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I have to question You consider yourself an ally And you listen to Albert Mohler regularly The same Albert Mohler who’s rap sheet includes but is not limited to 1: Decrying a memorial for a trans activist 2: Saying in regard to trans folks, “we cannot affirm someone in a delusion” 3: Opposing the repealing of the “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” which banned openly queer Americans from the military 4: Opposing birth control for women 5: Proclaiming that married couples who choose not to have children are rebelling against God’s order 6: Being so thoroughly opposed to gay marriage that he signed the Manhattan Declaration, a document calling Christians to fight against queer and reproductive rights among other things. The Catholic Church had a significant hand in writing the Manhattan Declaration, and so emphatic was his opposition to queer/reproductive rights that he signed on despite believing the Catholic Church to be “a false church” and that accepting their doctrine would be to “compromise Biblical truth” 7: Proclaiming that Muslims are motivated by demonic power 8: Supporting America converting the people of Iraq to Christianity in the style of old colonial powers I know there’s a policy against politics I respect that I would argue that this isn’t politics Politics is discussing where to send foreign aid Politics is discussing to what degree regulations should be implemented on the private sector Politics is debating big vs small government This is not politics The ability of two consenting adults to marry and choose whether or not to have children is not politics Women’s access to reproductive care is not politics Freedom of religion, all religion, is not politics The ability of trans folks to exist is not politics These are basic human rights And an ally who listens to someone like Albert Mohler is Concerning

There is a new reading from a dropped secret project that was just read in London. Here's the link: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/554/#e17193. The story is set thousands of years before Rashek and Alendi, so long ago that they still use bronze for weapons and armors as well as phalanx and war chariots. It's such an ancient past that it explains the origins of the Deepness. There's a few interesting things I've noticed while reading it. The first one and the most important one is the complete lack of the white, Preservation's Mist. It's absent and even replaced with the black smoke called the Murk, which forms as night sets. It obscures clouds and stars, just like the Mists does. That sounds a lot like Ruin's Mist. From it the Midnight Dead emerge, forming out of the smoke, bones included. An individual Dead doesn't seem to linger for a long time as they fade as new ones appear. Those Deads are said to be the souls of angry dead people, buried for specific purpose, which would mean they might be some form of Cognitive Shadows. What's more, they whisper unrecognizable words, which might pose some kind of threat as people put wax in their ears. However, they seem to be somewhat mindless in their behaviour. It looks to me that Ruin's directly involved with the Dead and the Murk. The Ageless was mentioned a few times, a ruler of Iratrians, who are on an offensive war. He rules from Mount Dominant and rumors said he can control the Midnight Dead. The city of Caldweth is independent, but on map it belongs to Iratrian and it was said that the Ageless hasn't enforced his rule over them in decades, which might mean he was busy elsewhere, or he was/is absent. Once again, that sounds like Ruin to me. Silver is used to create swords to fight the Dead - which suggest that they really are CS akin to Shades. There is also a flower that repels them - maybe it's even the Marewill flower? And lastly the Gwit people, or Gway Fiatelle, failed in the past and they are forbidden from carrying a sword until they redeem themselves. They act as mercenaries and by tradition are given a sword by others. They usually have pale skin and brown hair and wear a silver sword pendant - they do not look like Terris. There is no sign of Preservation, Mists or any kind of Metallic Arts present in the story. From all of this I speculate that the story takes place either shortly before Ruin's imprisonment by Preservation or shortly after, because it looks like Preservation hasn't set up the Mistsnapping and the Mists yet. The Murk is most definitely Ruin's investiture, which I think was later splintered off by Preservation and trapped in the Atium cycle in the Pits of Hathsin (this idea aligns with WoB and WoB). The Ageless might be Ruin himself or his agent trying to conquer Scadrial for him to destroy it, or to free Ruin if he's already imprisoned - but only the "controlling the Dead" part makes me believe this. Then there is a question of what Gway Fiatelle did to condemn the entire nation? The only thing I can think of is that one of them was the first one ever to Ascend at the Well of Ascension (after Ruin's imprisonment) and caused this whole mess with the Midnight Dead somehow, however this doesn't really fit with the absence of the Mist and the presence of the Ruin's Mist. Honestly, it's a pity that Brandon has dropped the book and it probably won't be finished as the lore sounds really interesting and nothing like I've imagined. I'm super curious now how did the Deppness and the Mist appear for the first time, what's going on with the Dead and the Ageless and how Ruin and Preservation fit into all of this, but unfortunately we are unlikely to get the answers to those questions. What do you guys think of this reading and what are your theories about all of this?

