speed bubbles mathematically modelable, or entirely arbitrary?

Are there any implications for your afterlife if you're the one a Hemalurgic spike is made from? How about the recipient?

You've said that Drabs on Nalthis don't have Innate Investiture: How are they still sentient, then?

Is there any difference between the healing that Feruchemical gold and held-Stormlight can accomplish? Can use of Regrowth accomplish more than Feruchemical gold?

Why does Awakening need to drain color, and what determines the amount of color needed?

What's the significance of "Zahel's" instructions to Adolin on how to command his Blade when he throws it and the way that Awakening works? Is this some Cosmere-fundamental, or just a quirk of Vasher's particular expertise?

Can a Feruchemist manipulate Identity in such a way that he can make metalminds that anyone else—even a muggle—can tap?

Can a Feruchemist on Nalthis manipulate his Identity such that he can say "Breath return" and steal Breath from someone else's Awakened item?

How long does it take before a newly-made chair starts thinking of itself as a singular object, rather than as just individual components?

Why did Syl turn into a hammer during Kaladin's fight with Szeth? A hammer might be better against Plate, perhaps, but not against squishy flesh.

If a bunch of pieces of wood in the depths of space (without anyone watching) happened to drift into and stick to each other to form a chair, would that object think of itself as a "chair", or even as a singular object?

---

Can iron/steel affect metal on the others ide of a bendalloy/cadmium bubble; similarly can emotional allomancy affect people on the other side?

Does metal have to be in an allomancer's stomach for a leacher to effect it? Or just inside a human? Or just inside a living thing? If Inquisitors could theoretically burn their spikes does that mean a leacher could also affect them?

Could Ruin puppeteer any lifeless that had a single hemalurgic spike implanted?

What would happen to a Kandra with two sets of Blessing spikes (like TenSoon) who was bisected such that one set ended up in each half?

---

:RAFO Bait:

What is Lerasium's Feruchemical effect?

------

Are there such things as "Feruchemical savants"? Was Miles one, a "savant" in Feruchemical gold?

Do Cognitive aspects generally include people's clothing to some extent?

-To what extend to do people's Cognitive selves include their clothing?

Why did Jasnah's combat-soulcasting of the alley thugs affect the clothing of some of them but not of others?

----

FORMS:

Did some "ideal" of what it is to be human act upon TLR such that he still aged, despite the possibility that he ought to have been able to get away with a Cognitive view as immortal and unaging?

Are "ideals" in the Spiritual Realm responsible for why symbols on Sel have magical meaning, like how it's "known" by the Dor that AonAon represents Arelon?

Are "ideals" in the Spiritual Realm the reason why "instinctive Awakening" works, or why specific Command phrases are "discovered" rather than Awakeners being capable of formulating new ones out of whole cloth?

Do Soulcasters draw upon some kind of "ideals" in the Spiritual Realm when they transform a material, such as an "ideal" (or "Essence", in this case) of blood when soulcasting something into blood?

-Me: Almost certainly, given Brandon's comments on soulcast allomantic alloys.

----

What exactly was Shai's Soulforging of Ashraven comparing itself to to see how well it sticks? His Spiritual aspect? Cognitive aspect? The totality of other people's conceptions of him?

How, exactly, does Hemalurgic decay work for Feruchemy? Do Inquisitors have a cap on how much they can store at a time, or do they "waste" Health when they store (so they'd be lying around at 80% health but only storing 10%, for instance), or do they draw it out less efficiently than real Feruchemists?

Why does Feruchemical Gold sometimes leave scars and sometimes not?

http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/4258-questions-for-seattle-signing-1014/page-2#entry67127

---

So what's up with frame of reference for time bubbles?

-Who's decides what "still" is? The bubbler? The bubble? The object the bubble is "anchored" to? The objects in the bubble?

Are Feruchemical attributes stored in the Physical metal of metalminds, or in their Spiritual aspects?

Is there any meaningful difference between the metalminds of a Feruchemists who stores 10% weight for 10 hours in the first metalmind, and then 100% for 1 hour in a second metalmind?

Would an embedded Brass metalmind melt at high temperatures? What about one that's completely buried in the skin?

-Me: Probably not: Water in your stomach oughtn't to boil away

If Dalinar were a Feruchemist, would he be able to tap a metalmind (in either world) while experiencing one of his visions?

Does the Blessing of Presence help a Kandra against takeover by emotional Allomancy, or only against Ruin?

