[Calamity Spoiler] Questions after Calamity

[Edgedancer]

I think I am not the only one that still has questions open after the end of Calamity. Some of them are obvious ones created by the ending like "what kind of didgerido was Calamity actually" "How did obliteration get rid of his darkness, when his mentality is a perfect example for Calamity's twisted view on humanity" or "How exactly have things worked out in parallel universes" and some worldbuilding that's following the tip of the iceberg principle ala "What's the deal with the other Coven members and Night's Sorrow."

 

However, I also am left with some questions that are more subtle and maybe anyone of you can help me find answers.

 

Who actually killed Prof's class? Coming to the old theory that the Epic that killed his class was he himself. Apart from it just being something I'm curious about the answer to this question also would have worked wonderfully into Prof's struggle with failure.

 

What happened in the first year after Calamity showed up? Not only have the effects of Dawnslight powers appeared effectively around the same time as Calamity in Steelheart Prof also claimed he has been an Epic "since Calamity" not since the beginning or anything like that but since Calamity, which would have been a year before Epics are supposed to show up. The first got ignored and the second arguably retocned.

 

Why did Calamity interact with Regalia? Not only is it a break of his no involvement rule, for which he already has the Larcener persona, but he also effectively came at her beg and call to upgrade and create Epics for her, which goes entirely against his motives as displaed in Calamity. I also have a hard time buying him not knowing about Regalia's plan, so the question becomes what his endgame was for that.

 

How are the Epics powers actually determined? We know that Calamity can alter them after he gave the Epics powers, so they can't be set in stone, so did Calamity just sit down for every Epic and decide to give them some random package of powers or is there some kind of guideline he has to follow?

 

How inert are weaknesses actually to the powers? The way they are explained and Conflux reporting of them growing weaker seems like they come purely from Calamity, yet Tavi and Megan post claiming her powers still have weaknesses. Are they internal to the powers but Calamity just ramped them up somehow? Are they connected to fear by nature or are they random and it's Calamity's fault that all of them ended up being connecting to fears?

[king of nowhere]

yeah, i have similar question. but for a few of thoose we have answers.

 

"How did obliteration get rid of his darkness, when his mentality is a perfect example for Calamity's twisted view on humanity"

Obliteration faced his fear and had no calamity-induced darkness. he was just brain-damaged by himself. you may notice he wasn't selfish, as a difference.

 

"Are the weaknesses internal to the powers but Calamity just ramped them up somehow? Are they connected to fear by nature or are they random and it's Calamity's fault that all of them ended up being connecting to fears?"

I was under the impression that they start from existing fears, but they get ramped up by calamity.

 

"Why did Calamity interact with Regalia? Not only is it a break of his no involvement rule, ... but ... which goes entirely against his motives as displaed in Calamity."

because calamity wasn't sane either, and he has no consequence for breaking his own rules. As for why, he probably was curious. maybe he was hoping to understand something.

[hafje]

Nice lists of questions, here are some I have:

Why couldn't Larcener take Megan's powers? I don't think it's ever mentioned again in the book, but it was such a strange occurence..

 

Also why was Megan still troubled by the Darkness, even though she faced her fears to save David. I mean a few times in this book she nearly succumbs to it, but shoulnd't she be cured?

Besides that I'm just dying to learn more about the Reckoners world both before the Calamity Collapse (what happened on the other continents, are there Epic Empires somewhere), and after it (how much Epics are 'good' now with Calamity being gone, what will happen to those who still are twisted and why do the powers work with Calamity being gone).

And I guess most of the Calamity-related questions (where did he go to, what are the other realms he speaks of, Core possibilities, his own people, Non-Interference, his powers) will be answered in the Apocalypse Guard series, which I think has been confirmed to take place in the Reckoners Multiverse, and is about a team stopping world-ending events (sounds very much like Calamity, waiting for humanity to end itself, doesn't it).

