[AU Spoilers] BS preface & Scadrial essay

[masaru]

Woo boy.

https://play.google.com/books/article/nng7wfdyae/arcanum-unbounded-excerpt

[Mercy]

Confirmation that Khriss is the writer of the Ars Arcanum in each book - at last!

Second, confirmation that both Ati and Leras were human originally.

Also, a mention of fain-life on Yolen (from the Liar of Partinel sample chapters) - which shows that at least some of Liar is canon.

Edited November 14, 2016 by Demoux

[Oversleep]

21 minutes ago, Demoux said:

Confirmation that Khriss is the writer of the Ars Arcanum in each book - at last!

We actually had it confirmed in June:

 

[ZenBossanova]

Also confirmation that Khriss has been to Yolen. That surprised me. 

[Yata]

2 hours ago, ZenBossanova said:

Also confirmation that Khriss has been to Yolen. That surprised me. 

She may have some indirect report of Yolen. At a certain moment in the Cosmere's timeline. She surelly didn't see Yolen with her eyes...We need to know, when this essay was written

[ScarletSabre]

Well now. This. Is. Iiiiiiiiinteresting.

Quote

Because of this, the flora and fauna on Scadrial are very similar to what you’ll find on Yolen. (The non-fain parts, of course.) It is also very similar to Yolen in size and gravitation, both being exactly at 1.0 cosmere standard.

So as noted above, the existence of fain parts of Yolen is still canon, amd the size and gravitation of both Yolen and Scadrial are the standard for the Cosmere. I wonder if there are planets with increased gravity, which will have humans with higher bone and muscle density to compensate.

Quote

Scadrial, another dishardic planet, is characterized by a host of unique features .

New term coined! Dishardic.... so this would encompass Sel before the splintering, and does that make Roshar Trishardic?

Quote

It is one of only two places in the cosmere where humankind does not predate the arrival of Shards.

So humans on every other planet predates the arrival of Shards.... though she doesn't specifically say "planets", but "places". I wonder if an off-world settlement happened before the Shattering? Perhaps Silverlight was a space station from one of those planets with humans that predate the Shards.

Quote

Indeed, I am convinced that without the Lord Ruler’s oppression of technology on the planet for a thousand years, Scadrial would have eclipsed all others in scientific learning and progress—all on its own, without the interaction between societies we enjoy in Silverlight.

Interaction between societies.... This makes me squee so hard. It implies that in Silverlight, we will already see the mingling of cultures between Worldhoppers. Terrismen showing people from Sel the colours of their robes, Forgers creating silver for Threnodites to take back and make a profit on, Sand Masters refining glass and other silicates for Fabrials.... Silverlight is going to be a hodgepodge of the Cosmere and I am so excite.

[The Invested Beard]

Because of this, the flora and fauna on Scadrial are very similar to what you’ll find on Yolen. (The non-fain parts, of course.) It is also very similar to Yolen in size and gravitation, both being exactly at 1.0 cosmere standard.

I think it's important to note here that she used the present tense ("you'll find", "both being") when referring to Yolen. This is 100% confirmation that Yolen is still around.

[Eki]

8 hours ago, Rawrbert said:

New term coined! Dishardic.... so this would encompass Sel before the splintering, and does that make Roshar Trishardic?

I think it still applies to Sel, since the shards and their magic are still there, and are still invested in the planet. I'm not sure if Roshar counts, since Odium has not invested there - he's just in the same solar system.

 

[Yata]

My english may be rusty but when she talk of:

Quote

I would challenge one to identify another planet, save only Roshar, where one can find such strength of Investiture so commonly in the hands of mortals. 

Does She refer to the Metallic Arts or to the periodic Ascensions ? Because if she talks about Ascensions...what on Roshar may be comparable ?

Edited November 16, 2016 by Yata

[ParadoxicalZen]

1 hour ago, Yata said:

My english may be rusty but when she talk of:

Does She refer to the Metallic Arts or to the periodic Ascensions ? Because if she talk about Ascensions...what on Roshar may be comparable ?

Your observation is correct Yata. My guess is, from the points succeeding, Ascensions. As we know, in terms of potency, Rosharans are much stronger and have access to a must more vast Investiture resource whereas the only known Scadrian to have similar access was Vin with the mists...but even then, the Investiture potency of liquid Investiture/Shardpools must be heaps above that of gaseous sources as Rashek moved the planet...so I..don't actually have an answer

[Jondesu]

23 hours ago, The Invested Beard said:

I think it's important to note here that she used the present tense ("you'll find", "both being") when referring to Yolen. This is 100% confirmation that Yolen is still around.