I've recently noticed an uptick in the amount of interest in the double eye chart, especially as it relates to Truthwatchers due to their position opposite of the Bondsmiths. And indeed I think this is warranted. And I intend to look into it. Now going over Truthwatchers, first I want to go over their position on the chart, and in particular the orders connected to them. They sit in the position opposite the Bondsmtih, while also standing between Edgedanncers and Lightweavers, just as Bondsmiths are between Stonewards and Windrunners. Why do I bring this up? Because I often took too long looking at the comparison between Windrunners and Edgedanncers, each having a spren named after one of the Shards, Honorspren and Cultivation spren, together with Lift being able to use Progression while under Urithiru's suppression to believe that Progression is Cultivation's truest surge, and what made Truthwatchers special. And while I do still believe Progression to be Cultivation's truest surge, I no longer believe it to be what truly makes Truthwatchs tick. Instead I want to propose that the upper and lower halves of the chart are not simply opposites, but mirrored. It is not the surge they share with Edgedanncers that makes Truthwatchers special, but the one they share with Lightweavers. In WaT Szeth makes the following observation He calls Truthwatchers the oddest of the orders, something usually reserved for Bondsmiths, and the surge used immediately afterwards is that of Illumination. Additionally what this Honorbearer demonstrates for us is clearly the power of Fortune, seeing things as they are and as they could be. The only other order that is described with this attribute is that of the Lightweavers. Indeed we can see other examples of this such as the Truthwatcher who wrote the following in the gem archive I therefore propose that just as Bondsmiths hold the powers of Connection, Truthwatchers hold the powers of Fortune.