-Me: Probably both.

Could you please explain how Feruchemical brass goes about being a "Cognitive" metal? I know you had to retcon it in, and had originally intended it to be a physical metal, but how does it work Realmatically as Cognitive?

 

That aside, would you mind expounding on your most recent areas of interest and perhaps we could narrow down some good/new questions from there? There might still be one or two not-RAFO-bait questions on time bubbles left.

 

Oh Kurk, have I not asked enough time bubble questions on your behalf .  Therein lies the rub, I don't have many post-WOR areas of speculation.

 

Thanks Twenty, don't worry, you'd have a hard time spoiling things for me.  I'm fully up to date on all readily available readings and reading materials.

Edited January 4, 2015 by Shardlet

[Moogle]

Here's a big list of mine, in the style of Kurk's:

• Is the Stormfather composed partly of Cultivation's Investiture?

• What is Spiritual DNA? Could it be seen as a sort of journal of who you are, or maybe more of a web where you have a bunch of connections from you to other beings/places/concepts?

• Given that the AonDor's illusions apparently require a "full mental picture" of the thing you’re trying to create (by the Words of Radiance Ars Arcanum), it seems likely that Forgery similarly requires you to have a full mental picture of what you're trying to do when you carve a soulstamp. With this in mind, how can one decode a stamp like Frava's Forger was apparently planning on spending a few years doing? Or is there not much of a mental component to Forgery?

• If you used Stormlight to Awaken, would you drain color or create frost? (Note: RAFO’d before, but he may be willing to answer it this time around.)

• Does Surgebinding drain heat like Awakening drains color?

• Why did Kaladin use a hammer to break Szeth's shoulder rather than a Blade to kill him? (Note: nitpicky)

• Can Mistborn draw power from Preservation via burning a metal and just hold it to get a Stormlight-like effect, not filtering it through a metal to create an effect?

• What would a "transformative Cognitive entity", like Roshar’s spren, look like on Scadrial?

• If Ruin never Invested Scadrial, could fabrials be made on Roshar? (Note: is a question on whether fabrials are a use of Hemalurgy basically.)

• Hoid comes out of the “emerald pools” on the Horneater Peaks. Why did he choose that pool in particular rather than a different one?

  • (RAFO’d - ‘making assumptions’) Hoid went through Cultivation's Shardpool to get to Roshar as opposed to Honor's. Yet, he notes he never got along well with Cultivation. Why did he choose her Shardpool rather than Honor's?

• Could a Hemalurgic spike be soulstamped to grant a different power than the one it stole? Would this be limited to powers in the same “set”, like a spike granting Allomancy could be converted to granting a different Allomantic power, but not a Feruchemical one?

• Are there power-enhancing modifiers for soulstamps like there are for the AonDor? Can you use them to increase their power on a stamp enough to stamp Invested objects?

• Would a Returned who bonded an Honorblade have their eye color change when they summon it? Would a Herald? (Note: he’s said he has the answer in his notes, but didn’t know it offhand before.)

• Because the Seon bond is similar to a Nahel bond, it seems that Passing a Seon should require a wounded spirit on the part of the person who is going to receive the Seon. Is this true? How are Seons Passed?    

• Does Lift turn food directly into Stormlight, or does the food act like a gate for Stormlight to come through, like the metals in Allomancy? Is she just limited to food, or has she just not experimented enough?

• If a non-Windrunner Surgebinder summoned Jezrien's Honorblade, what color eyes would they get? A blend? Different colors for each eye? (Note: RAFO’d before.)

• Kaladin is out in a highstorm and his Stormlight reserves burst alight. Why does he not keep getting Invested until he explodes? Is it harder for the Stormlight to keep entering him, like trying to compress more and more stuff into a small box? Does he unconsciously keep himself in equilibrium by expelling Stormlight as the storm infuses him?

• Why are Shallan's eyes not a pale garnet like Kaladin's are a pale blue? Is it because she’s already a lighteyes?

• Why are there not ten different colors of light eyes on Roshar? Shouldn’t there be red eyes and pink eyes and ‘diamond’ eyes?

• Shallash, the Lightweaver’s Herald, has light violet eyes, but she says she doesn’t have a Shardblade. Is this related to her being a Herald?

• Would the screaming Eshonai hears go away if she unbonded her Shardblade?

• What color are Nalan’s/Darkness' eyes?

