The Ultimate List of Questions for Brandon

[Darkness he/him]

On ‎24‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 6:21 PM, Yata said:

Nightblood isn't a Lifeless class Entity. We know his Command and it not incorporate any kind of "key command".

This is debatable but you can't recover Breath from someone else and Nightblood is an actual being now. the Breath are not its own.

I've noticed a common theme of 'answers' to these questions for Brandon that are more in the realm of 'debate' than straight WoB.

I'm directing this response to a larger audience than just Yata: I do appreciate your views on the matter, however this is perhaps not the thread for it. It would be great for a theory thread, or perhaps the cosmere q&a thread, but this is an open thread for questions for Brandon. Therefore, I would love to hear any applicable WoBs to my questions, but otherwise personal views and opinions only serve to impede people's questions getting to Brandon and clutter up the thread.

[Yata he/him]

16 hours ago, Oversleep said:

If Identity is unaffected by Soulforgery...

... would storing aluminium make Essence Marks last longer?

I don't think, at least no more than a general improvement you will gain in almost every magic system from be identityless 

@Darkness Understood, but I just exposed the things we know, where there is a grey area (retriving breath from Nightblood) I said. In other parts (Nightblood as Lifeless-like) there is no clues about and instead everything we know is aganist.
If I was opinionated, I'm sorry

Edited April 27, 2017 by Yata

[Fezzik]

Terken creatures are impervious to sand mastery. Dilaf of fjordell is immune to Aons. Is Dilaf immune to sand mastery, and/or terken creatures immune to AonDor?

[+Extesian he/him]

1 hour ago, john203 said:

Terken creatures are impervious to sand mastery. Dilaf of fjordell is immune to Aons. Is Dilaf immune to sand mastery, and/or terken creatures immune to AonDor?

In terms of terken, the option I like the best is that they incorporate aluminum into their shells from the ground around them. There's a good thread discussing that here.

If so I don't think they would be similar, though the mechanism by which Dilaf can block aons may be similar to the way aluminum blocks investiture. It's certainly an interesting question though. 

 

[Darkness he/him]

Our moon has a massive role in tides, poetry, culture, and even religion in many instances. You might say it's on everyone's mind in some way, often in a romantic, scientific, or even magical sense. Theoretically, if earth had a cognitive realm, I would imagine that our moon would have a fairly substantial representation there, and might even be somewhat magical in nature.

Many of our stormlight archive characters also mention the moons in their PoVs, so I think we may have that in common. My question would be, do the moons appear in Shadesmar? And are they represented as glass beads, spren, or something else?

(basically, trying to get closer to the 3 moons being the 3 bondsmith spren)

 

edit: When Shallan convinced her own memories that Pattern was locked inside the box, I know he wasn't Physically in the box, but was he actually locked Cognitively in that space because of the intensity of Shallan's perception?

Edited May 8, 2017 by Darkness
added the pattern question

[ScarletSabre he/him]

Does Shardplate protect the wearer against emotional Allomancy?

Is Shardplate affected by a Leecher? If so, is the Stormlight sucked from the gemstones, or is the plate itself destroyed in the same way it would be if repeatedly hit?

[marsoupial they/them]

Could a Siah Aimian become a surgebinder?

[The One Who Connects he/him]

So I got 8 more (4 Questions, 4.5 Followups) while I was in Wal-Mart this morning, addendums to my Hemalurgy and Lord Ruler Questionnaires.

The Lord Ruler

1. When the Lord Ruler remade himself into an Allomancer, did he make himself as strong as he could physically become, or only as strong as The Well could make him?
   Worded Better: Could TLR have used some other method to become even more powerful in Allomancy than he already was using the Well?
   • If so, what methods could be used to do this?
     • Did TLR know any of these methods?
     • Did TLR use any of these methods?