For sake of simplicity, assume full spoilers for the Cosmere to date of writing. Abstract (TL;DR): An observation made in Rhythm of War led to the craft of a falsifiable hypothesis, and a logical, in-universe experiment that can be crafted to test the hypothesis. If the hypothesis is eventually proven true, it allows numerous real-world harmonic and acoustic phenomena to be applied to phenomena derived from Investiture in nearly seamless fashion, from the bottom up. Scope: There is a critical distinction that must be made regarding the scope of this work. I am not here to assert specific frequencies etc. in terms of raw numbers, e.g. A=440 and similarly derived phenomena. As is with all (western) music, especially for those not of the 2nd Heightening, things will be described and derived, generally, from principles of harmonic relativity. With that in mind: Observation: Rhythm of War, Chapter 15 Epigraph: A light blinking in a regular, one could say intervallic period, could be expressed as a number, one that can be converted into an, albeit low, frequency in Hz. Label this frequency as f2. Take a measurable source of the Pure Tone (for now using real-world terms as opposed to Realmatic, this should clear up shortly), in this case the Pure Tone of what is Investing the logicspren. Take that and use it as a constant, label it f1. Hypothesis: Fundamental, f1 will have a neat mathematical relationship with the pulse of the logicspren, f2. Specifically: If this mathematical relationship holds true for the logicspren, it can then be extrapolated to say any localized, periodic oscillation of Investiture is a direct translation from the source Intent's frequency. Therefore, this gives birth to a new principle of Realmatic Theory: The Harmonic Series, when translated into musical terms, reflect the series of phenomena known as overtones. This topic alone is a rabbit hole unto itself, so to avoid falling in, let me quickly annotate an additional constraint to the scope of my portion of the discussion; The Harmonic Series, and thusly the possible consequences of Invested action, go on upward infinitely and forever. My discussion on it should not. Let's take the real-world term pure tone, referring to merely the waveform of a given fundamental pitch, or tone. Pure Tone, in the Realmatic sense, likely refers to the combination of two things: The Realmatic Fundamental; the Realmatic equivalent to the real-world pure tone. The infinite Invested Harmonic Series resonating off the Realmatic Fundamental in totality. Below is the same diagram of the Harmonic Series from before, now representing the whole of Realmatic Pure Tone, with the Realmatic Fundamental traced briefly (shoutout to MS Paint): Subharmonics and Everyday Sounds: Every sound we hear has a frequency. From the shining overtones of an immaculate choir, booming low brass, and the rat-a-tat-tat of a snare drum; to the whirring of engines, human speech, and rapping one's knuckles upon a desk. There are essentially entire subgenres of music dedicated to making definitive tones out of manipulating ordinary sounds digitally. What are the other implications of this hypothesis, if correct? Singer Rhythms: The lateral move of applying this notion of subharmonics to the Rhythms Singers use adds a layer of complexity, as Rhythms seem, per the text, to be almost universally asymmetrical. How then, do they attune to somewhere in the sequence of the respective Realmatic Pure Tone? Let's first analyze the form that is the Singer Rhythm: Like real-world rhythmic patterns, Singer Rhythms have an internal structure, and can be ever repeated. Take, for instance, a relatively simple real-world rhythm that could feasibly mimic that of a Singer Rhythm: This can easily be split into two sections: This may produce, when sped up in a similar fashion to that of the hypothesis' logicspren, or that of Gabe the Dog (R.I.P.), the presentation of two oscillating tones. Tones that, if sped up further, oscillate fast enough to form a dyad, or interval in musical terms. Dyads, like a properly resonant (lower case) pure tone, or Realmatic Fundamental, also end up 'ringing' their own Harmonic Series, with the segment, or overtone, that becomes acoustically strongest depending on the delta, or interval, of the frequencies in the dyad. The dyad formed through the expression of the Singer Rhythm, for this framework to hold, would have its strongest overtone be in line with somewhere in the sequence of Realmatic Pure Tone, be it the Realmatic Fundamental, or somewhere else in the Pure Tone. Resolution of Ambiguity: This model, however, produces an complex, yet solvable, logistics problem. If one gives each Intent a specific, unknown to us for the purposes of this work frequency aka Realmatic Fundamental with which Pure Tone rings out of their own infinitely scaling Harmonic Series, one will inevitably run into overlap. That problem suggests the possibility of recipes for in-universe confusion like powers not working as intended, or deriving the wrong Invested Art altogether. The distinct lack of those problems being prevalent at any relevant scale in the Cosmere suggests the system already found a solution. I propose that this solution too mimics real-world phenomena, in this case harmonic context. For simplicity's sake, let's take a segment of the series that comprises a Realmatic Pure Tone, and analyze the role of shared frequencies between Intents. In other words, as the Harmonic Series goes on forever, any given Realmatic Pure Tone contains common chord tones with others: Each of the chords presented here are sharing one tone. Meaning, put in Realmatic Terms, this ambiguity can be solved with a combination of Intent and Connection. F major is different from C major is different than A-flat major. Dominion is different from Ruin is different from Odium, or whichever combination is deemed relevant; despite any similarities or overlap. Throw this back to the Singer Rhythms. It's no wonder that humans cannot be taught them, they lack the right Connection and/or hardware in the form of gemhearts to attune properly. The Novel Nature of Hybrid Shards: Hybrid Shards, such as Harmony, are said not to be a combination of its original Intents, but more of a novel being, or Pure Tone, derived from them. Take the Realmatic Fundamental of each Intent involved in the synthesis. Once together they form, like asymmetric Singer Rhythms sped up, a dyad. But rather than changing the tones forming the dyad to align with differing portions of Realmatic Pure Tone; the dyad rings out, of which the strongest overtone formed becomes the new Realmatic Fundamental which will then ring out its novel Pure Tone. Alternatively, some interaction with combination tones of some sort better reflect the phenomena. However, the specifics of the math even in relative terms, and the descriptions of underlying mechanisms in that realm escape me. Perhaps that is where my ability as attempted Realmatic translator meets its limit. Regardless: I am fully aware of the sheer massive scale in terms of new information, let alone recontextualization of existing canon, that lies above. I commend beyond measure anyone willing to go through this journey of a post, bearing with my own attempt at putting knowledge we have under new contexts and lights. I can only hope the Surges of Illumination and Progression, so to speak, have served me well. As with many other theories out there, there's bound to be mistakes, misconceptions, and/or misapplication of concepts and ideas. Regardless of perceived innate error-this has been some of the most fun I've had writing in my entire life. Journey Before Destination.