• Each world seems to have a material that Investiture 'sticks' easily to. Nalthis has life, Roshar has gems, Scadrial has metal. What word should we use for it?

• The Metallic Arts are from Preservation and Ruin. There's three magic systems there, but there's only one magic system from Devotion and Dominion. Does the number of magic systems on a planet have something to do with how well the Intents of the Shards on it 'mesh', or perhaps how much they conflict?

• Would a Parshman who received multiple Breaths become more ‘sentient’, like a listener bonded to a spren?

• Is the woman bordering the chart at the back of TWoK intended to represent Cultivation?

• Could a Hemalurgic spike steal one Surges? Or do you have to steal the spren bond?

• Can a spren be Hemalurgically spiked? Is this like how modern fabrials work?

• If two Mistborn of the same-strength had a Mistborn child, would the child be weaker Allomantically? How much weaker, mathematically?

• How would Hemalurgic decay affect a Shardblade stolen with Hemalurgy?

• Does Shardplate regrow by Soulcasting air to metal, does it covert Stormlight directly into Invested metal, or what’s going on there?

• What happens when you put multiple competing Soulstamps on one thing? Like a stamp that says a table was well-cared for and a stamp that says the table was neglected.   

• How does Hemalurgically stealing a spren bond work? Could the stolen spren break the bond because by using Hemalurgy you’re breaking one of the ideals that Surgebinders swear?

• Does having something stolen from you with a Hemalurgic spike have any serious implications for your afterlife?

• Were the children of original Mistborn noticeably weaker than the original Mistborn? Like, to the point where they could affect half as many people when Soothing? Mathematically, how does the power dropoff work over generations of Allomancers?

• Are the Mistings in Alloy of Law noticeably weaker than an equivalent Misting in Final Empire? Has the rate of power loss with each generation of Allomancers slowed?

• Will the power loss of Allomancers over generations ever result in such incredibly weak Mistings that they will be like Alendi, with incredibly weak abilities? How many years will it take?

• Is a child of two Allomancers the same strength as their parents (assuming their parents are equal strength)?               

• What difference does Allomantic strength make when using gold/electrum, if any?

• Were Preservation/Sazed limited to only swapping out Temporal metals?

• Does the Allomantic Table basically 'set' the types of new natural Mistings that can come about?

• Could Honor/Cultivation swap out Surges like Preservation did metals?

• Does Marsh have the ability to burn Allomantic gold, or was it considered too useless of a metal to spike him with?

• Are there any implications for your afterlife if you're the one a Hemalurgic spike is made from? How about the recipient?

• What state is the Investiture gained from burning metals in? Can it even be classified as gaseous/liquid/solid?                           

• Can you make a Hemalurgically charged spike from a plant?

• Can you Snap if you’re not on Scadrial?

Perhaps you'll find one or two that interest you.

[Kurkistan]

@Shardlet

 

There's no such thing as enough time bubble questions! 

 

The "Post WOR" labels are mostly for my own sake, as they're more "I came up with/ruthlessly stole these after WoR came out" than "these questions only have meaning in a post WoR world".

 

@Moogle

 

I see you there with your fancy bullet points... 

[Shardlet]

The "Post WOR" labels are mostly for my own sake, as they're more "I came up with/ruthlessly stole these after WoR came out" than "these questions only have meaning in a post WoR world".

 

Haha.  That's funny, I hadn't even read your questions when I wrote my response.  "Post-WoR" was a happy coincidence.  For my part, I was referencing the beginning of my relative absence from the forums.

 

I do have a soft spot for metals questions. And I have a couple of ideas on what would be the answer to a couple of your questions.   I thought we had a pretty solid answer on why there are sometimes scars and sometimes not.

[Kurkistan]

Ah, I see. That is a bit funny.

 

So far as the scars question goes, that is a bit of a legacy question. But still mildly interesting if you dig into the root question. The example in question was an Inquisitor forming some pretty nasty scars within minutes of getting the injury: so the scars formed as a direct result of the healing process, rather than simply being left there after some Cognitive acceptance and late-applied Feruchemical gold. And also Sazed got some surgical scars despite using Feruchemical gold to heal up.

 

It's interesting because under the "you keep scars if you think of yourself as having them" model the Inquisitor would have had to see himself as being so-scarred from nearly the instant he received the injury. An answer could potentially illuminate us into a more freewheeling "you heal as you think you should" model or the like, versus the current "you heal to as you see yourself" model that doesn't leave much personal agency in the moment of healing. Or maybe Ruinic influence or something stepped in, but then there's Sazed's surgical scars...

