Lightblood Posted December 17, 2019 Report Share Posted December 17, 2019 Quote Kapin I have a question about the Shin. Are they originally from Roshar? *laughter* Brandon Sanderson Answers are coming. Kapin Is there significance in the metal thing relating back to... Scadrial? Brandon Sanderson Yes. So do we know anything else about shins and possible scadrial relations? or is this just a rabbit hole? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weltall Posted December 17, 2019 Report Share Posted December 17, 2019 I suspect the metal comment is a rabbit hole Brandon set rather than a sign of anything significant. Particularly considering when that WoB was given. It helps if you include that bit when you're citing from Arcanum. In this case, the WoB was from an Oathbringer signing (one yours truly was at, as it happens) at which point the questioner almost certainly wouldn't have known that the book they were getting signed revealed that none of the humans on Roshar were native to the planet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoWibble Posted December 17, 2019 Report Share Posted December 17, 2019 and to go along with it, does anyone know of terris (or others on Scadrial) aversion to stone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelsier'sGodComplex Posted December 17, 2019 Report Share Posted December 17, 2019 I feel dumb. I know who the Shin are, but what do they have to do with metal? I know that I should already know the answer, but my brain is failing me. Why would they not be from Roshar? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quantus Posted December 17, 2019 Report Share Posted December 17, 2019 2 hours ago, Kelsier'sGodComplex said: I feel dumb. I know who the Shin are, but what do they have to do with metal? I know that I should already know the answer, but my brain is failing me. Why would they not be from Roshar? Im with you , I got nothing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weltall Posted December 17, 2019 Report Share Posted December 17, 2019 My guess is that the person asking the question hadn't read Oathbringer yet (it was asked at a signing for that book and I doubt they'd read it through before the event) so they didn't know that all humans on Roshar came to it from elsewhere and Shinovar is where they first settled. Thus, they were working with the one thing that make the Shin stand out from the rest, being their distinctive eyes that other humans on Roshar lack. Thinking the Shin might have been particularly special, they saw the fixation on metal and decided 'hey, metal's important to Scadrial, maybe there's a connection' and asked that question. Remember too that not every person at a signing devours every single bit of information available to the fans. This is why so many questions that have already been answered still get asked, by fans who are new to the Cosmere or who haven't made all the connections yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Harrycrapper Posted December 17, 2019 Report Share Posted December 17, 2019 I thought that the thing with the metal was just the fact that is was Soulcast instead of mined, had something to do with Stone Shamanism, never connected that with Scadrial. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weltall Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 Yeah, the thing the Shin have with metal isn't even so much the metal itself, it's the fact that they consider it blasphemous to damage stone and pretty much the only way to get useful amounts of metal requires breaking up stone to get at metal ores. Meanwhile, they still find metal useful for all the reasons any other civilization does. Hence they value Soulcast metal simply because it didn't require any stone to be damaged. They'd presumably be just as happy with meteoric iron if there was a way to get some to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelsier'sGodComplex Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 Well, Brandon didn't confirm that they were from Roshar. He said that answers are coming. He also said that they ARE somewhat related to Scadrial. When do you guys think the answers will come? I'm thinking maybe is SA4 or 5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weltall Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 (edited) 3 hours ago, Kelsier'sGodComplex said: Well, Brandon didn't confirm that they were from Roshar. He said that answers are coming. He also said that they ARE somewhat related to Scadrial. 'Somewhat related to Scadrial' is such a vague idea that it can mean practically anything.and Brandon will cheerfully admit when he's done so after the fact, if a good opportunity arises. The linking of the Shin and metal (which as I pointed out isn't even about the metal, it's about the stone that metal ores are found in) could be as simple as the Shin knowing what a godmetal is and knowing that the honorblades are Tanavastium, in the way that Scadrians are aware of godmetals. Or it could be that some of the Stone Shamanate are Cosmere-aware and know that Scadrial exists. Since Scadrial was involved in some way with an interplanetary trade network, it's possible that the Shin had some involvement there. For all we know, the whole 'damaging stone is blasphemous' thing only applies to Roshar, metal sourced from Scadrial is totally fine and at some point in history they got a shipment of metal from there. Nothing in that extremely vague WoB (well, actually an extremely vague question) requires the conclusion that the Shin come from Scadrial or anything along those lines. As for the 'answers are coming' bit, again I can't emphasize enough that this was asked at an Oathbringer signing. The 'answer' that's coming could be as simple as 'Hey, when you read this book I'm about to sign for you, you'll know, har har' on the assumption that the questioner was one of the many people who will go to a signing but not have finished the book yet. Edited December 18, 2019 by Ookla the Nameless Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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