So I wanted to share a quick thought I had from my scripture study lately. The particular thought actually came during my mission, but I recently reread the verses in question. In particular it has to do with the Fall of Adam. As you all know one of the defining beliefs of the Church is that the Fall was a necessary part of God's plan, and it allowed us to have agency, children, and a knowledge of good and evil. One of the things that had always confused me however, was why God couldn't have created Adam and Eve in a mortal state directly. They already had agency and a knowledge of good and evil in the pre-mortal world, it just seemed unnecessarily complicated to me. Well after years of studying off and on I found the answer in 2 Nephi 9. In particular verses 6, 8, and 9. This for me gave the answer, as it revealed something about the nature of death, in that it by nature separates us from the Father, and that the Resurrection is what is needed to bring us back into His presence. Indeed Samuel the Lamanite teaches as much in Helaman 14:17 So in other words, mankind needed the ability to die in order for Christ to preform the Resurrection, however God couldn't create us in a state where we could die, as death separates us from God, and it would be unjust to do so unless a violation of the law was made, requiring the Fall of Man to occur as a violation of the law. I know it's just some small thing, but it genuinely was one of the most impactful moments for me, as it showed that constant scripture study can answer some vexing questions, but I'd like to hear your thoughts. I'm also working on another post for here, so watch out for that.

I’m back! So, I made this a year ago, so it looks a little old and cracked. Also, it took me so long to get the perfect shade of blue that it started to partially dry, so you can see that too. Also you can see a spine is missing in the front. And yes, I know the images are showing up weird.

Yea, as a trans person in the UK, JK Rowling is a big concern. Legislation was recently passed saying everyone has to use the public bathrooms of their AGAB; the main pressure group pushing for this received over a quarter of their funding from JK Rowling. On a more personal level, she's essentially the reason my parents are ... as they are in regards to trans issues. They, like a whole load of other people, first encountered the whole thing through reading what JK Rowling had to say about it, as a profiling public figure, so it gets fixed in people's minds as the first thing they learn and it gives a whole massive platform for transphobes to air their views. It's been ... interesting. She keeps getting more and more popular and then the money goes to fund support for anti-trans legislation and it's all kind of complicated. One of my autistic trans friends has a long-term special interest in Harry Potter and has a really complicated relationship with it as a result. Supporting LGBTQ+ people is great! Thank you for being better than, like, 50% of the population, genuinely. No one's going to stop you doing what you want to do, and no one's trying to "convert" you or try and crush all the joy out of living. It can be good to learn about the different effects of hobbies, though, but if we stopped everything that contributed to climate change (for example), we'd have to stop respiring. It can just be good to learn, though.