To be fair, it's only confirmation that Khriss believes Yolen is still around.  We've seen her be wrong in the Ars Arcanii, so it's possible she's wrong there too.  I think you're right that it still exists though, since we have confirmation that Frost is not a worldhopper, and I believe that he's from Yolen as well.

[PallonianFire]

9 hours ago, Yata said:

Does She refer to the Metallic Arts or to the periodic Ascensions ? Because if she talks about Ascensions...what on Roshar may be comparable ?

I read that as referring to the Metallic Arts. Mistborn and full Feruchemists have a TON of potential power at their hands, and even Twinborn are similar to KR with Surgebinding. On top of that, as we've noted, Allomancy provides a relatively easy avenue to Ascension via god metal savantism.

[Alpharho]

53 minutes ago, PallonianFire said:

I read that as referring to the Metallic Arts. Mistborn and full Feruchemists have a TON of potential power at their hands, and even Twinborn are similar to KR with Surgebinding. On top of that, as we've noted, Allomancy provides a relatively easy avenue to Ascension via god metal savantism.

I'm inclined to agree here. The ability to utilize investiture as long as one has metals/stormlight/filled metalminds. To add, Compounding is a huge influx of investiture in the hands of those who can achieve it. While its a small number that are Fullborn or like-metal Twinborn, the amount of power to be had is beyond anything we've seen short of the Ascenscions.

[PallonianFire]

44 minutes ago, Alpharho said:

While its a small number that are Fullborn or like-metal Twinborn, the amount of power to be had is beyond anything we've seen short of the Ascenscions.

And Nightblood, but that's so specialized it's a ridiculous outlier. There are a fair amount of people on Scadrial capable of handling a lot of Investiture, and while we don't know real numbers of KR, it seems that there used to be quite of few of them before the Recreance. 

[Yata]

12 hours ago, PallonianFire said:

I read that as referring to the Metallic Arts. Mistborn and full Feruchemists have a TON of potential power at their hands, and even Twinborn are similar to KR with Surgebinding. On top of that, as we've noted, Allomancy provides a relatively easy avenue to Ascension via god metal savantism.

 

11 hours ago, Alpharho said:

I'm inclined to agree here. The ability to utilize investiture as long as one has metals/stormlight/filled metalminds. To add, Compounding is a huge influx of investiture in the hands of those who can achieve it. While its a small number that are Fullborn or like-metal Twinborn, the amount of power to be had is beyond anything we've seen short of the Ascenscions.

I may understand your point, but for example on Sel they have access to more raw power than the one a Scadrial or Roshar's Magic User may access...Maybe it's a question for mister Sanderson when the day will come.

[PallonianFire]

8 hours ago, Yata said:

I may understand your point, but for example on Sel they have access to more raw power than the one a Scadrial or Roshar's Magic User may access...Maybe it's a question for mister Sanderson when the day will come.

But on Sel access to that power is restricted to a very few people. Khriss makes emphasis on "so commonly" being used by people. Elantrians are definitely not common, since they're rare and restricted to one specific region. 

[Yata]

52 minutes ago, PallonianFire said:

But on Sel access to that power is restricted to a very few people. Khriss makes emphasis on "so commonly" being used by people. Elantrians are definitely not common, since they're rare and restricted to one specific region. 

Maybe you have right, I simply thought that with Elantrian, Dahkor, Chay-Shaw pratictioner, Forgers, Bloodsealer and all the other regional magics we don't know....It's a great number of magic users

 

[Jazzy Kandra]

On 11/16/2016 at 4:35 PM, Alpharho said:

I'm inclined to agree here. The ability to utilize investiture as long as one has metals/stormlight/filled metalminds. To add, Compounding is a huge influx of investiture in the hands of those who can achieve it. While its a small number that are Fullborn or like-metal Twinborn, the amount of power to be had is beyond anything we've seen short of the Ascenscions.

Well, given that the southern metalminds would make access to the local Investiture even easier to come by eventually (anyone can use them, in a similar vain to how anyone can use a fabrial), we could add this to the mix. I know we don't have a concrete timeline for these essays, but enough time seems to have passed that Scadrial has recovered and is notably technologically advanced for it's day. I think that means it's likely that these were written around the time of Era 2, so, Khriss knowing about the Southern metalminds seems likely.

