Jump to content

[SPOILERS] Calamity


Argent

Recommended Posts

It's entirely possible that the people had a different name during the first year or so, and then quickly switched as they saw the havoc the Epics caused.

 

I think this would be an interesting question to ask Brandon though. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why don't we know what Calamity is?  It began shining a year before the world started to fall apart.  That means there was a year in which every single telescope, satellite, and antenna in the entire world was aimed at it.  Even if the data was inconclusive, we should know more about it than "it looks like a star or a comet".

 

And a government cover-up isn't even close to plausible.  A backyard telescope will tell you something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally I have to wonder if Calamity isn't the first Epic ever, one powerful enough that s/he is gifting every other Epic. I'm slightly inclined towards this by the fact that the third book is named Calamity, and the other two books are also named after Epics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think epic power is a connection to semi intelligence virus/nano tech colony.

Calamity is the power source and spaceship to get to earth after the death of the original/previous race that gave them full intelligence.

The virus/nano tech evolve/developed to extend around his host and do his commands.

This will give a scientific answer to epic powers and why an epic can't be gifted as he is already connected.

The evil affect could be what happened the the previous race, and they searched another intelligent race to connect to...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have actually been reading it as Calmity util reading this post. It sounded strage, but id did not see the difference in spelling.

I feel a little stupid now =P

But I'm not a native English speaker, and haven't event heard the word before, so its probably not so strange for me to get it wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I expect that the general public called it the Red Star or something before Epics started appearing. As for what it is, aliens or dimensional rift seem plausible. It's visible yet not blocked by something that absorbs sunlight, which fills nearly the entire visible spectrum; I guess it could coincide with one of the spectral lines in sunlight, but that seems a bit unlikely.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Calamity is probably doing something to everyone. You may not be a Superman-type Epic, but it has granted something to everyone. Take for instance Steelheart's weakness:
 

 
 
the weakness has nothing to do with Steelheart himself...it has everything to do with his opponent. A toddler with scissors could theoretically kill him as long as the toddler wasn't scared of him. Danny's father hurt him and it didn't seem Steelheart was even aware the guy wasn't afraid. That has to be something granted by Calamity to those who don't seem to be effected. It's given them the ability to beat any Epic.

 

 

I don't know what Calamity is, but I wouldn't doubt it's some kind of telekinesis generator or something like that. The laws of physics do not work sometimes with Epics...seems it's only bounded by...wait for it...one's imagination. 

 

And it is kinda weird NASA never took a closer look. Would think that would high up on their list.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The laws of physics could still be working the same with epics, if the powers are from nano tech that extend the epic for miles around him and inspect the people near him. So invulnerable shield is generated against hostile that is calculated from the person fear... To control his power there is a change to his brain that change personality...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

While i know it's not in the cosmere, it sure seems like a shard.

 

I think Calamity IS a shard. Calamity is just the human name for it.

 

Remember that we don't know all of the 16 shards yet. This could be a shard that has drifted out of the dwarf galaxy of the Cosmire and entered the Milky Way. Maybe there will be more hints in the Cosmire books.

Edited by Rhoran
Link to comment
Share on other sites

To address the question,"Why didn't anyone discovered what calamity was in the year before the Epics?": Maybe everyone that looked at it closer became an epic and then stopped caring.

 

I can see it...

 

"NASA destroyed itself as a large number of epics suddenly saturated its facilities and began a bloody war for power leaving few survivors"...

 

and no one to care what calamity was anymore.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm pretty sure that if everyone who studied the Calamity became Epics, regular people would study it like mad. Also, if a whole research team turned Epic at once, it's reasonably likely they'd decide to team up. Sure, Epics don't precisely get along, but they understand the concept of strength in numbers. Most likely the ones who were in charge and the ones who got nifty combat powers would have themselves a dominance fight, and then everyone who survived that would fall in with the winners.

 

Actually, come to think of it, it's possible that has happened and we've just never heard of it. Still, people would probably notice if everyone who studied it gained powers, and given the general lot in life of non-Epics a lot of people would jump on anything that seemed to make them more likely to manifest.

 

The most likely scenario is that efforts to research the Calamity simply failed; NASA pointed all the telescopes they had at it and came up empty, or at least discovered nothing useful. The most interesting information about it would be how it generates Epics, but if that's tied to exotic radiation then society may have broken down before anyone was able to study it. Particle physics research is extremely time-consuming even after constructing a suitable installation, and the Calamity is inconveniently located in space instead of inside the LHC. If they needed to build a new particle detector from scratch, it's quite likely that even without Epics interfering they still wouldn't be done a decade later, even if they correctly guessed how to detect the output from the start. Given the actual conditions, if it took two years to design and operate an experiment that would reveal more data about the Calamity, the team probably wouldn't have access to the computing power to analyze it once it was completed. And, of course, Epic powers appear to violate current understandings of physics, so there's no reason to believe that Calamity radiation conforms to the Standard Model, in which case no one would know where to even begin looking. Overall, given the timeframe, I wouldn't expect any research on the Calamity to have returned useful results before total societal collapse.

