Question and Answer

[Windrunner]

That's fair. I think the longer you hold the power, the more convincing you have to do to yourself to perform an action that at first glance goes against your intent. If you don't hold strongly enough to who you are, I suspect you'll end up like Ati and Leras, unable to do anything that goes counter to your intent.

[WeiryWriter]

I'm not quite so sure about a simple "intent to Preserve" being enough. Leras couldn't "kill to protect" because he was too corrupted by Preservation's Intent, while Vin could. I guess it's a bit of a scale: a fresh Shardholder could probably justify Preservation-intended destruction, while Leras couldn't.

 

This was discussed in this thread and I argued that Leras could only do something that would ultimately by preservative in nature while Vin wasn't yet attuned to the Intent of the shard. 

 

I like what Windy just posted though.

[Senor Feesh]

Thanks everyone, that's really helpful actually - it's helped me to reconcile the two seemingly conflicting statements. It's not that Preservation's power can't be used to destroy (we've seen with Allomancy that it obviously can); rather that someone being influenced by the Intent will find it difficult (or impossible) to use the power destructively (perhaps even to do anything destructive, though that may be a stretch - Ruin was able to act in non-ruinous ways in the short-term to set up larger gains (losses?) in the long run).

[Nepene]

Thanks everyone, that's really helpful actually - it's helped me to reconcile the two seemingly conflicting statements. It's not that Preservation's power can't be used to destroy (we've seen with Allomancy that it obviously can); rather that someone being influenced by the Intent will find it difficult (or impossible) to use the power destructively (perhaps even to do anything destructive, though that may be a stretch - Ruin was able to act in non-ruinous ways in the short-term to set up larger gains (losses?) in the long run).

 

Yeah. And it takes a lot of intent to influence someone in a major way. Well of Ascension or Shard level power. Mistborns and even Vin powered up by the mists weren't affected much.

[Pechvarry]

Question:  Can someone point me to a thread (if it exists) discussing whether or not Miles' lines at the end of Alloy of Law are at all connected with the Death Prophecies of Way of Kings (iirc, Brandon has said they match up pretty closely on the timeline).  In lieu of that, can anyone quickly shoot the theory down before I make a thread about it?

[Phantom Monstrosity]

It's a 'maybe'.  Thread away if you like.

Interview: Feb 12th, 2013

AMOL Signing Report - Mason Wheeler (Paraphrased)

Mason Wheeler

All right. And related to that, sometimes some little concepts kind of... cross worlds. When Miles [from The Alloy of Law] died, who was talking there? Him, or someone else?

Brandon Sanderson

Wow, that's a really excellent question. And I'm afraid I'm going to have to RAFO that.

Mason Wheeler

Aww... figures.

Edited June 12, 2013 by Phantom Monstrosity

[Leuthie]

Do humans on Roshar have any sDNA differences from Yolen humans?

[Phantom Monstrosity]

I would assume so, since Odium is heavily invested on the planet now.

[yelena]

I have only read the cosmere works once so I don't know if I missed something but how do we know Demoux and Galladon are after Hoid?

[Kurkistan]

We do now (with a slight shadow of a doubt), actually, since we know Hoid wrote the letter and (I think we know?) they're members of the 17th Shard chasing a man who looks like him.

[Nepene]

Do humans on Roshar have any sDNA differences from Yolen humans?

 

The gravity is also 0.7 of what it is on earth, which may mean some minor sDNA changes to sMuscles.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

EDIT: So it turns out the post I was giving comprehensive answers to, the one I believed to be most recent for some reason, is from ages ago and has thus been answered. My apologies everyone, I've deleted the giant wall of (possibly informative) text in order not to derail the conversation (I kept a copy of it if anyone's interested... it was in response to http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/1894-question-and-answer/?p=35404).

You can get rid of a post with the 'hide' button.

[Kurkistan]

The gravity is also 0.7 of what it is on earth, which may mean some minor sDNA changes to sMuscles.

 

I'm unsure as to whether you're kidding when you say "sMuscles". Are those a thing now?

[Pechvarry]

They'd better be. According to The Way of Kings, I just might score some sYogurt some day...

[Blindillusions]

New here, so if this has been asked I apologise, but how can Demoux and Galladon be seen in WoK if their stories took place long before the events of SA begin? Galladon I understand, I suppose, but Demoux?

[Windrunner]

Well, as you mentioned, Elantrians are essentially immortal. As for Demoux, he's accessed some sort of immortality, although we don't know precisely how. Some people theorize that he's gotten ahold of a Feruchemical atium spike and a bunch of atium to Compound like TLR did, but we don't know for sure and there are problems with that. Welcome to the forums!