The mods will interpret the rules as they decide. Until then, I'm going to address the one outstanding thing here. Let's use an example: Perhaps you've heard of JK Rowling, the author of the hit series Harry Potter. Perhaps you know that she has allegations of transphobia against her. But do you know what specifically? As you can probably tell by the example, there's a lot of kinda... bad stuff here. Perhaps worse than just the term "transphobia" can describe. Now consider this: When you're buying a Harry Potter book, guess who's getting paid? Now I'm not telling you to stop reading Harry Potter or whatever, you can make your own decisions, but I do really think that it is important to realize that the full picture is much more than meets the eye, and that you have to be mindful of who you choose to support. Verdance, I don't think anyone is forcing you to stop listening to whatever you want to listen to, or doing whatever you want to do. And no one would leverage the label "ally" against you in order to manipulate you into doing something. But Spartan has a right to be concerned here. You can say one thing, but if you're supporting someone who is known for doing terrible things within the LGBTQ community, you're not really helping. So just be mindful.

Hi, umm I was recommended by Usseewa to join this thread yesterday, so here I am don’t really know what to post here yet, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out

Hey y'all I'm back and I wanted to say some things so uhhh I was in a psych ward the past week and I actually had some of the best days of my life there. I also had some pretty crappy days. But I met some amazing people and I'm honestly really missing them all. There was also this girl that I mayyyy have liked. She's bi, too. We talked a lot and spent time together and it was amazing. I talked to the other people too and had more IRL socializing than I've ever had, I think. Of course, we were all, like, near each other so it was easier, but still, I feel I grew a lot emotionally and socially and stuff. The thing is... I'll most likely never see them again, including that girl who I really would have liked to talk to more. I wish I stayed longer or got some way to contact her again, idk. The regret is very very painful and idk. But I may have a crush on her? Also, for the most part people were accepting of me, especially the other girls who I hung out with the most. Before that I'd barely socialized IRL with girls, and this was just great, idk. There were also some great guys (and some ones that made some days awful), and they were pretty accepting too, I think. But... I felt loved, idk. They made me realize that I think of myself way too lowly. I put myself down too much and have done it so long that I don't even see an alternative as a possibility, it's just become ingrained: that no one would ever like me (as a friend or otherwise), and otherstuff so, the regret is gone for now. it helps that I have something to remember them by, but regret may come back later and... it's just very painful for me and I cannot handle it. regret of not getting their numbers or something and that I'm no longer there with them. I have to return to my crap life.

You're referring to this WoB, I believe: And this artwork for Shards of Creation: Brandon said in the WoB that he hadn't 100% made up his mind on Skai but was leaning towards she/her. My guess is he changed his mind.

hey yall its been a sec since ive last posted here a classmate of mine took her life on friday idk its been a lot i really want to tell everyone here that life is too precious for this and you deserve better and there are so many people who love you even if at times it feels lonely out there reach out please. doesn't have to be anything long or deep or serious but even just sending a and getting a back can be something. or it could also be starting a conversation thats long or deep or serious. please just know there is help waiting for you wherever you are. the world is so much better with you in it, and ik that sounds cliche but in situations where there are no more words left, thats all we can say okay thats all love you folks

Tau is so much better. It'd make learning the unit circle far easier. Half the circle would be tau/2. Way better! In basically every physics formula, it's always 2pi. That really should indicate that 2pi is the correct one. I mean, when the hell do we even is C = pi * d? Use the radius! The radius is the important one. You might say, "But Eric what about A = pi*r^2?" To which I'd say, A = 1/2 tau*r^2 is very symmetric with the kinetic energy formula. That 1/2 should be there anyway, due to integration. In fact, I thought that one argument against tau was that the standard normal distribution had a single sqrt(pi) rather than sqrt(2pi), but nope! It does have a 2pi. I guess the integral from -infinity to infinity of e^(-x^2) has the sqrt(pi)... So anyway, I'm a math professor who loves tau. I'm not at all a fan of pi day, and I won't stand for this pi propaganda merely because "well then we can have pie on pi day". Lame. I spend pi day in my math tutoring center explaining why tau is superior.

This is just something I wrote right now If it doesn’t make very much sense I apologize I’m really tired and running a fever It’s mostly just an explosion of thought Also note that this isn’t addressed to anyone here It’s aimed at another group of people (Yes Coder I know I should add paragraphs and indentation)

“When we step outside, we step into God’s classroom.”—Elder Gong ”Touch grass.”—also Elder Gong Also, one of my favorite verses from 2 Nephi 9 is verse 48.

