How do you feel about what happened to Patji? [Discuss]

[RedBlue]

The Eelakin taking control of Patji, and removing the natural plants and animals there, was pretty much inevitable if they were going to survive as a culture in a changing cosmere. And if they hadn’t done it, someone else would.

The book leaves it an open question whether this change is a happy thing, a sad thing, or somewhere in the middle. Dusk himself is resistant at first, but comes around on it being positive progress, and the book ends with him feeling optimistic about the future and the new way of life.

As for me, I think the taming of Patji is good overall. It’s true that a unique ecosystem has been lost, but it was more of a web of bioweapons than a natural ecosystem. It’s not much of a loss. And having a facility that produces Aviar efficiently is going to be a huge boon for the Eelakin going forward, as well as anyone to whom they might sell the surplus Aviar in the future.

[Isilel]

Mixed feelings. Destruction of an interesting and beautiful ecosystem is always sad, even if it is deadly. Not to mention that it might have contained some other potentially useful things, that just hadn't been discovered yet.

I also don't think that industrial raising of Aviars is necessarily good for them, or without risks, like making epidemics among them much more likely. If Eelakin don't want to sell off-world, why do they even need for people, who are not trappers, to have Coppercloud Aviars like Kokerlii and Rokke? This power is completely useless on the homeisles.

But yes, it had to be done, and Mawlish/Rosharans certainly would have done it instead and worse. At least, the Eelakin have good reasons to leave the rest of the Pantheon alone, what with Navigators needing to become experienced trappers first. This is a good thing.

[Jult]

1 hour ago, Isilel said:

If Eelakin don't want to sell off-world, why do they even need for people, who are not trappers, to have Coppercloud Aviars like Kokerlii and Rokke? This power is completely useless on the homeisles.

It's possible that it isn't useless. We don't know every variety of Aviar, but this WoB suggests that there's a potential to see a version of any power from the Surges or Metallic Arts:

Spoiler

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PrinceDusty

You've talked about some of the correlation between Aviar abilities and Allomantic abilities. Are there any Aviar abilities that are not related to Allomancy, or what are some other abilities that we might see?

Brandon Sanderson

I'll RAFO that, mostly because I want to be free to pick and choose from my list as I canonize them. A lot of Aviar abilities are Cognitive type stuff, just from the way I built them so I can separate the magics. The whole Seeker/coppercloud thing, a lot of Aviar abilities are going to be riffs on that, or they're going to be riffs on glimpsing the Spiritual a little bit. And you see a lot of that in Allomancy. There are abilities that they have that you won't see in Allomancy.

The trick is Allomany is so broad. I built the main magic systems to be able to get a little bit of everything. You see the same thing in Stormlight. So seeing Aviar abilities that you haven't seen some version of it in Mistborn or Stormlight, it's going to be... Mistborn and Stormlight touch on all different parts of the magic system on purpose. But I think you will eventually see some that don't. But they're all going to work on the Cosmere magic, so you can say they're all related.

PrinceDusty

Where might we see them?

Brandon Sanderson

Aviar are known in the cosmere but are very, very rare. But as you move forward in the future, perhaps you'll see them more often.

Legion Release Party (Sept. 19, 2018)

 

 He also said they are going to be pretty Cognitive-heavy when it comes to powers. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that there are Rioter Aviars or Soother Aviars out there. So, Copperclouds could be very useful. 

[RedBlue]

5 hours ago, Isilel said:

I also don't think that industrial raising of Aviars is necessarily good for them, or without risks, like making epidemics among them much more likely. If Eelakin don't want to sell off-world, why do they even need for people, who are not trappers, to have Coppercloud Aviars like Kokerlii and Rokke? This power is completely useless on the homeisles.

Raising Aviars the traditional way had its risks, too. Patji was not a safe place, and the Aviar were not predator-proof or accident-proof. Especially as chicks, they’re much safer in a controlled environment.

And I assume the Navigators are going to need coppercloud Aviar for the same reason the trappers did.

But in general, I think the Eelakin are going to start selling some Aviar to vetted and approved foreigners before too long. They will soon have more than they need by a wide margin, and they could really use a valuable trade commodity.