Hemalurgy

1. Would Hemalurgic Spikes prevent a person from ascending via the "Lerasium Savant" method?
   • Would the spikes cause any complications? Such as: needing more Lerasium, spikes cause pain to the person, etc...
2. If Vin's earring had been a Lerasium Spike instead of Brass(Bronze?), would she still have felt it causing her pain when she stood in the Well of Ascension?
3. Would a Lerasium Spike prevent a person from drawing on the Mists the way normal spikes do to Vin?
   • You could follow-up with "would it prevent someone from using The Well to ascend," but I think it'll be the same answer(Liquid/Gaseous form of Preservation's Investiture should function the same way)

Edited May 12, 2017 by The One Who Connects

[Oversleep]

@The One Who Connects, lerasium spikes are RAFO-on-sight thing.

[The One Who Connects he/him]

10 hours ago, Oversleep said:

@The One Who Connects, Lerasium spikes are RAFO-on-sight thing.

Oh I'm well aware of that (which is partially why the 1st Spike Question doesn't involve it) I just had thoughts, and put them on here in case someone had answers that I've never seen, and/or for discussion value.

---

9 More Today: 1 Awakening and 8 Feruchemy. Spare time is dangerous stuff...

Awakening

1. Lifeless normally don't talk or write, but if one could speak, would it be able to awaken if it were given Breath?

Feruchemy

1. There's an old WoB that a Platypus could store its (electric-field sense?) in a Tinmind. Are there any "unique" senses that your non-human races(Parshendi/Kandra/etc..) could store that Humans couldn't?
2. Are the senses that a Tin Ferring can store limited by what society cognitively perceives as a sense? Ex: Just "Sight" vs "Brightness(Rods)" & "Color(Cones)"?
   • Clarification/Followup: If say.. Nociception(Pain Sense) isn't cognitively viewed as a sense b/c science hasn't discovered it yet, would that prevent a Ferring from being able to store it or does the ability always exist even if knows they can?
3. Would a hearing impaired person store less Hearing than someone who can hear clearly? (Like a sick person storing health)
   • Would the same hold true for someone with glasses storing Sight compared to someone with 20/20 vision?
4. Could a deaf/blind person store any Hearing/Sight at all? (I assume "No," but don't remember any express confirmation)
5. Is there a noticeable difference between Sight stored by a colorblind person and Sight stored by someone who can see color?
   • If they swapped Tinminds after storing, would the colorblind person see in color / the normal person see in grayscale when tapping?
6. Is there a noticeable difference between Hearing stored by someone with Perfect Pitch(2nd Heightening) and Hearing stored by an average person?

Edited May 13, 2017 by The One Who Connects
My Total Question List has reached 183

[Calderis he/him]

Has anyone asked Brandon if there are Fabrials that achieve different effects by using the same Spren type but in a different gemstone? 

I think this would almost settle the Spren/bond argument, because if a spren type can only provide one effect then there's your focus. If a single type can provide different effects through various gemstones or cuts than the way in which it is bound is as important as the Spren and would place the focus on the bond.

Edit:I can't speak for other people so I should say it would settle it for me. 

Edited May 14, 2017 by Calderis

[Andy92]

Did Parshendi always have carapace, or did they evolve it over the years as a way to shield themselves better against the high storms? 

[Ciridae]

Allomancy requires a crack in the spiritweb for the investiture to enter to burn a metal. Would an Allomancer who has bonded a spren on Roshar that seals or plugs that crack lose the ability to burn metals because preservation's investuture cannot get through any longer? 

[Yata he/him]

1 hour ago, Ciridae said:

Allomancy requires a crack in the spiritweb for the investiture to enter to burn a metal. Would an Allomancer who has bonded a spren on Roshar that seals or plugs that crack lose the ability to burn metals because preservation's investuture cannot get through any longer? 

It's not in that way. The cracks in the Soul aren't need to use Allomancy. They are need to gain Allomancy.

For example Lerasium Mistborn could be Allomancer without any kind of crak in the Soul (and probably their child too) also using a Medallion doesn't care of your Soul's state

Edited May 20, 2017 by Yata

[Ciridae]

33 minutes ago, Yata said:

It's not in that way. The cracks in the Soul aren't need to use Allomancy. They are need to gain Allomancy.