 

Ahem. It's really not the important of a question, I guess, but then I got to talking... 

 

EDIT: Forgot that Sazed also got scarred using Feruchemical gold.

Edited January 4, 2015 by Kurkistan

[Oudeis]

Are we willing to accept the possibility that Vin saw partially-healed wounds and just said "scar" as the closest thing she knew of to them?

 

Also, please remind me where it says Sazed got scars after healing using Feruchemical gold? Must've been somewhere in Hero of Ages, yes?

[Kurkistan]

The Inquisitor pulled her up, twisting her and easily holding her. He smiled with an evil grin, his face pocked with scars. Scars that looked like…

Arrowhead wounds, she thought with shock. But…healed already? How can it be?

 

 It seems pretty definitively "scars".

 

We also have Marsh retaining his face-scar from when Sazed Feruchemied an eyespike halfway through his head.

 

Sazed's scars:

HoA Chapter 4

Sazed reached down, touching his stomach. Breeze's comments pained him. They brought his mind back to that terrible time a year before, when Tindwyl had been killed. When Sazed had fought Marsh at the Well of Ascension, and had nearly been killed himself. Even through his clothing, he could feel the scars on his abdomen, where Marsh had hit him with a collection of metal rings, piercing Sazed's skin and nearly killing him.

He'd drawn upon the Feruchemical power of those very rings to save his life, healing his body, engulfing them within him. Soon after, however, he'd stored up some health and then had a surgeon remove the rings from his body. Despite Vin's protests that having them inside him would be an advantage, Sazed was worried that it was unhealthy to keep them embedded in his own flesh. Besides, he had just wanted them gone.

 

EDIT: Though, re-reading the scene where Sazed fought Marsh, it's possible that the wounds on his stomach were only partially healed at that point: So he could have gotten scars from healing up normally after the fight, then stored up the Feruchemical gold and gotten the surgery, keeping only the original set of scars after magically healing from the surgery.

 

I'm somewhat leery of this possibility, though. I was far more willing to accept relatively quick "this is the new normal" for scars and whatnot before Lopen went and re-grew a limb after Honor-knows how long.

Edited January 4, 2015 by Kurkistan

[skaa]

Hi Shardlet! Here are my list of suggested questions. Feel free to re-phrase any that you pick.

 

Scadrial:

• RAFO-bait: Does the Southern Scadrian civilization know about harmonium at the time of Alloy of Law?
• If one were to submit a bead of atium to a modern chem lab for analysis, what interesting stuff would they find?
• Is there any significance to duralumin containing two Allomantic metals (aluminum and copper)?
  • On a related note, does Allomantic brass contain copper, and do Allomantic bronze and Allomantic bendalloy contain tin?
• Will all Allomantically-viable alloys of lerasium create Allomancers when burned? Are there lerasium alloys that have physical/enhancement effects unrelated to creating Mistings?
• If a Mistborn uses Chromium on a Thug, Leeching his Pewter stores, will the Mistborn get a burst of strength?
• Can Chromium Leeching be blocked (or at least be weakened) by Copper Allomancy?

Roshar:

• How important is metal in fabrial science?
• RAFO-bait: Can Nightblood grant abilities to a person he bonds with on Roshar?
• The word "lucentia" seems to connote light or visibility. Why isn't the Essence of Lucentia related to the Surge of Illumination?

Cosmere:

• Silver affects Investiture on Threnody. If a Mistborn and/or Feruchemist visits Threnody, will he be able to use silver in Allomancy/Feruchemy/Hemalurgy while staying there?
• Can spren bonds be stored in a Duraluminmind?
• Is time travel to the past possible in the Cosmere? (Might be useful for atium alloy theorycrafting.)

 

That's all for now. Have fun at the signing!

Edited January 4, 2015 by skaa

[Shardlet]

Ok.  I recall there being some disagreement back in the day about Lerasium and its default effect.  So to clear that up some, I have devised the following line of questioning (please inform me, Moogle, Weiry, or Kurk if this has already been cleared up):

 

If Vin and pre-lerasium Elend hypothetically each ingested and blindly burned equivalently sized beads of Lerasium, would Vin be a stronger mistborn than Elend or would they be equal?