I'm going to guess Khriss is likely talking about a combination of those metalminds and, Ferrings, Mistings, Twinborn, Feruchemists, and Mistborn (I've excluded Fullborn because there's only been two, and it seems highly unlikely that another will just pop out of the woodwork); since being one of these things for a Scadrian is probably about as likely as a random individual becoming a KR on Roshar. Yet, said random individual, with the right knowledge can still use a fabrial on Roshar, just as a Scadrian can use a Southern Medallion as long as they know it's a metalmind since they have the right knowledge. (Don't take this comparison further than it should go, obviously the magiteks aren't that similar, though, hehe).

That means, access-wise, both planets are about equal. Power-wise, well...maybe not so much. However, all twinborn have two intermingling Investitures which create unusual effects similarly to what the KR do with their two Surges. I don't think Khriss was thinking that Scadrians were equal in strength to the Rosharans though (I believe the quote Yata used doesn't even suggest that), just that they had similar levels of access on both Roshar and Scadrial. 

Edited November 18, 2016 by Kandra-in-disguise

[ScarletSabre]

On 16/11/2016 at 5:52 PM, Jondesu said:

To be fair, it's only confirmation that Khriss believes Yolen is still around.  We've seen her be wrong in the Ars Arcanii, so it's possible she's wrong there too.  I think you're right that it still exists though, since we have confirmation that Frost is not a worldhopper, and I believe that he's from Yolen as well.

Dragons are one of the three races on Yolen, so Frost is at least FROM Yolen, and since we have confirmation that Taldin has been sealed off somehow, we know planets can be blocked from worldhoppers by a Shard who knows what he's doing. I'm fairly sure we have WOB somewhere that Yolen has been "hidden" if I remember the term correctly, so possibly quarantined due to the Fain life trying to spread beyond the planet?

[Argent]

1 hour ago, Rawrbert said:

so possibly quarantined due to the Fain life trying to spread beyond the planet?

Technically, that's not something you can talk about here  I know a lot of people are excited about Brandon's confirmation that the fain is still a thing, but it's also a thing from an unpublished book, so most readers wouldn't know anything about it beyond what Khriss shares. Which doesn't involve the spreading. 

[ScarletSabre]

3 minutes ago, Argent said:

Technically, that's not something you can talk about here  I know a lot of people are excited about Brandon's confirmation that the fain is still a thing, but it's also a thing from an unpublished book, so most readers wouldn't know anything about it beyond what Khriss shares. Which doesn't involve the spreading. 

Whoopsie, my bad, I forgot about that ^^;

To be fair though, I could be completely wrong, and the fain might have changed dramatically since the Liar of Partinel chapters, so we're just as lost as they are. Brandon and Khriss might have just thrown that line in there to make all of us who've read LoP geek out and speculate.

[Pagerunner]

1 hour ago, Argent said:

Technically, that's not something you can talk about here  I know a lot of people are excited about Brandon's confirmation that the fain is still a thing, but it's also a thing from an unpublished book, so most readers wouldn't know anything about it beyond what Khriss shares. Which doesn't involve the spreading. 

Actually, Liar of Partinel sample chapters are fair game.

Quote

However, there’s one caveat: if, say, sample chapters for an unpublished were posted, as is the case for Liar of Partinel, then everyone is able to read them, so that means we can discuss it. Still, best keep that stuff in the General Theories forum.

 

[Argent]

That's fair then.

[Pagerunner]

3 hours ago, Rawrbert said:

Dragons are one of the three races on Yolen, so Frost is at least FROM Yolen, and since we have confirmation that Taldin has been sealed off somehow, we know planets can be blocked from worldhoppers by a Shard who knows what he's doing. I'm fairly sure we have WOB somewhere that Yolen has been "hidden" if I remember the term correctly, so possibly quarantined due to the Fain life trying to spread beyond the planet?

I wonder what Fain life looks like in Shadesmar...

[ScarletSabre]

6 minutes ago, Pagerunner said:

I wonder what Fain life looks like in Shadesmar...

If Yolen is hidden from all three Realms somehow, and sealed off, we might not see until towards the end of Dragonsteel after Hoid's origins...