For example Lerasium Mistborn could be Allomancer without any kind of crak in the Soul (and probably their child too) also using a Medallion doesn't care of your Soul's state

Hmm. If the investiture doesn't need the crack to go through before filtering through a metal, what is the point of snapping? The way I understood it was that you're technically an Allomancer from birth, but until you snap you have no way to access preservation's investiture. So the crack itself is what lets the investiture in to power allomancy. 

Your points about lerasium and the medallions are solid. But I still feel like I need to point out that the only person we've seen to burn lerasium had actually snapped, remember Elend was beaten for that express purpose. So he did technically have the cracks, but was only lacking the sDNA for allomancy. For all we know, someone missing the cracks may not even be able to burn lerasium, or they might be able to burn it, but wouldn't be able to use allomancy until they had snapped. 

About the medallions, I may be misremembering, but as far as I remember we have only seen the use of feruchemy through them, which should not need cracks as the investiture comes from the feruchemist or person using the medallion. The two times we see someone use the bands they are being used by allomancers who already have cracks themselves. So we don't know if you could use a medallion that grants allomancy without having cracks first. If there is a WoB on the matter, that would be really helpful.

I do think you are right however, and I trust your judgement, but that means that I am fundamentally misunderstanding the way that allomancy works. 

[Yata he/him]

@Ciridae maybe it's better to start a specific topic on this as this exchange could become long.

Anyway, you are not an allomancer for birth. You (if you are a Scadrial guy) have the "potential" to be an allomancer for birth. Like a Seed of Allomancy inside of you who could or not develop. This seed is the extra bit of Preservation that Preservation himself placed into Humans. This Seed is usually trapped between the rest of Preservation and Ruin's Investiture that compose your Soul. When your Soul craks this Seed could be released and becomes active (growing in the appropriate Spirit-Web to use Allomancy).

If you are hyper saturated of Preservation's power (through Lerasium) or you have a way to add the right spirit web to your soul (Hemalurgy or Medallion) you don't need the cracks at all.

The Cracks could be useful to people without the right Preservation's treeshold to get Allomancy as Preservation try naturally to fix the cracks. This is for example the reason of the high efficiency of the Mistsnapping. The Mists beat people and exploied the cracks to fill the Soul with more Preservation than someone had.

But once you have the power, you don't need them...also if ironically the Allomancy over time will crack your Soul and starts a bad loop where the Preservation's power itself will damage your Soul and try to fix it every time (Savantism)

[Oversleep]

50 minutes ago, Yata said:

If you are hyper saturated of Preservation's power (through Lerasium) or you have a way to add the right spirit web to your soul (Hemalurgy or Medallion) you don't need the cracks at all.

The Cracks could be useful to people without the right Preservation's treeshold to get Allomancy as Preservation try naturally to fix the cracks. This is for example the reason of the high efficiency of the Mistsnapping. The Mists beat people and exploied the cracks to fill the Soul with more Preservation than someone had.

I disagree. It doesn't matter how much of Preservation you have - the "right Preservation threshold" you talk about - you still have to Snap. Elend's Allomancy is no counterargument here - he either had cracks from back then when he was ritually beaten (but did not become an Allomancer because of lack of sufficient amount of Investiture) or actually his experience at the Well can count as he was stabbed and bleeding to death which definitely would count as traumatic experience for purpose of Snapping.

Your point about Hemalurgy or medallions is also no counterargument. The parts of Spiritweb that end up in nicrosilminds or in spikes are taken from people who already Snapped and established an Allomantic Connection to Preservation. We have no cases of potential Allomancers pre-Snapping being spiked or filling nicrosilminds. Although that is a good question to ask:

Would a spike taken from a person who - upon Snapping - would become an Allomancer grant Allomancy?

I suspect that in that case the Hemalurgic donor would have to snap or perhaps the Hemalurgy-induced trauma on your soul would be enough.

