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How big was Kredik Shaw?


Szeth Son Son Chullano

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On 1/3/2018 at 1:08 PM, Szeth Son Son Chullano said:

Or, more specifically. The towers? Do we ever get any confirmation on their size beyond being “big?” 

This isn't as impossible to infer as you might think.  Kredik Shaw was built by Alendi Rashek during his ascension while his mind was expanded to Godlike levels, however, it is clearly demonstrated that he always preferred to use brute-force to find solutions to his problems.  The idea that he may have used any degree of modern engineering or structural dynamics considerations in the design of his castle are silly considering how he approached his other tasks.  I posit that he built it using solid homogeneous materials.  I also believe it is stated that the highest peaks were thin metal spikes.

An architect could probably give us a much more rigorous analysis, but off the top of my head, I'd ballpark the highest peak at around 200-500 feet; more than that and it would probably collapse under its own poorly distributed weight, and less than that would've been pretty weak-sauce for even an incompetent God.  Even at the top range, I feel like the maintenance and upkeep would be staggering over 1000 years...

Edited by hwiles
Very stupid typo...
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19 hours ago, hwiles said:

This isn't as impossible to infer as you might think.  Kredik Shaw was built by Alendi during his ascension while his mind was expanded to Godlike levels, however, it is clearly demonstrated that he always preferred to use brute-force to find solutions to his problems.  The idea that he may have used any degree of modern engineering or structural dynamics considerations in the design of his castle are silly considering how he approached his other tasks.  I posit that he built it using solid homogeneous materials.  I also believe it is stated that the highest peaks were thin metal spikes.

An architect could probably give us a much more rigorous analysis, but off the top of my head, I'd ballpark the highest peak at around 200-500 feet; more than that and it would probably collapse under its own poorly distributed weight, and less than that would've been pretty weak-sauce for even an incompetent God.  Even at the top range, I feel like the maintenance and upkeep would be staggering over 1000 years...

Uhhhhh

Alendi never had the Well's power 

Rashek murdered him and took it for himself

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On 1/7/2018 at 0:10 AM, hwiles said:

The idea that he may have used any degree of structural dynamics considerations in the design of his castle are silly

Harmony somewhat disagrees. 26, 28.

Quote

He was able to take elements from a dozen different cultures and apply them to his new, "perfect" society. For instance, the architectural brilliance of the Khlenni builders is manifest in the keeps that the high nobility construct. Khlenni fashion sense—suits for gentlemen, gowns for ladies—is another thing the Lord Ruler decided to appropriate.

I suspect that despite his hatred of the Khlenni people—of whom Alendi was one—Rashek had a deep-seated envy of them as well. The Terris of the time were pastoral herdsmen, the Khlenni cultured cosmopolitans. However ironic, it is logical that Rashek's new empire would mimic the high culture of the people he hated.


One final aspect of the Lord Ruler's cultural manipulation is quite interesting: that of technology.

I have already mentioned that Rashek chose to use Khlenni architecture, which allowed him to construct large structures and gave him the civil engineering necessary to build a city as large as Luthadel. In other areas, however, he suppressed technological advancements.

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13 hours ago, The One Who Connects said:

Harmony somewhat disagrees. 26, 28.

Technically...yes, point conceded, Harmony would disagree with me and contend that Rashek had a closet love for high society...Really though, Sazed was looking at the issue in retrospect and through rose-colored glasses in my opinion.

In 1,000ish years of "envying" khlenni architecture Rashek deliberately suppressed technology, including engineering and architecture, to a level well below that of the level prior to his ascension.  They were basically on the doorstep of the age of steam prior to his ascension; 1,000ish years later, they were 300 years off from it.  Rashek didn't like the temperature of his planet, so he moved it closer to the sun.  He didn't like how hot his new planet was at the equator, so he moved everyone to the north and south pole.  He didn't like that slaves were smart, so he made them stupid.  He didn't like that smart people bred too quickly, so he gave them fertility problems.

In my opinion, Rashek was a jerk who solved problems through brute force in a manner befitting a psychopath.  I admit there is room for argument on this subject, but I disagree that Harmony is a good source for objective evidence or enlightening insights for the purpose of this discourse.  He's a little too Invested in the subject...lol.

Really though, I find your point valid, I simply disagree.  The whole topic is too subjective to be worthy of delving deep.

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10 hours ago, hwiles said:

I disagree that Harmony is a good source for objective evidence

Fair enough. I was searching for something else and remembered the epigraphs, so I posted those instead. What I was actually looking for was a description of TLR's Throne Room.

I considered drawing it, so I had taken reference notes. One of them was about the pillars in the room, and it appears that(after rereading the chapters) there isn't a solid description of their placements(or how many there were). Meaning that what I was remembering was artistic license on my part, and I rescind my earlier statement.

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On 1/3/2018 at 11:08 AM, Szeth Son Son Chullano said:

Or, more specifically. The towers? Do we ever get any confirmation on their size beyond being “big?” 

This is totally my own headcanon, but based one of the covers for HoA, I always imagined the tallest towers being a couple hundred feet high, and Kredik Shaw meaning "the hill of a thousand spires", I always imagined about a thousand spires of varying heights shorter than the one on the cover, equally spaced over a hilltop. Not sure how big that would actually be :unsure:

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11 hours ago, MasterJack said:

This is totally my own headcanon, but based one of the covers for HoA, I always imagined the tallest towers being a couple hundred feet high, and Kredik Shaw meaning "the hill of a thousand spires", I always imagined about a thousand spires of varying heights shorter than the one on the cover, equally spaced over a hilltop. Not sure how big that would actually be :unsure:

You know...it might seem kind of crude, but if someone could come up with an estimate of the horizontal width (diameter) of the palace, we could just apply typical medieval castle proportions to it to get a pretty reasonable ballpark estimate and use medieval cathedral proportions, the best of which were quite impressive, as an upper-bound.  I think "a couple hundred feet," is actually a really solid guess, but if we have sharders who are legitimately interested in establishing firm estimates for artwork or other projects, then I think it's technically possible that we can come up with something more concrete. :lol:

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