[AU Spoilers] General Essay Stuffs

[Oversleep]

4 hours ago, Yata said:

Odium was uncapable of killing efficiently Ambition as he did with Devotion, Dominion and Honor...this may be a clue about the fact that Odium just after the Shattering didn't know how to properly Splinters a Shard.

Another thing we may conclude from this fact: it was Rayse who got to killing Shards. Soon after Shattering, so it wasn't like he has gone on murder rampage after Odium warped him to its Intent; no, Rayse took to killing Shards from the get-go (or soon after).

[Asperity]

Thanks to all the people I'm too lazy to quote who answered my star chart question. I looked at the image posted in that thread one of you linked and wow, that's really neato.

[Straw]

Straw's essay overview part 1 of 6:

Sel:

• 3 gas giants
• 1 habited planet 
• 1 terrestrial uninhabited planet
• 3 major empires*
• Size is 1.5 cosmere standard 
• Gravity is 1.2 cosmere standard
• Diverse environment 
• One of the few dishardic planets (Sel, Roshar, and Scradrial)
• Shards were important in human development
• Most of the planet's shardic investure is trapped in the cognitive realm and is "forced together, trapped, and bursting to escape"**
• A multitude of magic systems (so far we have seen 5 of them)
•  The magic systems are are focused on location due to the spreading of power in the cognitive realm***
• The magic systems are focused on intent because the cognitive realm is of the mind
• The landscape has become invested to the point of becoming aware
• Something important might be happening on Sel
• Silverlight has universities 
• Ire are xenophobic and hostile
• Skaze/Seons are similar to spren but have developed more humanlike mannerisms
• The sun is called Mashe

*We have only seen two empires so far, the Rose Empire, and the Fjordel Empire. Where's the third empire?

**Is this why worldhopping to Sel is so dangerous?

***In my opinion this means that Elantris works as a giant magnet, drawing the dor into Elantris to be harnessed by its inhabitants. This happens to a lesser degree with all aons.

[Mason Wheeler]

2 minutes ago, Oolka the Paranoid said:

**Is this why worldhopping to Sel is so dangerous?

Yes. I believe we already have WoB to that effect.

[Landis963]

6 Selish magic systems (Forten and his potions are the last)

[Pagerunner]

I just had a thought. (No, please, hold your applause.) I'm not knowledgeable on astronomy, but star systems are moving through the galaxy, and can encounter interstellar... things. What if the Threnodite system is still encountering pieces of Ambition (like a giant meteor shower), and every once in a while one of them is big enough to cause a perpendicularity to form? That could explain why they're unpredictable, because you never know when the system will encounter a large enough piece of Investiture. And the morbidity comes from it being pieces of a dead Shard splattering into the system like bugs on a windshield.

Any astronomy buffs care to comment if this would make sense on a large-scale astronomical sense?

[BlackYeti]

17 minutes ago, Pagerunner said:

I just had a thought. (No, please, hold your applause.) I'm not knowledgeable on astronomy, but star systems are moving through the galaxy, and can encounter interstellar... things. What if the Threnodite system is still encountering pieces of Ambition (like a giant meteor shower), and every once in a while one of them is big enough to cause a perpendicularity to form? That could explain why they're unpredictable, because you never know when the system will encounter a large enough piece of Investiture. And the morbidity comes from it being pieces of a dead Shard splattering into the system like bugs on a windshield.

Any astronomy buffs care to comment if this would make sense on a large-scale astronomical sense?

Well from what I understand, the biggest problem with this is simply the scale. To quote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space." (Sorry if it sounds like I'm talking down to you, but that quote is too good to pass up on using.)

Ambition was not splintered in the Threnodite system, so the chances for the system to keep running into the Splinters are basically zero (and if were to happen, the chances of the planet Threnody running into the Splinters in the system are similarly low). If you had some mechanism to draw the Splinters back, then maybe, but I don't see how it could happen as you propose.

[Djarskublar]

22 minutes ago, Pagerunner said:

I just had a thought. (No, please, hold your applause.) I'm not knowledgeable on astronomy, but star systems are moving through the galaxy, and can encounter interstellar... things. What if the Threnodite system is still encountering pieces of Ambition (like a giant meteor shower), and every once in a while one of them is big enough to cause a perpendicularity to form? That could explain why they're unpredictable, because you never know when the system will encounter a large enough piece of Investiture. And the morbidity comes from it being pieces of a dead Shard splattering into the system like bugs on a windshield.

Any astronomy buffs care to comment if this would make sense on a large-scale astronomical sense?

As @BlackYeti said, space is big. I once saw a discussion about the Death Star destroying Alderaan. The Death Star is pretty big citation needed and Alderaan is also big. The thing about it is, the Death Star appears to be pretty close the the planet when it shoots it, but even still, it is highly unlikely that any sizeable debris would hit the Death Star from the explosion. Also, the explosion would take a long time to even reach the Death Star. This also applies to Krypton exploding... How is there any Kryptonite even on Earth? Not from the explosion, people had to bring it over. Period. So for stuff to be periodically hitting Threnody, the chunks would have to start acting like comets or something, and even then, how often does a given comet even approach Earth, let alone hit it?

[Amanuensis]

Secret History Spoilers

Spoiler

 

 

Given the fact that when Nazh first meets Kelsier, he remarks on how he shouldn't be a Cognitive Shadow without "rites", I've got a feeling that their "residual magic system" involves ritual sacrifices, which was tainted by the battle between Odium and Ambition to create the Shades. Based on Khriss explaining Threnody's perpendicularities being morbid in nature, I propose that they require mass sacrifice to create, and that perhaps Nazh was somehow involved in one, and that's how he became a worldhopper to begin with.

Also, sacrificing the lives of others to gain power / create some kind of magical effect seems pretty ambitious to me. 

 

Edited November 29, 2016 by Amanuensis