[AU Spoilers] Khriss and Silverlight

[Mason Wheeler]

I can't help but wonder if he's aware that the name Silvelight is already an existing thing?

It's the name of a programming technology that Microsoft came up with several years ago, to basically try to be their own proprietary competitor to Flash for Web-based apps.  They ended up more or less abandoning it once no one wanted to use it because that market segment was already saturated by Flash.

[Eki]

2 hours ago, Mason Wheeler said:

With all the discussion of the references to the well of ascension, I'm surprised no one noticed the other salient bit here:

So there's something that happens on Roshar where god-level strength comparable to an Ascension ends up "commonly in the hands of mortals"?!?

Well, "commonly" in Scadrial's case is once every 1024 years... But yeah, I can't think of anything we've seen so far on Roshar that would compare. Maybe the Dawnshards? But are people using them, even if it's only once per millenium or whatever? Maybe it's something that only happens during Desolations?

 

36 minutes ago, Mason Wheeler said:

I can't help but wonder if he's aware that the name Silvelight is already an existing thing?

It's the name of a programming technology that Microsoft came up with several years ago, to basically try to be their own proprietary competitor to Flash for Web-based apps.  They ended up more or less abandoning it once no one wanted to use it because that market segment was already saturated by Flash.

Yeah, I believe he has commented on this. I think he invented the name a long time ago, and then thought he'd have to change it, once Microsoft's thing came. Until the project was abandoned.

[Glamdring804]

2 hours ago, PallonianFire said:

Still think it's a Cognitive Realm city. Brandon himself has called it a city, so...

Yeah, that would make more sense. It would also explain why it's so hard for Khriss's group to travel to planets without perpendicularities. The idea of some ancient structure, perhaps a remnant of Adonalsium, sitting out there in the depths of space, is just appealing to me I guess.

[Argent he/him]

15 hours ago, Mason Wheeler said:

So there's something that happens on Roshar where god-level strength comparable to an Ascension ends up "commonly in the hands of mortals"?!?

Yeah, that sounds fishy. I thought at first that Khriss is referring to the Mistborn here, but being a Mistborn doesn't really match with "grand bursts of strength."

[Mason Wheeler]

1 minute ago, Argent said:

Yeah, that sounds fishy. I thought at first that Khriss is referring to the Mistborn here, but being a Mistborn doesn't really match with "grand bursts of strength."

Yeah, from the context, she's clearly referring to the Well of Ascension.

Also, this discussion, about how many times the Well has been used, reminds me of another thing I asked Brandon at a signing once: how much time elapsed between the creation of mankind on Scadrial and Rashek's ascension?

I don't remember exactly what his answer was, but I do remember that he was clearly not prepared for the question, as he was trying to work out what the answer should be, right there on the spot, mostly by analogies to historical timelines here on Earth.  His answer was somewhere in the 6-10K year range, so the Well has seen a fair amount of use.

[Argent he/him]

6 minutes ago, Mason Wheeler said:

Yeah, from the context, she's clearly referring to the Well of Ascension.

Also, this discussion, about how many times the Well has been used, reminds me of another thing I asked Brandon at a signing once: how much time elapsed between the creation of mankind on Scadrial and Rashek's ascension?

I don't remember exactly what his answer was, but I do remember that he was clearly not prepared for the question, as he was trying to work out what the answer should be, right there on the spot, mostly by analogies to historical timelines here on Earth.  His answer was somewhere in the 6-10K year range, so the Well has seen a fair amount of use.

I've been catching up on the forums, and I saw @Yata mention this quote in a different thread, but it made me think of something. If Roshar exhibits similar bursts of power, it could be one way of explaining how the Heralds were as powerful as they were even when everything we've seen from them suggests they were no stronger than your average Radiant. If we assume - and I understand this is not the strongest assumption in the world - that Roshar has events similar to the Scadrian Ascensions, then it may be that the Heralds become Honor's champions (similar to how Tanavast suggests to Dalinar that he may be able to force Odium to choose a champion) briefly during the Desolations, thus becoming incredibly powerful, powerful enough to be remembered in history as (demi)gods, even if their followers, the Radiants, were a lot more numerous. 

[The One Who Connects he/him]

23 hours ago, jofwu said:

The amazement at Scadrial's technological development is confusing me a little bit. I was under the impression from Harmony that their world is actually lagging behind, right? Does Harmony just have really high expectations? Is he wrong about their tech level? It comes across like Khris is just impressed that with where they're at given how much they've had to deal with... But that just doesn't fit, in my opinion, with the tone offered by Harmony. Am I the only one getting that sense?

IIRC, Harmony was comparing North and South Scadrian Advancement. He gave them so much; the Basin, Elendel, his Books, etc... And the Southern Continent is catching up/surpassing them without such help.

[Yata he/him]

@Argent this is indeed possible, maybe they didn't Ascends because the power is less or because they divided it between 10 hosts...The only thing that bother me is, the Desolations were decided when one of the Heralds broke under torture (therefore there is no "standard timeframe"), how is it possible that the Power (who may be a Perpendicularity or another Vault of Investiture somewhere) is always "avaliable" to them ?