It is a dim night. Not dark or stormy, the moon lights up the scenery outside your window quite well, but you are exhausted after a long day. You open a secure private browser, the process taking an irritating amount of time, and log onto a secret forum, BlackWeb. Nothing much has happened since you last visited, except a user you don’t recognize, anonymous account 228B22, has posted a new thread. ”Horror. It has a bad reputation, like metal or certain corners of the internet, but there are certainly pieces of art from the genre that are worth your time in some sort of way. What media from the horror genre abroad has struck you, whether good or bad, profound or shallow, terrifying or unsettling? Discuss.”

happy QUEER MONTH =3 ima go to pride fest with my lesbian besties and the crush also if yall care i cut my hair to shoulder length and bought a lot more baggy clothes eventually i want a pixie cut but i don't want to give my mum a heart attack

Hey everybody. Thought I'd drop a line and introduce myself. I've been struggling with anxiety (especially social) and depression for most of my life. Grew up in a rural conservative area in the 90's, so mental health wasn't really a thing there other than maybe a little help from a general practitioner. Started my real mental health journey after an abusive marriage, and subsequent move to another state several years ago. I've read Brandon for years, ever since he finished Wheel of Time for Robert Jordan, but it wasn't until the last year that I've really started to connect with the characters and all of their flaws in meaningful ways. I always enjoyed the books, but I guess I wasn't in a place where I could recognize what they're going through. I especially connect with Kaladin and Renarin in Stormlight. I'm very protective, but don't really take care of myself well enough, and I can relate what it's like to be alone in a crowded room. But as I re-listen to the books again, I'm finding new connections all the time. I feel like it's the first time I've really had this that I can recall. I've never had much in the way of community, and I've even had to cut off most of my family at this point. It's just me and my partner. She had to cut off her family, too, and is from out of state and doesn't have any local friends, as she's disabled and isn't able to get out very much. I guess I'm just looking for someone with some common interests to talk to. My anxiety makes it really difficult to meet people, and even this took some working up to.

We've known it's possible to push on metalminds since The Final Empire-- we saw Vin do it to Rashek's bracers (which were even harder to push due to their piercing his skin). It comes down to Invested objects resisting being affected by other Investiture, and a more Invested object resists more and so takes more strength to affect. The Bands of Mourning were extremely Invested (well, before they were drained at least) and so they would take a lot of strength to affect. Far more than an everyday era 2 Allomancer could muster, apparently. Sazed's metalminds were very small (you're referring to the bag of rings, I think?) and so would hold far less Investiture, even when full, than the Bands did. Marsh was a more concentratedly powerful Allomancer (as all were in era 1) and also may have had enhanced steel Allomancy (I don't recall if we know how many relevant spikes he had, but we know you can stack Allomantic power by adding more) and may have had some of Ruin's own power to draw on (though I think that latter possibility is pretty shaky). So, Wax's maximum Allomantic strength was less than Marsh's, possibly far less, while he also had far more Investiture resisting his efforts than Marsh did.

This is a thread where we will post about the best moments of any Sharder who decides to/ has to leave the Shard, most likely permanently. List of fallen soldiers: @Verdance @NerdSandwich @Through The Living Glass @Rynturning_Light @I Am A Fish @Kansas Stormcursed @Bird Furious @Mist @Vapor @Condensation @Channelknight Fadran @Thaidakar the ghostblood @The Great Wyver