[DragonReborn]

So I joined these forums to look at updates for the Stormlight archive series. And people keep mentioning cosmere. Are all his books supposed to take place in the same world at different times or something? 

 

I have read most of Brandon's books (after he started WoT)

 

I also know this is probably the most basic question.

[Kurkistan]

That is a basic question, but a foundational one, and this is the thread for asking questions.

 

Yes, though not the same "world", per se. All of Brandon's books not on Earth (or Randland) take place in the same universe (the Cosmere) and all the magic systems follow the same basic underlying rules. A few characters (such as the foreigners in the Purelake interlude and Hoid in everything) show up on multiple worlds in multiple books, and there are other crossovers (some of the epigraphs in WoK discuss events that took place on Sel, the Elantris world, for instance), but Brandon has very deliberately tried to make it so that knowing about this underlying connection and/or reading all of his books is only an added bonus, an easter egg. Not at all necessary for enjoying or understanding the story.

 

As you may have noticed, it's also proved to be absurdly fun for the fandom, since each release in just about any series gives us fodder for theories spanning all of his other works.

Edited August 15, 2013 by Kurkistan

[DragonReborn]

Thanks, 

 

If I go back and do a reread, is there anything specific in any books i should look out for?

[Kurkistan]

The epigraphs in WoK that make a letter if read in sequence, Hoid appearances, underlying similarities in how the magic works... Honestly, there isn't that much to keep an eye out for. It's usually just a few lines or hints in each book, if that.

 

We've got a lot of basic stuff on the Coppermind wiki (like each of Hoid's appearances) if you're interested, btw. Though the wiki does contain a fair number of "spoilers" in the sense that we incorporate quotes that come directly from Brandon.

Edited August 15, 2013 by Kurkistan

[Claincy]

What happens if a returned bestows their breath on a lifeless?

 

(Posting that here as it's something I figured may have already been answered or at least speculated on but I was unable to find anything directly relating to it.)

[Moogle]

What are all the ways to become immortal, in the sense of not aging?

 

• Atium Compounding is close, but not quite there. The longer you live, the more atium you need to compound, and there's a set limit to how much atium is being made. Eventually, you'll run out of atium, even if it takes thousands of years.
• Becoming a Shard seems to manage it.
• Becoming a Kandra? I don't even know if they're immortal - The First Generation looked old and seemed frail, though Alloy of Law-era kendra are named "Faceless Immortals". The oldest possible Kandra is only be ~1400 years old, though, so I don't know if they're immortal or just extremely long lived.
• Hoid has some way to do it, or else he's time traveling forward. Don't know much in regards to how he works.
• Demoux as well. Probably the same way Hoid does it, or else Hemalurgy was used and he can compound atium.
• Gold Compounding could work if you convinced yourself and everyone else that you didn't age, since the healing is based on what you see as 'normal', or so I assume.
• Soulcasting yourself to a younger version of yourself would be hard, but perhaps doable? I don't know the limits on how fine you can go with Soulcasting.
• Forgers might be able to stamp themselves, though the stamps will wear off every day (maybe?). Doubt it would work.
• Elantrians seem to be immortal.
• Returned also seem to be immortal, though with a heavy cost: dying, losing your memories, and requiring an expensive Breath every day.
• Some sort of future tech? Here in the real world it seems likely we'll be able to 'cure' old age at some point with nano-tech or something, though entropy means everyone will die eventually. The cosmere appears to have ways of reducing entropy, though; an Iron Ferring is basically an infinite energy machine.

Am I wrong on any of those? It seems like most involve a Shard changing you. Anyone have any other ideas to add?

Edited August 21, 2013 by Moogle

[Azul]

you forgot the 5th Heightening 

 

At the Fifth Heightening, an Awakener’s resistance to aging and disease reaches its maximum strength. These persons are immune to most toxins, including the effects of alcohol, and most physical ailments. (Such as headaches, diseases, and organ failure.) The person no longer ages, and becomes functionally immortal.

[Moogle]

Useful! Thanks.

[Dakreyas]

Ok, so I was thinking about this the other day, Allomancy is end-positive right, the intent being to preserve your own energy at the expense of using energy granted by Preservation, accessed by burning the metal.

 

So when Vin and Kelsier are 'pewter-dragging' to run huge distances in a short amount of time, they experience a huge fatigue build up as they're running, which makes sense if pewter only increases your durability, resistance to pain, and physical attributes (strength and speed). However, Vin ends up pewter-dragging so hard she ends up asleep for a nearly a week, this doesn't quite add up to me, seeing as your energy should be preserved and therefore you're essentially channelling energy from another source, through your body.

 

Also, would this mean using Gold feruchemy after pewter-dragging would remove the physical fatigue?

 

Shoot me down if I'm wrong.

 

Also, first post on the forums.