 

If a non-allomantically gifted person consumed and blindly burned a bead of lerasium half the size of the bead Elend burned half of a bead of Lerasium (the same size as the one Elend burned), would they be as strong a mistborn as Elend was?

 

If a non-allomancer simultaneously consumed and blindly burned two beads a bead of Lerasium twice the size of the bead that that were the same size as the bead Elend burned, would they be a stronger mistborn than Elend?

 

Has this been resolved?  Input on phrasing?

Edited January 4, 2015 by Shardlet

[Kurkistan]

Well we have this on Lerasium + Mistborn:

 

Source:

17TH SHARD

If a Mistborn burns lerasium, as in, not just ingests it, what effect would it grant Allomantically?

 

BRANDON SANDERSON

That is a RAFO. It would do something, but the thing you've gotta remember is that, when ingesting lerasium for the first time and gaining the powers, your body is actually burning it. Think of lerasium as a metal anyone can burn. Does that make sense?

 

17TH SHARD

It does.

 

BRANDON SANDERSON

By burning it you gain access to those powers. It rewrites your spiritual DNA, and there are ways to do really cool things with lerasium that I don't see how anyone would know. Were most Mistborn to just burn it, it would rewrite their genetic code to increase their power as an Allomancer.

 

It doesn't necessarily spell out if this "increase in their power" is simply to the base level of a Lerasium Mistborn, but this WoB suggests that you can "stack" Lerasium-burning for more power, so I would guess that burning a single bead is more "add 10 units of Preservation" then "increase their base Preservation level to exactly 11".

 

I would think that the second WoB also applies to a muggle burning more/less Lerasium: so less Lerasium => less power.

 

--

 

Also, in regards to Skaa's Lerasium-alloy question, I'd always taken this WoB to be basically saying that alloying Lerasium with any one of the "real" metals would allow you to produce the corresponding Misting.

-EDIT: And, for what it's worth, that interpretation is backed up by the MAG. Usually that isn't saying much, but the two sources are rather distinct and I'd wager that this is one of those times when the MAG is actually reliable for new info.

Edited January 4, 2015 by Kurkistan

[Shardlet]

• On a related note, does Allomantic brass contain copper, and do Allomantic bronze and Allomantic bendalloy contain tin?

 

Brass by definition is an alloy of copper and zinc.  Likewise, bronze is by definition an alloy of copper and tin.  So I think it is very safe to say 'yes' to these questions.  My suspicion for bendalloy is that it is precisely what bendalloy is IRL (i.e., 50 wt% bismuth, 26.7 wt% lead, 13.3 wt% tin, and 10 wt% cadmium) same with nicrosil (84.1 wt% Ni, 14.4 wt% Cr, 1.4 wt%, and 0.1 wt% Mg).  Duralumin and electrum are different because they are families of alloys or rather describe alloys having a range of compositions

Edited January 4, 2015 by Shardlet

[Shardlet]

 Forgive the double post please.  Kurk posted while I was typing.

 

Well we have this on Lerasium + Mistborn:

 

Source:

 

It doesn't necessarily spell out if this "increase in their power" is simply to the base level of a Lerasium Mistborn, but this WoB suggests that you can "stack" Lerasium-burning for more power, so I would guess that burning a single bead is more "add 10 units of Preservation" then "increase their base Preservation level to exactly 11".

 

I would think that the second WoB also applies to a muggle burning more/less Lerasium: so less Lerasium => less power.

 

 

I think both those are ambiguous to the question.  I am familiar with both.  Certainly lerasium stacking is possible since you could rerwrite your sDNA or perhaps simply portions thereof to gain additional abilities (given the proper intent of course).  Neither quote really clearly fully addresses the default setting of lerasium (i.e., makes a mistborn).  I designed those questions to clear the water left muddy by these WoBs.

Edited January 4, 2015 by Shardlet

[Kurkistan]

Good good, I wasn't sure if you'd recalled those.

 

I agree there's still some mud in there (though I think we disagree on just how ambiguous it is, in all), so by all means do some mud-filtering.

 

--

 

So onto the phrasing itself, then, as I think there is a bit of sub-optimal clarity going on:

 

If a non-allomantically gifted person consumed half the amount of Lerasium that was in the bead Elend burned, would they be as strong a mistborn as Elend was?

 

If a non-allomancer simultaneously burned two beads of Lerasium that were the same size as the bead Elend burned, would they be a stronger mistborn than Elend?