A lot of the major points of contention have already been mentioned, so I'll add that there is a lot of great stuff in WaT but that the execution was poor. Lots of great individual moments but poor connections and structure between them. Especially when compared with other SA books. A lot of stuff is technically there, in a check-the-box sense, but it was a less elegantly written book than the earlier volumes (a problem I feel has been increasing across Cosmere books, generally). Judged only by itself, it's maybe a 3 star book, 4 depending on personal taste and generosity. Judged as a SA book against the other four, it's probably more firmly a 3. Judged as a SA book and the scope of expectations it set up, I'd rate it as a 2.x. "Fine" is a damning assessment of a book which caps a well-regarded flagship series. A lot of the dialogue was weak, but more significant for me was how much most characters speak in the same way now. Gaz and Shallan should speak differently, and they used to. Characterization suffered a lot, particularly in more subtle writing that the previous books had. There was filler and bloat which was mechanically imposed. People can argue about what constitutes "filler", but it became clear long before the climactic portion of the book that none of the separate plot threads were going to resolve, or even change much, before the others-- the fighting at the Shattered Plains was not going to be over any sooner nor any later than the fight in Azir, nor the spiritual realms exposition, nor anything else. It drained a lot of the tension and investment to know that none of the characters' situations were going to really change for the next few hundred pages. The buildup for plot events was enormous, but much of what actually happened was pretty flat in comparison. El's huge, game-changing stratagem for which Taravangian was willing to pay such a high price was... bring more soldiers to the front (and it failed!). The contest ended up being a pretty minor and dull event. Some of that is by design, I think, as its conclusion was meant to repudiate the cycles of violence and conquest that had governed Roshar since the Desolations began. But it also lacked a lot of strong narration-- there weren't moments like Kaladin leaping onto the Tower, or Dalinar walking alone out of Thaylenah with only a book in his hands. Exposition dumps abounded. Dalinar and Navani's stories over almost the entire book were nothing but watching a historical documentary about Roshar, and that also removed them from events. The Shinovar portion was just a tunnel, with Kaladin and Szeth moving from points A to B to C to D to E (etc.). Few, if any, decisions for the characters to make, few surprises, little suspense. The fight sequences were cool and exciting. But I really expected more than that for two of the series' most important and dynamic characters-- in terms of character development and depth of presentation, there was nothing for them on par with Way of Kings or Words of Radiance. A lot of the novelty and creativity about Radiant powers had already been used or was already reserved for future revelations, and the power inflation of characters had already reached extreme levels. That's not the book's fault, but it still makes for a rougher comparison to other SA books. And some characters were just removed from the field entirely. There is a lot to like about WaT, and I suspect I will enjoy it more on re-reads than I did during my first pass. I don't think that anyone who loves it is wrong to do so, but I don't think that it should be that shocking that others feel differently. There's quite a bit of rough around the gems, though the gems are as valuable as they ever were.

Hi Everyone. I've recently read Mistborn, Way of Kings, and I'm currently reading Words of Radiance. First, I joined this page because I'm tired of FB, IG, etc,. where ego is bigger than content and folks are just mean AF. I found 17th Shard and thought, "Hell yes!" Second, since I'm a noob, I wanted to be able to go more in-depth in a safe environment with folks who are passionate about what they are talking about. Folks like me: super friendly neurodivergents with a love of unloading the tidbits of their special interest. Next, I'm interested in the art--not to create myself, but see what others have done. And last, I'm 47yo single-mom with a 10yo who is very interested in RP. If I can get her into the Cosmere, maybe the RP is something we could do together. It's not really my thing, but I find the Cosmere fascinating, so I could attempt RP with her to have a shared activity. --HeddaMc

Hmmm. I am guilty of being TERF up until essentially this year, and so i am trying to hard reverse, but at the same time, I am not about to not enjoy books written by people who were antitrans. Our art supercedes us, and I definitely do not support Mohler in nearly every way, I certainly don’t recommend him, I just teeter on the knife edge. Narnia, Ender’s Game, Harry Potter. All worth your time, and available at a local library for free :3 thank you for your grace and kindness. I will continue to try and grow in openness.