[Pechvarry]

As far as I understood: Calamity arrives and creates powers.  He's supposed to leave, and the powers stay; humanity destroys itself.

 

But that's not what happened.  He stayed, and his presence corrupted the power that flowed from his source (NOTE: not from Calamity himself.  His source).  Like polluting water upstream of villages, his selfishness and fear bled into the power and caused Epic problems.

 

As for Larcener not being able to "take back" powers... well, this is indeed part of the greater (intentional) mystery of what his "people" are and all that.

 

This isn't an answer, but I do want to mention what seems implied:

*There are plans beyond Calamity.  He is just a (broken) cog in the machine of some grand scheme.

*The power is intended to be given to humans.  We really aren't even sure it was supposed to destroy humanity (Calamity thinks so, but he's a biased source)

 

So my takeaway is that something bigger than Calamity has occurred, and the power is still there for people who can filter Calamity's influence from it.

 

SIDENOTE: Having re-read the entire series as a lead-up to Calamity, I find myself feeling like there are some issues with the timeline of "Epics appear/ Calamity rises / people turn evil."  In book 1, it all seems so synonymous.  Through book 2 and book 3, they get treated as separate events and overall, it just feels a big fragmented.

Edited February 19, 2016 by Pechvarry

[Lightning]

 

 

Also why was Megan still troubled by the Darkness, even though she faced her fears to save David. I mean a few times in this book she nearly succumbs to it, but shoulnd't she be cured?

 

hafje, it was my impression that the person had to use it to save someone else while claiming the power for themselves.  Megan's intention in going into the burning building was indeed to save David, which means that she faced her fear.  But she didn't use her powers to save him, or claim them as her own.

 

It was only later that she claimed them as her own, faced her fear, and used them to help save others, that the corruption left completely.  At least, I think that is David's conclusion to the whole matter.  It was a bit murky for me as well.

[WayneSpren]

I think I am not the only one that still has questions open after the end of Calamity. Some of them are obvious ones created by the ending like "what kind of didgerido was Calamity actually" "How did obliteration get rid of his darkness, when his mentality is a perfect example for Calamity's twisted view on humanity" or "How exactly have things worked out in parallel universes" and some worldbuilding that's following the tip of the iceberg principle ala "What's the deal with the other Coven members and Night's Sorrow."

 

However, I also am left with some questions that are more subtle and maybe anyone of you can help me find answers.

 

Who actually killed Prof's class? Coming to the old theory that the Epic that killed his class was he himself. Apart from it just being something I'm curious about the answer to this question also would have worked wonderfully into Prof's struggle with failure.

 

What happened in the first year after Calamity showed up? Not only have the effects of Dawnslight powers appeared effectively around the same time as Calamity in Steelheart Prof also claimed he has been an Epic "since Calamity" not since the beginning or anything like that but since Calamity, which would have been a year before Epics are supposed to show up. The first got ignored and the second arguably retocned.

 

Why did Calamity interact with Regalia? Not only is it a break of his no involvement rule, for which he already has the Larcener persona, but he also effectively came at her beg and call to upgrade and create Epics for her, which goes entirely against his motives as displaed in Calamity. I also have a hard time buying him not knowing about Regalia's plan, so the question becomes what his endgame was for that.

 

How are the Epics powers actually determined? We know that Calamity can alter them after he gave the Epics powers, so they can't be set in stone, so did Calamity just sit down for every Epic and decide to give them some random package of powers or is there some kind of guideline he has to follow?

 

How inert are weaknesses actually to the powers? The way they are explained and Conflux reporting of them growing weaker seems like they come purely from Calamity, yet Tavi and Megan post claiming her powers still have weaknesses. Are they internal to the powers but Calamity just ramped them up somehow? Are they connected to fear by nature or are they random and it's Calamity's fault that all of them ended up being connecting to fears?

I think Steelheart destroyed Prof's school, which is why he hated him so much.