 

The most likely avenue for finding out more about it is probably research done by a post-Calamity power block; my money would be on the Knighthawk Foundry but it could really be anyone. Non-Epics have many obvious motivations for trying, but so do Epics.

 

  • They might be worried their powers will vanish as suddenly as they appeared, and look for a way to prevent that.
  • They might study it to gain the ability to create new Epics. This is a bit of a double-edged sword, since anyone they raise up might become a threat, but if they could control the type then an Epic with Prime Invincibility could give all their soldiers something like Curveball's power, or Enforcement could have their powers be innate instead of gifted. That way their army is much more powerful but no more able to attempt a coup.
  • Studying the Calamity could lead to the ability to mess with Epic powers directly instead of fiddling with weaknesses. Even more double-edged than the above, but the main threats to High Epics are their peers. Plus, if they create a device that can shut down their powers, they can then try to create a countermeasure. If it's possible, someone will figure it out eventually, so just ignoring the possibility is dangerous too.
  • Similar to the above, they could hope to enhance their own powers or alter their weaknesses.
  • It's a bit of a long shot, but potentially they could learn how to shut down the Calamity, retain their powers, and reign forever as an immortal god-emperor without any worries about new Epics rising to challenge them.

Of course, all of this research is a bit of a gamble; unless a reigning High Epic is an expert particle physicist and engineer at least one other person would know the secret. Dead men tell no tales, but they don't turn theory into superweapons either. But the rewards if the loyalty of the research team can be guaranteed are rather high, so it's kind of a weird variant Prisoner's Dilemma. Even though the High Epics collectively don't want anyone to discover the technology, they really don't want other people to have it while they don't. Also, Epics with mind control powers need not fear their direct subordinates, so they'll happily research like mad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do not actually think that Brandon would dream up something so mundain.

 

I was just musing over the thought of hundreds of geeks and engineers finally realizing their dreams of gaining superhuman abilities and then having an impromtu battle royale.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First of all I think that maybe calamity isn't in space. one thing seems obvious, it rotates with the earth. You could say, Calamity never sets on Newcago, and they don't even have to have a very big empire.it also seems to somehow negates the epic powers so that they don't effect it.

 

Calamity is probably doing something to everyone. You may not be a Superman-type Epic, but it has granted something to everyone.
 

And it is kinda weird NASA never took a closer look. Would think that would high up on their list.

 

If it has been hinted that Reaserchers had something to do with it, why wouldn't NASA have been involved in its appearance? I actually kind of doubt this.

Steelheart, since it takes place on (an alternative) Earth is not a part of the Cosmere, and therefore doesn't have things like Shards, Shardworlds, Adonalsium, Hoid, and so on.

Unless.....Cosmere Hopping! B)

let me think about that for a second..and....nope not happening.

 

Regardless of whatever else Calamity is, I'm certain that it's a weapon. The reason of my certainty is that it only affects humans. We haven't heard of any epic dogs flying around shooting lasers out of their eyes or leveling entire city blocks, so this thing was obviously targeted. Even if this is a test, it should still be construed as an attack because this interference completely decimated society as it was. A test is likely if the origin is extra terrestrial. Otherwise it would make more sense to target all humans and turn them all into Epics, then wait for them to die off or destroy all human advancement. Once the outcome was certain, they could turn Calamity off.

 

 

 

First of all their are some diseases and viruses that are species specific. Cordyceps has plenty of species specific fungi. Maybe calamity is a lot like a cordyceps fungi. only humans are vulnerable. Maybe not because of the human DNA structure but because of the mind. Human minds are easily corrupted by power. So power could be the disease that brings down mankind. Whenever an epic uses his or her power the infection spreads. This makes it seem like did Calamity come from an extra terrestrial force. Unless mankind purposely infected itself not knowing the danger of the disease. that might be why there are no flying dogs. 

Edited by Pinpoint
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Given that the radius of the effect of the Calamity is at least over the entire continental US and presumably global, I suspect its apparently fixed presence in the sky is an indication that it does not properly have a specific location in three-dimensional space, especially given how it's visible through the opaque shadow over Newcago. Though it's also possible the effect passes through the entire Earth.

 

Actually, come to think of it, do we have any evidence it actually exists? I mean, apparently everyone can see it, even in video, but that doesn't entirely preclude it being a mass hallucination resulting from the same mechanism as the Epic Effect. I may possibly have been reading too many memetic/cognitohazard SCP entries lately.

Edited by name_here
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Chaos locked this topic
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...