The Ultimate List of Questions for Brandon

[The One Who Connects he/him]

20 hours ago, Oversleep said:

I'd suggest making your own list. It's much easier than going through dozens of pages of this topic to find your questions

I have several actually. So far, one per Shardworld. So far: 9 Lists comprising 137 total Questions

You can't possibly think I came up with the 43 question Nalthis Questionnaire on the spot  it was all written down prior to the post.

But I will still put the questions here, so that people can see them to ask during Q&A's or tell me there's already an answer. 

Edited April 19, 2017 by The One Who Connects

[Djarskublar he/him]

7 minutes ago, Oversleep said:

I know. I'm asking specifically about the Shattering.

I would bet there is. I think of the Shattering as a plate falling and breaking. When a plate breaks, even if there are 16 near perfect pieces, there will at least be some rock dust or something.

As for the Heralds' insanity, your wording is not a good idea. I feel like they were already mostly insane from the torture, and they just finished breaking over the next 4500 years. They abandoned the Oathpact because of their insanity, so yes, the Oathpact is related to their insanity.

[The One Who Connects he/him]

3 minutes ago, Djarskublar said:

As for the Heralds' insanity, your wording is not a good idea. [..] They abandoned the Oathpact because of their insanity.

First Draft Wording is never well written. How would you rephrase my sentence?

Did they? It didn't look that way to me in the prelude. They seemed beaten down, tired of the pain and wanted to give up, but I didn't see insane in what they did. 

[Djarskublar he/him]

I would say something along the lines of "is the Herald's insanity caused at least in part by them abandoning the Oathpact, or were they effects of some separate cause." You could potentially ask a similar follow up about Honor's demise.

And to actually contribute a question: what happens to any resonance you have when you tap the Bands? At that point, you have whole lot of powers, so would it muddle your resonance? I can see three potential answers. 1. Your resonance is unaffected. 2. You lose access to the resonance while tapping. 3. Tapping for a long period of time will eventually muddy the resonance, and how fast it would return when you stop tapping would depend.

[AeonaRin she/her]

4 hours ago, The One Who Connects said:

Are the Heraldic Insanities related to/caused by them abandoning the Oathpact or is it a side effect of their connection with Honor that affected them after he died?

The Heralds have been "broken" before they broke the Oathpact. That was kinda the reason they did that. Kalak points it in the prelude. And there's nothing surprising about that, considering their life consisted of either war or torture. 

[Rasha]

Broken does mot mean insane though.

[AeonaRin she/her]

I know, but can you imagine? You're already pretty strormed up, but then you betray your friend sentencing him to be forever tortured, alone in hell, with all the hate focused on him, and the god dies and you can't help but wonder if that's your fault. I would be surprised if the Heralds were sane honestly. 

[The One Who Connects he/him]

Alright, here's my new and improved wording. (which is nearly a different question at this point)

When did the Heralds start going insane in relation to breaking the Oathpact and Honor's death?

• Before Oathpact Break: Was it a result of the recurring torture they endured?
• Soon After Oathpact Break: Was it caused in some way by them abandoning the Pact?
• Long after Pact, but before Honor Died: What caused them to start going insane?
• After Honor's Death: Was it caused in some way by his death?
  • Given that they could draw Investiture directly from Honor in the past, could they sense his death in any way through that connection?

  ---

Along with a selection of Hemalurgy and Feruchemy questions that I haven't asked before.

Hemalurgy:

1. Can a spike be made of multiple metals in different "bands" like the Survivor's Spearhead?
   • Would such a spike be able to steal multiple powers at once in the different metals?
   • Could such a spike grant multiple powers based on what bind point you place it in?
     • Provided you found the right bind point, could that spike grant multiple powers at once?

Feruchemy:

1. The sense of sight can be considered as two senses: Rods(Brightness) and Cones(Color). Once Scadrial's scientific & biological understanding reaches that point, could a skilled Feruchemist store their sense of color on its own?
   • If so, could a Compounder replicate the perfect color recognition granted by the Third Heightening?
2. How does tapping Hearing actually work/differ from the boosted hearing granted by A-Tin?
   • Could a Ferring/Compounder replicate the perfect pitch granted by the Second Heightening?
3. Despite it being very weak, humans do have magnetoreception(detecting magnetic fields). Could a skilled Feruchemist store this sense once they know it exists, and what effects would tapping that sense have?
4. Assuming you can store your pain sense (Nociception), would tapping make you more susceptible to feeling pain or would you actually feel pain? (Fairly sure we know the answer, but just to be sure)
5. Can you store "how to breathe" in a Coppermind or are unconscious actions like that protected from forgetting how to do them?
6. Putting Feruchemical Powers in RPG terms, Zinc & Copper would increase Wis/Int, Pewter would increase Str, etc.. What powers would increase your Charisma stat?
   • Duralumin, Chromium, a combo, some other powers? (This is me trying to indirectly understand how they might work)