-Not sure on this one. Does it matter for you that they're two distinct beads? If not, why not just say "a bead twice the mass of the one Elend burned" and leave it at that?

[Shardlet]

Good good, I wasn't sure if you'd recalled those.

 

I agree there's still some mud in there (though I think we disagree on just how ambiguous it is, in all), so by all means do some mud-filtering.

 

--

 

So onto the phrasing itself, then, as I think there is a bit of sub-optimal clarity going on:

 

If a non-allomantically gifted person consumed half the amount of Lerasium that was in the bead Elend burned, would they be as strong a mistborn as Elend was?

 

If a non-allomancer simultaneously burned two beads of Lerasium that were the same size as the bead Elend burned, would they be a stronger mistborn than Elend?

-Not sure on this one. Does it matter for you that they're two distinct beads? If not, why not just say "a bead twice the mass of the one Elend burned" and leave it at that?

 

Thanks for the tips Kurk. Incorporated your suggestions and made some further amendments of my own.

[skaa]

Brass by definition is an alloy of copper and zinc.  Likewise, bronze is by definition an alloy of copper and tin.  So I think it is very safe to say 'yes' to these questions.  My suspicion for bendalloy is that it is precisely what bendalloy is IRL (i.e., 50 wt% bismuth, 26.7 wt% lead, 13.3 wt% tin, and 10 wt% cadmium) same with nicrosil (84.1 wt% Ni, 14.4 wt% Cr, 1.4 wt%, and 0.1 wt% Mg).  Duralumin and electrum are different because they are families of alloys or rather describe alloys having a range of compositions

 

Yeah, that's my assumption as well. I am in fact developing a theory regarding these alloys with two Allomantic metals. I'm just afraid that I'd post that theory and then BAM! We suddenly get a WoB saying those alloys aren't what we assumed they were.

 

Edit: Then again, come to think of it, if I were in your shoes I would probably pick questions that are much more interesting than alloy compositions.

 

 

Also, in regards to Skaa's Lerasium-alloy question, I'd always taken this WoB to be basically saying that alloying Lerasium with any one of the "real" metals would allow you to produce the corresponding Misting.

-EDIT: And, for what it's worth, that interpretation is backed up by the MAG. Usually that isn't saying much, but the two sources are rather distinct and I'd wager that this is one of those times when the MAG is actually reliable for new info.

 

I'm sure there are at least 16 different lerasium alloys that create various Allomancers. What I was thinking of when adding that question is this WoB, which can be interpreted as saying that there are tons of possible lerasium alloys. This was Phantom's interpretation back in the day. Perhaps different ratios produce different effects when burned, some of which might not have anything to do with creating Allomancers. Or perhaps Phantom's interpretation is wrong and there's just 32 lerasium alloys (16 lerasium+basic metals and 16 lerasium+atium+basic metals). We might as well try to clear that up.

Edited January 4, 2015 by skaa

[Kurkistan]

@Shardlet

 

Thanks, now we have a slightly less high chance of Brandon somehow managing to tragically misunderstand the question in the chaos of a signing.

 

@skaa

 

Ah, I see. My apologies for misreading you.

[Shardlet]

Great suggestions so far.  Any other takers?

[Kurkistan]

One more suggestion, actually: I'd advise that you come up with one or two "general Q&A" questions you can ask; something a bit more concise, less technical, and unspoilery so that if you managed to get called on during the first part of the signing you can ask something useful and Brandon can respond in full without spoiling something in the books for the whole room.

 

As an example, I'd lined up my "Are the laws of physics in the cosmere Spiritually-based?" question as an easily-asked/answered one when I was at the Philly signing.

Edited January 4, 2015 by Kurkistan

[Asperity]

Could you ask if there is any correlation between the God Beyond and minor Shardworlds? Or, say, correlation between the God Beyond and his future novellas (excluding Emperor's Soul, of course.) Or the God Beyond's 'faction'.

 

I'm sure you can think of a better way to articulate all that maybe. Or just go with the first question. I'd be extremely appreciative if you could manage an answer to this one question for me.

[WeiryWriter]

Here's my list:

 

-Honorspren and windspren have been described as "cousins", do Cryptics share a similar relationship with creationspren?

 

-Can Shardpools be used as a tool for Realmatic transition (such as moving between the Physical and Cognitive Realms)?

