Silence Divine

[Shard of Choice he/him]

Ive seen the phrase "The Silence Divine" a few times now and have one major question

What is it?

[CrazyRioter she/her]

it's an (as yet) unpublished work of Brandon's. And that's all I know.

[ZeldaDad he/him]

From what I understand, it is a planet within that work. But that could be totally wrong.

Edited April 29, 2011 by Endra kin'Fox

[Chaos he/him]

The Silence Divine is a standalone novel that I don't think has been written yet. It is cosmere, and the planet that novel takes place on is located in the same solar system as Roshar.

I don't remember the magic system well enough to describe it, but Josh and Mi'ch probably remember. They are the ones who told me about it.

[Zas678 he/him]

If I remember right, it is the idea that being handicapped is a blessing, because the best thing for the virus is if the host survives. So, a common cold would grant you the ability to run really fast. Pneumonia would let you fly. However, the most powerful magic people (and the most consistent) are those who are handicapped. So blind people, for example. They have awesome super powers.

I think. But maybe it was just an Idea of the Day Brandon posted in his blog forever ago.

We also know that the Silence Divine is a planet visible in the skies of Roshar, and it's in the same galaxy.

[Chaos he/him]

If I remember right, it is the idea that being handicapped is a blessing, because the best thing for the virus is if the host survives. So, a common cold would grant you the ability to run really fast. Pneumonia would let you fly. However, the most powerful magic people (and the most consistent) are those who are handicapped. So blind people, for example. They have awesome super powers.

That matches my recollection of the magic.

[CrazyRioter she/her]

as a person with partial blindness and partial hearing loss, I now desire to live on that world!

[ZeldaDad he/him]

That would make sense with the name Silence Divine.

[Timemaster11 he/him]

And Helen Keller would take up her mantle as God...I mean, ahem, Lord Ruler.

[CrazyRioter she/her]

no Stephen Hawking would be God, Helen Keller would be his head priestess.

[Joe ST he/him]

And I guess Christopher Reeve could like literally be superman...

[Silus - Shard of Flame he/him]

I officially love this topic.

I've had the idea of superpowers as a virus in my head for a while, but more science-y, and without the handicaps. It's complicated. But I'm really looking forward to reading this book one day.

[masaru]

Makes you wonder about the The Way of Kings parts named "Above Silence" and "The Silence Above," huh? Considering it's the same solar system.... Wonder if anything that happens in those parts has something to do with planetary systems/relationships.

[Silus - Shard of Flame he/him]

WHOA. I didn't even make that connection. *mind blown*

[Comatose he/him]

I would read this book solely for the title. "Silence Divine." It's gorgeous! And so evocative. I wish I would come up with a title like that for one of my books, because it rocks! Very powerful. So far, my favorite Brandon titles were the last two parts of Hero of Ages: Beautiful Destroyer, and Trust. The first for a similar reason as my liking of Silence Divine, and the second because of the multitude of meanings and how it brings the series together.

I wonder which shard would be in charge of that magic system... hmmm...

[Silus - Shard of Flame he/him]

Well, out of the ones we know of I would say Cultivation, but she's already doing stuff elsewhere. It kinda fits her style, at least in my mind.

What I want to know is if self inflicted disabilities or sicknesses would give you power. Would you get the power attached to blindness if you put your own eyes out Oedipus style? (minus the incest and stuff, of course)

[happyman he/him]

Well, out of the ones we know of I would say Cultivation, but she's already doing stuff elsewhere. It kinda fits her style, at least in my mind.

What I want to know is if self inflicted disabilities or sicknesses would give you power. Would you get the power attached to blindness if you put your own eyes out Oedipus style? (minus the incest and stuff, of course)

Oh dear. We may have found a world where incest is an asset.

Now I want to poke my own eyes out.

[Comatose he/him]

Well, technically incest could be an asset in any world where the magic system is even partially based on genetics. What's different about this one, is it's the negative side effects of the yuckiness that have become desirable. It brings a lot of preventable disabilities into question, and could actually be quite controversial.

For example, what if, in the hopes of having a super-powered baby, a woman intentionally drank during pregnancy, hoping her child would have FASD with a power attached? Obviously, not the type of person you'd want as your mother, but in a world where sickness can equal power, I think the way we look at a lot of diseases could change. Would people purposefully attempt to catch colds and infections? And would people with nasty infections perhaps market them, selling them to people who want their power?

Just a few thoughts those comments brought up. I'm interested to see how Brandon handles these issues.

[FeatherWriter she/her]

Hmm, on the terms of shard, it seems very Karmatic, though Karma doesn't seem very cosmere-y. Something bad happens to you, something equally good happens to you. Recompense maybe, but that's still not elegant enough. Especially not for a book with as poetic a title as "Silence Divine"

[CrazyRioter she/her]

that's not really how karma works, karma is based on what you do, not what happens to you.

Something like recompense might work, but the word is not very Shard-y.

Also I could see the laws about alcohol and other stuff that causes birth defects being very harsh just to prevent what you were talking about, either for reasons of it not being very nice to the kid who might end up not liking the trade-off or to prevent too many babies with magic being born to challenge the social structure.

[FellKnight he/him]

Hmm, on the terms of shard, it seems very Karmatic, though Karma doesn't seem very cosmere-y. Something bad happens to you, something equally good happens to you. Recompense maybe, but that's still not elegant enough. Especially not for a book with as poetic a title as "Silence Divine"

Karma and Recompense are ok, but how about something as simple as Balance?

Fell

[Chaos he/him]

It occurs to me that this magic system feels more than a little like the "one curse, one blessing" thing.

[Zas678 he/him]

Ooh. I just had a very odd idea. What if it's the same shard powering both? We've said before that it seems like the Old Magic doesn't really fit with Cultivation, Honor, or Odium. So what if it is the shard from Silence Divine?

Or maybe there are only three shards in the Roshar/Silence Divine solar system, and Cultivation mostly worries about Silence Divine, and Honor worries about Roshar, and Odium goes back and forth, getting mad at both of them.

I highly doubt it, but its an interesting idea.

[Comatose he/him]

Also, isn't the "three shards on Roshar" thing only for the present day? We know that Odium was gone for a time, when he visited Sel, which would have put the count down to two, would it not? Perhaps there were more/less shards on Roshar in the past, and one of those ended up on the planet in Silence Divine.

[Zas678 he/him]

It also may explain how the Almighty seems to be on good (and fairly recent) terms with Cultivation, but how he doesn't have Dalinar asking her for help.