[Djarskublar he/him]

Much better wording now. I have thought of that Hemalurgy question before, but I got shouted down a little bit. The heart is supposed to be a universal bindpoint iirc, but we don't know if it just has a ton of bindpoints all over, or if it really is one universal point. If it is one point, then what you propose is more likely to be possible. The spike being able to grant different powers based on where you put it would almost certainly work, assuming you can get 'one' spike with multiple charges. It is really only the 'multiple powers at once' that is up for debate.

[Dunkum he/him]

1 hour ago, Djarskublar said:

Much better wording now. I have thought of that Hemalurgy question before, but I got shouted down a little bit. The heart is supposed to be a universal bindpoint iirc, but we don't know if it just has a ton of bindpoints all over, or if it really is one universal point. If it is one point, then what you propose is more likely to be possible. The spike being able to grant different powers based on where you put it would almost certainly work, assuming you can get 'one' spike with multiple charges. It is really only the 'multiple powers at once' that is up for debate.

I think the biggest unknown in that hemalurgy question would be about stealing multiple powers/attributes at once.  like you say, the heart is a universal bind point, so it makes sense that if you did have such a spike (really for hemalurgic purposes, multiple spikes sort of stuck together) then you could probably grant all the attributes by going through the heart.  that said, a related question, based on what we know of hemalurgy: what sort of side effects might it have on a person to have multiple spikes like that? 

[The One Who Connects he/him]

Quote

Would such a spike be able to steal multiple powers at once?

If need be the question could be rewritten. For this example I'll use the Survivor's Spearhead:

If each "banded bit of metal" was turned into a H-Spike before the Survivor put them all together, and then crafted it into the shape of a spike... Would this method actually work and would it consider itself as one spike or many? (And throw in "Can a bind point accept more than one spike at once?" if need be)

Then we could resume my post with the "Could such a spike grant multiple powers at once/at all?" question.

4 hours ago, Djarskublar said:

 The spike being able to grant different powers based on where you put it would almost certainly work, assuming you can get 'one' spike with multiple charges. It is really only the 'multiple powers at once' that is up for debate.

We know Atium can steal all of the powers, so I feel like it takes them all at once but only grants one specific to the bind point it is placed in. This makes me think that stealing multiple powers at once would work, assuming the banded spike will function.

[Djarskublar he/him]

Another important Hemalurgy question would be if you can spike more than one power out of someone if you spike all of them simultaneously. It's not like spiking is an insta-kill afaik, it's supposed to be... messy... so I could see it being possible. I will add the caveat that you may not be able to spike out multiple allomantic powers from a Mistborn, but you would be able to spike both abilities out of a twinborn.

[The One Who Connects he/him]

10 hours ago, Djarskublar said:

Another important Hemalurgy question would be if you can spike more than one power out of someone if you spike all of them simultaneously. It's not like spiking is an insta-kill afaik, it's supposed to be... messy... so I could see it being possible. I will add the caveat that you may not be able to spike out multiple allomantic powers from a Mistborn, but you would be able to spike both abilities out of a twinborn.

Brandon has said that if you spiked out Mile's F-Gold, he would still have his A-Gold if he survived. It stands to reason that you could spike out that A-Gold as well. 

Oh wait. You're saying it like A-Powers are in a separate area of the Spiritweb from F-Powers, and taking one A-Power from a Mistborn would break the A-Powers area too much to spike out another one? I.. could see that.

Have we asked if a Mistborn would still have their other powers if they got one spiked out and lived? Because that answer could become central to this discussion. Even ask the question twice, to clarify if there's any difference between using an Atium spike and a Non-Atium Spike.

Edited April 20, 2017 by The One Who Connects

[Nashan’Elin he/him]

Adding on to the Heraldic Insanity thing: are the Herald's madnesses related at all to the characteristics of the Ten Fools?

[The One Who Connects he/him]

AonDor Questions Part 2:
Because I got involved in something.. again and have even more questions.

