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Bands of Mourning Chapter 6


Havoc

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The quote's a bit obscure, but someone from Team Brandon once noted that the use of the dots in the AoL era is reserved for more "formal" writing: so normally when writing you won't see any dots.
 
EDIT: Oh, who am I kidding. *takes 5 minutes to find quote*
 

The ALLOY OF LAW symbols are not a different alphabet from the one used in MISTBORN 1. It is just a more modern font. (In-world, there would be a variety of fonts, as there are in our world.] The traditional font is still legible to the majority of the population, and is still used when they want an old-fashioned look.
 

Looking more closely at the font, it looks like we're missing some information. Note that the tin symbol for 'e' and 'i' are slightly different: the dot is in a different location. I suppose that the dots are diacritical marks, then.
 
Any other diacritical information we should know about the Steel Alphabet (or Alethi, for that matter), Peter? :huh:

 
Moving the dot to distinguish vowels is a modern innovation, within the last 100 years by ALLOY OF LAW. I suspect that dots may be gone entirely (except for the two changed vowels, and maybe "capital" letters) in many fonts by the time you get to the second trilogy. Numbers might get a moved dot too. The placement of the dots in the original symbology has to do with Allomancy, but they're largely superfluous in writing.
 
The Feruchemical symbols (which are in the RPG) are evolved from the same root (the ancient symbols you can see in MISTBORN 3), but I don't know about their use in modern writing. It could be something like the hiragana/katakana distinction. But that's just speculation right now. 

So it looks like I misremembered, what with "Numbers might get a moved dot too". That or they just don't have the dot in numbers as of the AoL era, or the bad-handwriting man also skipped out on the dots.

Edited by Kurkistan
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And writing, like language, can evolve over time.  There may be a sort of shorthand here that's simplifying the regular symbols into something easier to write in a single stroke, making it correspondingly easier for numbers to get mixed up. 

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Yeah, I was pretty shocked by that. Had to assume that it would be done in a painless manner, and that it would be voluntary(but Marasi did use the terminology "round up", so probably not). About the creature falling from the void. Don't know if I should put spoilers, so gonna err on the side of caution

I don't think it's a voidbringer, even though the word void was dropped pretty blatantly. Possibly just a new Parshendi form, not of Odium.

The exact quote is

 

Not that he was a fool. No, the book was full of insight. Disturbing insight. The Lord Mistborn advocated gathering the Metalborn who were elderly or terminally ill, then asking them to sacrifice themselves to make these… spikes, which could in turn be used to create individuals of great power.

I don't know about you but that sounds like voluntary to me, and were did you get the term "round up".

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I probably should get excited about this "monster", but the highlight of the chapter, for me, is definitely the developing relationship between Wax and Steris. Brandon, if you do something to do those two, I shall be very cross with you!

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I probably should get excited about this "monster", but the highlight of the chapter, for me, is definitely the developing relationship between Wax and Steris. Brandon, if you do something to do those two, I shall be very cross with you!

 

I think I might have just heard evil cackling somewhere off in the distance...

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I'm in the camp that thinks the monster is a new hemalurgic creation. With its eyes possibly being spikes, we're looking at something along the lines of a Steel Inquisitor--just also a monster. That said, it doesn't mean that the subject of the spiking didn't originally hail from a certain other Shardworld.

 

Also, concerning what Moogle says, above, about Marasi possibly Spiking herself, I think that's exactly what we're going to see. Maybe not necessarily with the earring. The conversation she had with Wayne about being in Wax's shadow shows that she really wants to distinguish herself. We know that she thinks her power is lame (I don't think that the one stunt at the end of AoL was enough to convince her otherwise, no matter how important it was to the operation). I think that her yearning to excel is going to make her behave somewhat rashly, and signs are pointing towards some hemalurgic dabbling, methinks.

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Well, the door already exploded, so throwing the bubble would give all the others in the carriage time to react to the gunman. Of course only Marasi herself can safe herself; and of course we know that she is perfectly capable of THAT!

 

So I wouldnt say Marasi would be useless here.

 

EDIT: Stormgate ninja'ed me :-)

 

 

 

 

 

Incoming bullets aren't affected by time bubbles.   It's the outgoing ones that ricochet.  In fact, a cadmium bubble here would be a liability, as the bullet would speed up drastically, leaving Marasi with even less time to react.  Unless she wanted to trap the bullet in with her (her bubbles are much larger than Wayne's, IIRC), in which case the bubble would give other people the chance to properly apprehend the gunman once the bullet hits whatever it hits.  

 

 

This'll be the cliffhanger.  It's perfect for the purpose.  Besides, the promise of an action scene to follow will be an excellent hook for people to go buy it.  (Also I know Kurkistan will be salivating at the chance to see what exactly happens to a time bubble on a moving object)

 

Edited by Atastor
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I don't see marasi being rash enough to spike herself, not without a lot more careful research. Yes she's trying to prove herself, but she's also too smart to do something like that. Also, she's reminding me of Agent Carter.

And speaking of reminding, the metal in the labyrinth makes me think of the Greek myth of (dedalus?) in the labyrinth with the Minotaur and creating wings to fly out. I might be mixing myths here.

I really liked the appendage/appendix line. Very clever.

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I don't see marasi being rash enough to spike herself, not without a lot more careful research. Yes she's trying to prove herself, but she's also too smart to do something like that. Also, she's reminding me of Agent Carter.

 

Intelligence doesn't necessarily mean caution. She's smart enough to rationalize the act if she wants to.

 

And I mean, are there really many negatives to spiking yourself at this point in time? Harmony's not about to take her over. So long as she's using a pre-made spike, I don't think Marasi would be too against the idea. She mentions how "disturbed" she was at Spook suggesting they spike the terminally ill, but she mentions she finds it a very compelling argument too.

Edited by Moogle
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Frankly, with Wax refusing to put the earing in it's probably actually wise to keep communications with Harmony open instead of relying on MeLaan.

If nothing else maybe Saze can spare some time to do telephone duty for our spikees.

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I too thought Marasi might spike herself a little bit. The earring is a small thing, and I don't think she believes Hemalurgy is evil, I feel she would trust the Lord Mistborn when he writes that he figures "Hemalurgy is good now."

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Hmm ... her faith might play a role here, or? I would have to reread AoL and SoS, but I think it might be possible, that she views the earring primarily as a Pathian token, and not as a hemalurgical spike. Did she and Wax (and the "whole group") discuss its properties at all? 

 

Lots of research to do, or am I just blind?

 

 

I don't see marasi being rash enough to spike herself, not without a lot more careful research. Yes she's trying to prove herself, but she's also too smart to do something like that. Also, she's reminding me of Agent Carter.

And speaking of reminding, the metal in the labyrinth makes me think of the Greek myth of (dedalus?) in the labyrinth with the Minotaur and creating wings to fly out. I might be mixing myths here.

I really liked the appendage/appendix line. Very clever.

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Well, the door already exploded, so throwing the bubble would give all the others in the carriage time to react to the gunman. Of course only Marasi herself can safe herself; and of course we know that she is perfectly capable of THAT!

 

So I wouldnt say Marasi would be useless here.

 

EDIT: Stormgate ninja'ed me :-)

... She has exactly the kind of power that is helpful when one wants to, from one's personal point of view,  "skip ahead" in time. Like if, say, one is waiting for a book to be published.

Note to self: do not try to be obscurely funny. It never works.

 

She did toss the ear-ring over to Wax along with the paperwork she just gave him, so she'd have to somehow get it back to spike herself with it. She might use something else, of course.

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