 

-Are the Unmade Splinters of Odium? (Probably RAFO-bait)

 

-According to Peter, Mraize is from Thaylenah, does Shallan just never mention his eyebrows or is he not ethnically Thaylen?

 

-You've said that Alethi and Irali hair shares similarities with the Royal Locks of House Idris, does that mean the "breeding true" inheritance pattern is a matter of lineage rather than genetics, as is the case with the Royal Locks?

 

-Was there a King of Alethkar directly before Gavilar?

 

-What if the Throne of Idris passed to someone who was not the child of a monarch?  Like if they were the niece or nephew of the previous monarch. Their parent would not have passed on the Royal Locks to them, but if they gained the throne would they spontaneously manifest the Royal Locks?  Would their children if they were born before?

 

-What are your plans with regards to the Jasnah sequence you wrote while in Europe this summer?  Will that be in Stormlight 3 or will it be released as a separate novella?

 

-Do you still plan on writing the "King Lopen the First, King of Alethkar" short story?

 

-Does hair that is still attached to a person's head get cut if a Shardblade passes through it?  If not if that person had the Royal Locks could they change the color of the hair "below" the cut?

 

-You've said previously that Ashyn does not currently have a Shard, did it *ever* have a Shard?

 

-Is Aon Rao the Aon that Raoden mis-interprets?  Is its true meaning something closer to "Investiture"?

 

There's also the Ultimate List.

[Oudeis]

 

 It seems pretty definitively "scars".

 

Yes... I think you missed the point of my question? I know she absolutely uses the word "scars". What I'm saying is, is it possible she doesn't have a word in her personal lexicon for "half-healed slits in your skin with no scar tissue but still abnormal flesh-mass" and so she just simplified it to scars? Recall that this is a big difference between her and Elend. If he saw something somewhat like a scar, he would be bothered until he found out exactly what it was and how it was different from a scar. Vin sees something "like a scar" and doesn't care what it really is, she just starts questioning how it affects her ability to kill him.

 

And for both of them... you seem to be presupposing infinite reserves like Miles had. These are both people with extremely limited health, people who must spend hours sick in bed for a few additional minutes of healing something like this. In their position, would you spend your whole reserve of healing, risking that the next killing blow would actually do the job, just so you wouldn't have a scar? Or if you were in either position, someone with an inefficient, hemalurgically decayed power, or Sazed, tapped out on all of his reserves and eager to get the rings out of him before they poison his body, would you really spend every last drop of healing? Or would you husband your reserve, using enough to "heal" the wound until it was no longer life-threatening, then allowing it to proceed on its own?

 

Granted, this still wouldn't explain why the Inquisitor had "scars" so quickly, but I'm still not positive she meant literal scars. It could be the accelerated healing scabbed them over, and "scar" was accurate enough for Vin. Maybe his "idea" of partial healing meant he knew it was going to scar over, and this affected his cognitive ideal, making the gold hastily spackle on some scar tissue rather than expend the energy to do a proper job.

 

Or I could be wrong. I just don't think your sources are as concrete as you assume.

 

• Silver affects Investiture on Threnody. If a Mistborn and/or Feruchemist visits Threnody, will he be able to use silver in Allomancy/Feruchemy/Hemalurgy while staying there?

 

...Silver is already inert to users of the Metallic Arts? You can't burn it, store anything in it, or steal any trait with it. Or are you refering to the fact that iron or steel can still shove it around? Or that there's some silver in electrum?

[Shardlet]

There's also the Ultimate List.

 

Ugh!  Please don't refer me to the Ultimate List of Questions  .  That is a bloated 81 page thread that seriously needs an enema.

 

Yes... I think you missed the point of my question? I know she absolutely uses the word "scars". What I'm saying is, is it possible she doesn't have a word in her personal lexicon for "half-healed slits in your skin with no scar tissue but still abnormal flesh-mass" and so she just simplified it to scars? 

 

If I am not very much mistaken, Vin sees the same inquisitor (Kar? It's been a while) quite some time after he heals and she still identifies the presence of scars.  Clearly though, it is indeed possible that the inquisitor used only sufficient Feruchemical gold to preserve function.  I doubt the inquisitors go much in for personal beauty  .

 

@Kurk - I like the suggestion about the general forum questions, but I'm not sure what would be suitable.  Does anyone have any suggestions for questions that could be asked in the general Q&A without being spoiler or perhaps even leaving the heads of the uninitiated unexploded?  

Edited January 4, 2015 by Shardlet