1. Do Aons absolutely require the physical touch of an Elantrian to activate, in every circumstance, with no exceptions?
2. Can modifiers be set to change what activates the effect of an Aon? (assume Aons are inscribed onto metal plates)
   • If yes, what sort of things can/can't be used to activate an Aon? Specific Examples: heat, light, a code-phrase, moving the plate in a specific pattern
     • Assuming any of those work, can we get a general idea of how complex that would be to pull off?
     • Assuming any of those work, could those be done by a non-Elantrian? (code-phrase, I'm looking at you..)
3. Can you teleport a moving object with Aon Tia?
   • Would the explosive energy of a bomb count as "object" enough to work?
4. Could you teleport another Aon with Aon Tia? For example, an Aon Daa projectile that is being launched towards something?
   • What effect would that have on the Aon? Would it instantly weaken now that it is away from Elantris or would it slowly diminish?
5. If Raoden had tried to teleport a vastly longer distance away from Teod, would he still have traveled the.. 20 feet that he did or would he have gone further?
6. Does the power weakening away from Elantris follow any sort of mathematical equation?
7. If Aon Nae were used to replace the glass of a magnifying glass, would an Elantrian still be needed to shift the Aon around or would moving the object suffice?
8. Can Aons that move, like the Aon Daa projectile, be given speed modifiers affecting how fast they travel?
9. Could Aon Edo be repurposed as a personal shield, like past era warriors would carry? How heavy would it be in comparison?
10. Would an energy barrier like Aon Edo prevent something from passing through it from both sides? IE: not like Droideka shields in Star Wars
11. Aons with Surge names in their meanings have similar powers: Tia - Transportation, Shao - Transformation, Ashe - Illumination. Is this hinting the effects of the other two? Are - Cohesion, Ata - Smoothness(Slicking comparison?)
12. Is there an Aon in the Elantrian arsenal that could replicate Spanreeds? (Not counting Seons here)
13. Per Coppermind: You can specify how long the fire from Aon Ehe will last, and you can modify the power levels of Aon effects. Can you effectively turn Aon Ashe into a flash grenade by specifying high intensity, low duration light?

Edited April 20, 2017 by The One Who Connects
excess white lines, and Q13, and spellcheck..

[Djarskublar he/him]

To add some important questions to what @The One Who Connects has here about Aons, here are some of mine. Most of them are about stuff waaay more advanced than anything we have seen in book.

Can you make a 'linchpin' Aon that activates multiple different Aons? (Very similar to a stamp that has plates with the real stamp on it, but they are brought together by one smaller stamp.) Can you make an Aon activate other Aons only if certain conditions are met? Assuming this is true, you can make logic gates.

Can you make Aons that won't turn off until an Elantrian deactivates them, or at least ones that work for a ridiculously long time? If so, can you make Aons that can be manipulated mechanically, but still remain functional? I.e. can an Elantrian activate an Aon, leave it active, and have a non-Elantrian do something with it? Can a non-Elantrian easily change the conditions relevant to the function of a given Aon? So, given a sufficiently complex Aon, could a non-Elantrian use button/switches that have relevance to an Aon to change the outcome of an Aon? (The goal here is to see if it's possible for non-Elantrians to make use of Aons under certain conditions, like operating AonDor powered machinery.)

Does Aon Daa follow some sort of projectile physics, or is it more like a laser?

How practical would it be to mount massive Aon Daa 'cannons' on the walls of Elantris? How powerful could you make them before they become impractical? Would their large size make them less precise (assuming you have proper sighting techniques)?

Is there a cooldown for activating engraved Aons? I.e. can you make an Aon Daa machine gun? If so, do cooldowns vary by Aon, by size, and/or by distance from Elantris? (An anti-aircraft quad-cannon Daa blaster would be so cool)

Can you set an Aon to produce its effect repeatedly at certain intervals until some condition is met? Effectively while() and for() loops for Aons. Can you make Aons that are effectively transistors? Assuming this is true, and assuming you can make logic gate Aons, how difficult would it be to make an AonDor computer with sufficient industrialization? How small and densely packed can you make the transistors and still have them work? How would information transfer speeds of an advanced AonDor computer compare with our modern computers? Basically, would AonDor computers be storming amazing, or complete chull dung?

Can you modify Aons to originate from another Aon? If so, and if 'linchpin' Aons are a thing, can you carry around a pack of Aons and use a 'staff of wizardry' where there are activation linchpin Aons all over it, and they are all tied to an Aon on the top of the staff to provide a vector for the spells? Would you actually need to carry around the pack, or could you leave the actual Aons in a vault somewhere, and just take the activator staff with you? How far away can you go before it won't activate properly or weaken the effect? Would this be a potential workaround for off-planet AonDor?

How useful would stencils be for AonDor? Could a non-Elantrian make the stencil, and then an Elantrian use it to make effective Aons?

if an Elantrian is operating machinery that stamps Aons onto something, would those Aons function once activated? If an Elantrian made the stamp, could a non-Elantrian operate that machinery and still make usable Aons? How far removed from the creation of an Aon can an Elantrian be, going into the future with industrialization?