And murkwood. Who is murkwood? He used to be Prof's friend, and his powers have to do with sparking books of all things.

[Pathfinder]

Why couldn't Larcener take Megan's powers? I don't think it's ever mentioned again in the book, but it was such a strange occurence..

 

She said because she owned it, realized it was a part of her, her responsibility. It was Calamity's influence that causes the darkness. The darkness was not connected to the powers. When an epic faced its fear, it causes calamity to retreat, which is why the darkness weakened but also the powers retreated. 

[WayneSpren]

What happened in the first year after Calamity showed up? Not only have the effects of Dawnslight powers appeared effectively around the same time as Calamity in Steelheart Prof also claimed he has been an Epic "since Calamity" not since the beginning or anything like that but since Calamity, which would have been a year before Epics are supposed to show up. The first got ignored and the second arguably retocned.

In the Firefight prologue, Calamity rises and then, "the screaming began." Why would people be screaming? Wasn't there only epics a year after Calamity? And somewhere in Calamity (book) it is stated that "strange occurences" happened after Calamity.

So what happened? I thought maybe there was earthquakes, or warping in space, or some other cataclysmic event.

Edited February 19, 2016 by WayneSpren

[Pathfinder]

In the Firefight prologue, Calamity rises and then, "the screaming began." Why would people be screaming? Wasn't there only epics a year after Calamity? And somewhere in Calamity (book) it is stated that "strange occurences" happened after Calamity.

So what happened? I thought maybe there was earthquakes, or warping in space, or some other cataclysmic event.

I do not think this is the case, but to rationalize it, if you see a giant blood red star suddenly appear in the sky, seen day or night, wouldn't you freak out and think it is the end of days?

[heridfel]

Also why was Megan still troubled by the Darkness, even though she faced her fears to save David. I mean a few times in this book she nearly succumbs to it, but shouldn't she be cured?

I think the main reason is meta - if she were no longer troubled by the Darkness, then there's no reason that she would want to avoid using her powers. If there's no reason for her to avoid using her powers, we don't get "David leads the Reckoners to victory"; instead, we have "Megan learns to use her powers and does whatever she wants." That's a very boring story.

I do think that Calamity retcons a couple things from the previous novels, and not for the better. We had found that gifters weren't as affected by the Darkness when they gave their power away. It was implied that was why the Professor and Edmund were two of the less psychotic Epics. In this novel, overcoming your fears (to save others) is what overcomes the Darkness. That's why we had to find out that Edmund was afraid of dogs, etc., etc., when he otherwise has no impact whatsoever on the story.

It's also less satisfying if fears are sometimes given by Calamity, rather than amplified by him. Brandon Sanderson has always been a fan of balancing power with flaws - it's basically a rule of the Cosmere stories - but Edmund's fear of dogs falls flat compared to the Professor's fear of failure or Steelheart's fear of being perceived as weak.

Edited February 24, 2016 by heridfel

[Corax]

Also why was Megan still troubled by the Darkness, even though she faced her fears to save David. I mean a few times in this book she nearly succumbs to it, but shoulnd't she be cured?

I took it to mean that though she had partly thrown it off by overcoming her Calamity-tied fear, she still considered her powers as being of Calamity. Every time she used them, it was via that tie to Calamity and that refreshed his corruption effect. When she claimed the powers as her own, she stopped using Calamity as her sort of "focus," so was no longer subject to his influence.

(Posting from my phone, sorry for brevity and any typos.)

[NovaSeeker]

As far as I understood: Calamity arrives and creates powers.  He's supposed to leave, and the powers stay; humanity destroys itself.

 

The way I understood it, what what SUPPOSED to happen was:

 

Calamity arrives and creates powers. He's supposed to leave after impartially observing, and the powers stay. Humanity does what it does: be a group of individuals with their own thoughts and actions.

 

The problem with Calamity is that his explanation for what his purpose was is colored by his own hatred and disgust over the physical universe and the people living on it. He believes that others of his kind were sent to observe the same thing he's been observing: human begins drunk on power and destroying themselves.