PS: I have to be honest, I had my own views about Roshar, its ecology and its magic....therefore I am not strictly fair in judging idea that may go aganist mine 

[Argent he/him]

There are ways you can explain the availability of the power. Instead of a mechanism where Honor's power pools over time, he might be willingly handing it to them each Desolation. Or maybe the power gathers fast enough so that it's always available when a Desolation begins. Or maybe the Heralds need to make sure they endure long enough for the power to gather, otherwise a Desolation will start without the source of their strength being available. 

[Glamdring804]

51 minutes ago, Yata said:

@Argent this is indeed possible, maybe they didn't Ascends because the power is less or because they divided it between 10 hosts...The only thing that bother me is, the Desolations were decided when one of the Heralds broke under torture (therefore there is no "standard timeframe"), how is it possible that the Power (who may be a Perpendicularity or another Vault of Investiture somewhere) is always "avaliable" to them ?

PS: I have to be honest, I had my own views about Roshar, its ecology and its magic....therefore I am not strictly fair in judging idea that may go aganist mine 

Don't Radiants-to-be need to be spiritually broken in order for them to have the specific spirit-web topography to start using surgebinding? Perhaps the Heralds needed to be in a similar state, or possibly a more extreme version of it, in order to hold the power. This could also explain how the desolation so were a trap for Odium. By torturing his enemies, he gave them the power they needed to defeat him. 

[CosmereQuestioner]

I wouldn't say that the power even needs to "pool" or gather over time. Every world so far has had different mechanics, so maybe when the heralds "use" their power after these great bursts of strength it is somehow immediately recollected by Honor (or his stand-in).  I can't see Brandon forcing the same mechanic on Roshar as on Sacdrial.

[Argent he/him]

1 hour ago, CosmereQuestioner said:

I can't see Brandon forcing the same mechanic on Roshar as on Sacdrial.

Depends how you look at it. It's not forcing if it's just something that happens in the Cosmere (which is what I suspect is going on). Investiture gets used (largely?) in the physical realm, it makes its way back to its source Shard, and it may bleed back into the physical under certain conditions. The difference between Preservation and other Shards, at least in this regard, is that Preservation wasn't able to keep the power for himself (probably because he gave up much of his mind), so his entire pool of power would return to his Shardpool - as opposed to tiny droplets of it, as seems to be the case with other Shards, such as Ruin or Endowment. 

So what you (might) see as potentially forceful restriction on Brandon's side, I see as cohesion in the Cosmere.

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

10 hours ago, Glamdring804 said:

Don't Radiants-to-be need to be spiritually broken in order for them to have the specific spirit-web topography to start using surgebinding? Perhaps the Heralds needed to be in a similar state, or possibly a more extreme version of it, in order to hold the power. This could also explain how the desolation so were a trap for Odium. By torturing his enemies, he gave them the power they needed to defeat him. 

Actually, its Connection. You have to have a fairly strong Connection to a Shard to take up its power. That's why Kell had to use the Elsntrian fabrial hack to take up Preservation.

[Djarskublar he/him]

I have my two cents to add. I would say that the Highstorms are probably on the same level as the Well. So perhaps even a normal Surgebinder could pull some trick to channel the entire storm into a surge under specific circumstances. That is easily enough Investiture to shift orbits with the gravitation surge. I would be kinda disappointed if only the Heralds could perform those great feats.

[shadowwisp]

On 11/16/2016 at 6:16 PM, Mason Wheeler said:

I can't help but wonder if he's aware that the name Silvelight is already an existing thing?

It's the name of a programming technology that Microsoft came up with several years ago, to basically try to be their own proprietary competitor to Flash for Web-based apps.  They ended up more or less abandoning it once no one wanted to use it because that market segment was already saturated by Flash.

Yup he is aware: 

" Azir has a large population density. Cosmere-wise, though, Eldendel is by far the largest. Though I don't have strict population numbers on places like Silverlight. (Which, for years, I assumed I'd have to rename--but I think the program Silverlight is dead, so I can go back to calling the city that.) "

[Auger he/him]

In response to the burst of power thing, I'm surprised no one has brought up the dawnshards. Perhaps they are aether-like spren designed for heralds to match their honorblades? Wild speculation, but we don't have a clue what the dawnshards are apart from the fact they're not the honorblades.

[Mason Wheeler]

I think someone did bring up the Dawnshards, but until we know something about them beyond a fragment of a legend from some book somewhere, there's not much of anything useful that can be said about them.

[Yata he/him]

On 15/11/2016 at 10:08 AM, Yata said:

This made a question:

If someone who Ascend with the Well didn't use the power or release it. Will he/she be able to keep it for a long time and expend it in a long periodo of time ?

I just obtain a WoB about my own question, here

Quote

Q:  When someone Ascended with the Well, if He don't use the power and neither release it...Would He keep his status for long time ?

A:  No, unfortunately.

 

Edited November 19, 2016 by Yata