If you can make a computer via Aons, would it be possible to make them usable by non-Elantrians?

If you engraved some Aons onto a sword and then Awakened it, what effect would activating those Aons have? Could you use this to make Nightblood-like objects more 'human'?

Can you reverse the effect of Aon Tia to make something similar to the Oathgates of Urithiru?

 

That was a lot more questions than I was expecting. Some of them are very similar in scope and form, but they have different connotations, so he may be more inclined to answer some but not others. I want to push the limit on what Elantrians/Aons will be able to do in the future.

TL;DR Aons are the most powerful magic. Period.

Edited April 20, 2017 by Djarskublar
clarifications and moar questions!

[Dunkum he/him]

based on a discussion elsewhere:

if someone were to combine all of the pieces of a splintered shard back into one whole, would it necessarily be the same shard that it was before it splintered, or could it change?

[The One Who Connects he/him]

3 hours ago, Djarskublar said:

Can you make a 'linchpin' Aon that activates multiple different Aons? (Very similar to a stamp that has plates with the real stamp on it, but they are brought together by one smaller stamp.) Can you make an Aon activate other Aons only if certain conditions are met? Assuming this is true, you can make logic gates.

Per the Coppermind Page for AonDor:

Quote

Types of Modifiers

• Linking Aons - used to link subsections of Aon lists together, it controls the timing of when other Aons take effect.
• Setting off different chains of Aons
• Modifying power levels of Aon effects.

So I would say yes to Linchpin Aon, and more than likely via certain conditions. (Someone mentioned Raoden setting activation modifiers ages ago and that became the basis for my Q2 of prior post)

3 hours ago, Djarskublar said:

Can you make Aons that won't turn off until an Elantrian deactivates them, or at least ones that work for a ridiculously long time?

People seem to believe that the Aon Ashe plates inscribed into Elantris already fit the bill for this, and given the fact that the city seemed to regain it's glow once Raoden added the Chasm line... Additionally, per the Coppermind Page again: "to specify certain traits, like how long a column of fire from an Aon Ehe will last.." and given the fact that we know they used that specific Aon to make "lamps that would continue to burn no matter what," I would also say yes to this line of thought. I will accept that we should still ask for confirmation, but I see no reason why you couldn't just specify a very long duration

3 hours ago, Djarskublar said:

I.e. can an Elantrian activate an Aon, leave it active, and have a non-Elantrian do something with it?

Essentially what my Aon Nae Magnifying Glass and Aon Edo Shield are indirectly asking, but props for bluntness

3 hours ago, Djarskublar said:

Can a non-Elantrian easily change the conditions relevant to the function of a given Aon? So, given a sufficiently complex Aon, could a non-Elantrian use button/switches that have relevance to an Aon to change the outcome of an Aon? (The goal here is to see if it's possible for non-Elantrians to make use of Aons under certain conditions, like operating AonDor powered machinery.)

This was brought up to me from the Warsaw Interview about my Q1.

Quote

Q: And my question is: could you write higher level language of programming with that.
A: Yes.

Q: Ohhh
A: Mhhm but only an Elantrian could make it like work, right? Not compile but could execute the function. They would have to type it out and execute. Like if you were just, even if you just gave it to them, they would have to retype it and go, but yes you could.

Source, with bold added (can't find a transcript, but there's a YT video on page 6)

4 hours ago, Djarskublar said:

Can you set an Aon to produce its effect repeatedly at certain intervals until some condition is met? Effectively while() and for() loops for Aons.

I would say it's within the realm of possibility, since you can make a programming language from it.

4 hours ago, Djarskublar said:

How practical would it be to mount massive Aon Daa 'cannons' on the walls of Elantris? How powerful could you make them before they become impractical? Would their large size make them less precise (assuming you have proper sighting techniques)? [....] (An anti-aircraft quad-cannon Daa blaster would be so cool)

Not an answer, but I discarded asking about an Aon Daa "missile bay" b/c I thought it was too out there, and then you go and do this

[Djarskublar he/him]

Saying that they would have to type it out made me think of something! If/when they develop normal computers, will an Elantrian be able to describe certain parameters for an Aon, and have that Aon appear on screen, and then activate it? Like, input 'I want an Aon Tia that will send me this far in this direction,' and the computer would draw it. I guess Aons made of pixels should work.

[Oversleep]

On 7.03.2017 at 11:05 PM, LiquidBlue said:

Would wrapping a hemalurgical spike in aluminum foil affect the decay it experiences outside of the body? Would it slow the decay?