 

He says that he won't abandon his duty like they have, because they left before human beings finished destroying themselves and that's obviously what happens when you give humans powers. Clearly. Look what those filthy disgusting mongrels are doing with his powers. 

 

He doesn't understand (yet, at the point in which he's describing his species's motivations) that humans are destroying themselves because in giving them his powers, he's also tainted them with his warped perception of everything and everyone.

Edited February 21, 2016 by NovaSeeker

[DocHoliday]

Here's my big question.

What the sparks are the Eternal Sparks?

Calamity swears by them.

[vineyarddawg]

In the Firefight prologue, Calamity rises and then, "the screaming began." Why would people be screaming? Wasn't there only epics a year after Calamity? And somewhere in Calamity (book) it is stated that "strange occurences" happened after Calamity.

So what happened? I thought maybe there was earthquakes, or warping in space, or some other cataclysmic event.

 

I'm not sure, but in my headcanon, that might be Calamity's screaming as he gets overwhelmed by the stimuli in our world. 

[Glamdring804]

I'm curious to know more about Firefight's world, specifically, whether or not Prof is dead. Tavi heavily implies this is the case, but it's never actually confirmed. If Prof is dead in the other universe, then that would leave exactly one complete family between the two of them. Basically, does Prof get a happy ending? It feels kind of unfair if David gets both Megan and his dead Father, and all Prof gets is powers that he hates, and a dead love interest.

[Ari]

Nice lists of questions, here are some I have:

Why couldn't Larcener take Megan's powers? I don't think it's ever mentioned again in the book, but it was such a strange occurence..

 

Also why was Megan still troubled by the Darkness, even though she faced her fears to save David. I mean a few times in this book she nearly succumbs to it, but shoulnd't she be cured?

Besides that I'm just dying to learn more about the Reckoners world both before the Calamity Collapse (what happened on the other continents, are there Epic Empires somewhere), and after it (how much Epics are 'good' now with Calamity being gone, what will happen to those who still are twisted and why do the powers work with Calamity being gone).

And I guess most of the Calamity-related questions (where did he go to, what are the other realms he speaks of, Core possibilities, his own people, Non-Interference, his powers) will be answered in the Apocalypse Guard series, which I think has been confirmed to take place in the Reckoners Multiverse, and is about a team stopping world-ending events (sounds very much like Calamity, waiting for humanity to end itself, doesn't it).

 

There's some themes that come up later in the book that actually seem to explain this.

 

The final step to making the weaknesses (relatively) inert is accepting the powers as part of you and taking ownership of them. Once you've faced the weakness in order to save someone else and taken that step as well, Calamity can't take back the powers because they're no longer controlled by him. They're functioning as they always would have if he had left like he was supposed to.

 

So it's either that Megan had started to subconsciously view the powers as hers, or simply because she had faced her weakness.

[Vaidd]

Why did Calamity interact with Regalia? Not only is it a break of his no involvement rule, for which he already has the Larcener persona, but he also effectively came at her beg and call to upgrade and create Epics for her, which goes entirely against his motives as displaed in Calamity. I also have a hard time buying him not knowing about Regalia's plan, so the question becomes what his endgame was for that.

 

Calamity wanted to see the humans get wiped out, and he assumed that the Epics would do it.  Apparently it wasn't happening fast enough for him, so he may have figured that a super-duper-powered Epic or two would speed things along.  Also note that Obliteration was going around wiping out humans, so Calamity may have wanted to "reward" him by enhancing his powers.

[Voidus]

Calamity wanted to see the humans get wiped out, and he assumed that the Epics would do it.  Apparently it wasn't happening fast enough for him, so he may have figured that a super-duper-powered Epic or two would speed things along.  Also note that Obliteration was going around wiping out humans, so Calamity may have wanted to "reward" him by enhancing his powers.