[Oversleep]

How far can a Dysian Aimian spread?

If one bonded a Shardblade and summoned it, where would it appear? Could he choose where it would appear?

[Djarskublar he/him]

7 hours ago, Oversleep said:

How far can a Dysian Aimian spread?

If one bonded a Shardblade and summoned it, where would it appear? Could he choose where it would appear?

A more pressing question is whether they can bond in the first place. My initial thought is no, but maybe they have some other sort of bond. They do say the old magics can become theirs again, so maybe all the spren hanging out in the CR made it so they didn't have access to bonds either and lost their brand of magic. That line can be read multiple ways, though, so I wouldn't put much stock in that thought.

[Yata he/him]

7 hours ago, Oversleep said:

How far can a Dysian Aimian spread?

If one bonded a Shardblade and summoned it, where would it appear? Could he choose where it would appear?

There is a WoB about Spiking an Hordeling and the effect in the Sleepless.

In that case the change in the Hordeling will severe It from the Sleepless. So maybe makes a Bond Will have the same interference/severing effect

[Djarskublar he/him]

Is there an afterlife for Selish people? I mean, Brandon constantly comments on how dangerous the CR is on Sel, and we saw with Ruin beating up Kelsier that a cognitive entity could possibly be destroyed without moving Beyond... So does the Dor destroy the cognitive self of anyone that dies on Sel before they can move Beyond?

This question has been wiggling around in the back of my mind for a long time now, and I have some theories about the Ire that could be confirmed/denied by this information.

[+Extesian he/him]

4 hours ago, Yata said:

There is a WoB about Spiking an Hordeling and the effect in the Sleepless.

In that case the change in the Hordeling will severe It from the Sleepless. So maybe makes a Bond Will have the same interference/severing effect

It was a recent one. 

Quote

Q: Could you spike a Hordling?
A: Yes. Spike means getting something out, Spike means get(ting?) something in? I think that both is viable. I think you can, yeah.
Q: If you would spike something in, would the whole Aimian get maybe an Allomantic ability?
A: Mostly, this would probably change the Hordling. And they may lose contact to it. It could fiddle with the connection to the point that they can no longer link. That's gonna be my answer right now, that spiking a Hordling would separate it from the group mind

I could see a Bond changing the spiritweb enough that a hordeling disconnects, but I guess a question is whether they have a centralised consciousness that controls the Hordelings or a collective one - perhaps if it's centralized, that central 'being' could bond. 

[Stark he/him]

On the surface, it appears that the occurrence of Allomancers and Feruchemists being born naturally on Scadrial is going down, as the (recessive?) genes are getting more and more wide-spread and diluted.  However, we also have a WOB stating that the Allomancers are depleting Scadrial's finite supply of metals, at different rates depending on the natural availability of the specific metal as well as the Allomantic burn rate.  This will cause some interesting things in modern era Scadrial, until they finally get access to extra terrestrial mines.

 

But what if the two are more than than a simple correlation, what if they are linked and cause-and-effect?  This is my question:  Is there a direct link between the dwindling metal reserves on Scadrial and the dwindling numbers of Metal born?  Or more specifically, if Scadrial ever gets to the point were no viable metals remain to fuel the Metal arts, will Metal born stop being born?

 

I'm betting the answer is no, they are not linked.  While the metal is finite, the Investiture creating the metal born is not.  But I'm still curious.

[Oversleep]

Sel: a person who is a child of people from two different countries with two different magics. And is living on the border of these countries and considers both as their homeland.

Would such person be able to access both magics?

[The One Who Connects he/him]

9 hours ago, Stark said:

However, we also have a WOB stating that the Allomancers are depleting Scadrial's finite supply of metals, at different rates depending on the natural availability of the specific metal as well as the Allomantic burn rate.

Fairly certain that there was a more recent WoB that they won't actually drain Scadrial of metals, as there aren't enough Allomancers anymore. That said, it doesn't completely shoot down your question, so hopefully someone else will have a better answer than I've got