It was actually asked month ago (the photo):

 

[8bitBob]

On 4/19/2017 at 10:59 AM, The One Who Connects said:

Hemalurgy:

1. Can a spike be made of multiple metals in different "bands" like the Survivor's Spearhead?
   • Would such a spike be able to steal multiple powers at once in the different metals?
   • Could such a spike grant multiple powers based on what bind point you place it in?
     • Provided you found the right bind point, could that spike grant multiple powers at once?

I've been thinking along these lines lately due to a line from Hero of Ages:

Quote

They then no longer required a fresh supply of spikes. I often wonder what effect the constant reuse of spikes had on their population. A spike can only hold so much of a Hemalurgic charge, so they could not create spikes that granted infinite strength, no matter how many people those spikes killed and drew power from. However, did the repeated reuse of spikes perhaps bring more humanity to the koloss they made?

The quote comes from Sazed post-Ascension, so he knows how this stuff works. There's an implication here though: could you reuse a single spike to steal attributes from multiple people and grant them all with the single spike? Sazed seems to be implying that you can grant more strength with a spike if you use it on multiple people.  A single metal type steals multiple types of metalborn abilities. Can you use a single spike to steal each of them and grant them all at once? Atium can steal any attribute. Can you use it to steal every power and grant them all with a single spike? So many questions.

Edited April 21, 2017 by 8bitBob

[Djarskublar he/him]

1 hour ago, 8bitBob said:

The quote comes from Sazed post-Ascension, so he knows how this stuff works. There's an implication here though: could you reuse a single spike to steal attributes from multiple people and grant them all with the single spike? Sazed seems to be implying that you can grant more strength with a spike if you use it on multiple people.  A single metal type steals multiple types of metalborn abilities. Can you use a single spike to steal each of them and grant them all at once? Atium can steal any attribute. Can you use it to steal every power and grant them all with a single spike? So many questions.

I think you could reinforce the attribute in a spike, but it won't be efficient. So spike 2 coinshots with 2 spikes, have 75% strength in each spike. Spike 2 coinshots with one spike, get 125% in the spike. I bet it's harder to fit more in, and less would get properly ripped off. Besides that, you would have the Identities attached to the powers interfering with one another, so that will probably make it less efficient as well.

As for using a single atium spike for multiple powers, I doubt it. The Investitures would interfere with each other too much. You could maybe get 2 or 3, but nothing like a fullborn.

[+Extesian he/him]

11 minutes ago, Djarskublar said:

As for using a single atium spike for multiple powers, I doubt it. The Investitures would interfere with each other too much. You could maybe get 2 or 3, but nothing like a fullborn.

As for this issue, we do have this old WoB

Quote

BRANDON SANDERSON

Hemalurgy-when you spike, you place the spike in a place that determines which charge the spike gets.

Q: Through the heart seems to pick up universally.

A: It depends on where in the heart. It's like acupuncture. This is designed from acupuncture and you get very specific on which nerves you're hitting and things like that

Q: So the spike will never pick up more than one power.

A: Not the way they know how to do it.

So this says no and yes. No they can't 'now' but the implication is it's possible. 

[The One Who Connects he/him]

13 hours ago, 8bitBob said:

A single metal type steals multiple types of metalborn abilities. Can you use a single spike to steal each of them and grant them all at once? Atium can steal any attribute. Can you use it to steal every power and grant them all with a single spike? So many questions.

 

12 hours ago, Djarskublar said:

As for using a single atium spike for multiple powers, I doubt it. The Investitures would interfere with each other too much. You could maybe get 2 or 3, but nothing like a fullborn.

These are actually involved in the crux of my later question that Djar mentioned: whether you could spike a second A-Power out of someone after they survive the first spiking.

Basically, unless there is a second H-Chart for Stealing Points, an Atium Spike has to steal everything at once so that you can get different powers from different Bind Points. Whether it could grant a different power if you took it out of one Bind Point and put it in a different one... That remains to be seen.

Either of you have any thoughts/answers on this logic?

[Hawkido]

Okay a question for Brandon if someone gets the opportunity and willingness to ask as I only seem to hear about the Q&A's after they happen, LOL.

Is the Reason that Odium seems more powerful than the other shards because he draws power/strength from hatred, both the hatred he feels and the hatred he inspires others to feel toward him.  As Odium is both that which Hates and that which draws Hatred upon it.  Sort of a feedback loop.  Much like a microphone getting closer to a speaker, it creates a resonance. 

Edited April 21, 2017 by Hawkido