Doesn't explain doing it specifically at Regalia's request, she wasn't being particularly destructive.

[Shanderton]

Another question to throw out there, what happened when Calamity was young? He mentions that he wouldn't get involved "again", but that last time it was ok because he was young or something.

Brandon's usually deliberate with these things, so I wonder if we could dig up something that happened just under 10 years before Calamity arrived?

[Wolfy_TenSoon]

Does anyone else wonder what the Faithful "S" stands for? As far as I know, it never explained it in the series. After reading Calamity, I kind of got the feeling that in a twisted way, it actually stood for Steelheart. Not the Steelheart of David's reality, but David's dad in Firefight's reality. I mostly think this because the book says that the Steelheart that was Blain Charleston wore "the symbol of the faithful" on his costume, though he was also known as Steelheart.

[Corax]

Does anyone else wonder what the Faithful "S" stands for? As far as I know, it never explained it in the series. After reading Calamity, I kind of got the feeling that in a twisted way, it actually stood for Steelheart. Not the Steelheart of David's reality, but David's dad in Firefight's reality. I mostly think this because the book says that the Steelheart that was Blain Charleston wore "the symbol of the faithful" on his costume, though he was also known as Steelheart.

As far as I know, it's simply the Superman symbol, as Superman is the most iconic super hero that exists.

[junior]

As far as I know, it's simply the Superman symbol, as Superman is the most iconic super hero that exists.

It's a bit more than that. Both Marvel and DC have their "boyscout" character. He's the guy who is viewed as the moral exemplar for the rest of the setting. For Marvel, it's Captain America. For DC, it's Superman. Any other DC character might be expected to do something petty and/or selfish every now and again. But Superman won't. For that reason, he's the exact opposite of the Epics.

As far as Calamity and Regalia -

I suspect that the reason why Calamity communicated with Regalia is because he found out about her plan to steal his powers, and decided to pay a bit more attention to her out of curiousity. Instead of moving into her house, he chose to actively converse with her.

[ratatask]

I've reread Steelheart, Mitosis and Firefight after reading Calamity, and I have my own list of questions now.  Here they are:

 

1. In Firefight, Megan dies in a burning building, but still resurrects because she the fire itself did not kill her.  However in Calamity, David worries that Megan will not resurrect when shot after putting her arm in fire.  How is this different than the scenario in Firefight?  What am I missing there?

 

2. In Firefight Obliteration has to teleport to Regalia whenever David moves so that he can use her water vision and her screens to find David again quickly.  In Calamity, he can teleport to Calamity after just seeing a photo of Calamity's face.  Is this a discrepancy?

 

3. Why did the dowser not show that David is an Epic when we know that he was?

 

4. How did Prof get his powers back after Larcener/Calamity took them away?

 

5. And regarding David's Epic powers, how did they not protect him at the end of Firefight, after he was made a Calamity?  

 

Most of this indicates that maybe we (I) don't really understand the nature of these powers.  Can prof really pick up his powers after taking them away?  Did Calamity really not actually fully take them away?  Did he only take away his own corruption that he had given them?  Can David choose when he manifests his powers?  How are Epics made in post-Calamity time?  

 

I know this question is asked elsewhere, so I didn't put it as one of my questions, but how did Mizzy become an Epic?  Did Calamity just grant the ability for people in the world to manifest powers, but not always grant specific people powers?  And if he did grant powers to each person individually, doesn't that mean Prof and Megan would have had the same experience David did?  We never hear about how existing Epics became Epics originally.  (Oh, I guess that is a new question.  So that makes this #6!)

 

  

[natc]

It was a photo of Calamity, but more importantly you can see everything else in his surroundings. He needs to know where you actually are to get there.

[chacedawn]

By the end of Chapter 35, was Abraham trying to imply he and Powder were sort of a 'thing' pre-Calamity? Or am I misinterpreting it. I have yet to finish the book today. Might just RAFO?