i think i might be bi

Dusk fell outside the cave. Evinir ate his last bite of the sandwich, and stepped up. In the last hours, he had examined every corner of the ancient Spiked altar, one of the few of its kind throughout the Cosmere. He walked over to the slab of stone that marked its core. Running a finger over it, he felt the scratches and scars etched into its surface, and if he closed his eyes, he could hear the screams of those whose pain had been reaped here. The squab chirped from its makeshift nest, and Evinir returned to the present. He had work to do. By the light of the torches, he pulled a spanreed out of his satchel, placed it to a side. His back ached as he reached down. Evinir grimaced, then reached for his shirt and slowly lifted it. As the cold air hit his bare skin, he gasped, and tossed the shirt into a corner. It fell still in a pile. He had been sweating. Evinir closed his eyes, took a deep breath, clenched his fists. Then he pulled something else out of his satchel. His breath quickened. He placed his empty hand on the slab. Then he positioned the spike, and slammed the hammer down. The clang rung out in the echo chamber of the cavern. Somewhere, the squab cried out. Evinir did not scream. The pain was a friend now. As the blood ran down his trembling arm, as the taste of blood filled his mouth, he repeated a single phrase in his mind, a mantra. It was all he had left. Endure.

help apparently im being brave today but i will probably chicken out and not post this or at least hide it within 5 minutes so despite my pronouns field (which i wanted to be “screams in frustration” but the field doesn’t like jokes) i am assigned male at birth. and assumed cis since then but looking back for at least a year and a half i havent wanted to be iv really wanted to be a girl and I’ve realized and started actually going down that path when i got to the shard i anonymously followed this thread and others and it’s been tumbling to here and me being trans im just gonna post this right now cuz I’m about to chicken out. help

Fellow Sharders! It has come to my attention that I have failed to show to you the nightmare horrors I have created using my art skills. That simply cannot stand. So here you go! Don't ask how this happened... I don't really know And with that, I disappear!

I place the Sandwich in a plastic bag for no particular reason

There is something rare. Thank you for taking your pain, and letting it blossom instead of fester and rot. Yet who is truly alone? The dead, who have become stillness? Or us the living, fading with every breath, losing ourselves mistaking movement for permanence. Da-ancing through the air I hear piano-o.

almost 4 months with my girlfriend

Soulcasters can make aluminum as easily as other normal metals, so ... No.

This one was interesting for me. I both loved and hated TSM. As a standalone book I think it was terrible, as while the plot was interesting the character and emotional beats felt really flat. As a part of the cosmere it was amazing and I loved it, as it revealed so much about how investiture works and how to look at the cosmere. I've honestly decided to just think of it as a canonized WoB rather than a book unto itself.

We are poets and we know its some of us can sing a song some of us just get along some of us post in blogs some of us have a threads in logs I'm bad at rhyming I've been told it's all about timing But hey least I can welcome man and beast I'm @Coder, and here it invite My goods friends, who are no blight Welcome @Usseewa, Who's poems scram ta ta Welcome @Kansas, Who's songs aren't the blandest Welcome @Vie, Who's talents are greater than three Welcome @Ketek, He's cool, you can check This is my song So please, poem along And even if I didn't say Cmon in and make our day!

ALL HAIL THE COSMIC BRICK!!!

ICANTUPVOTE!!!!

wrong it's 42 ok but fr i have to agree eith you in that i had eonderful times and friends brriefly and dome people can be great and ee are all flawed but we can have good and ... yeah but

And I can't talk to them IRL bcos they're my old Atlanta friends from before I moved, and I don't want to contact them individually. I just feel so unimportant and unhelpful and unwanted I just don't get it none of them were toxic but they just all seemed to become toxic once I said I was autistic. I didn't even do anything. And I'm not the only one who moved away from Atlanta, so it's not that either.

I appreciate you posting this topic. It's one I've tossed around a lot since Rhythm of War, but I keep derailing all my writeups by getting into suppressors and Enlightening and all these complex interactions that happen in that book, and I have a hard time actually figuring out how to start it. I've got a few big areas I'd like build on your thought: The Frequencies of the Tones First of all, there isn't a sixteen-note scale for the Shards. It was Brandon's initial intent, but it doesn't work, so it's not happening: But I think it is a very good question to dive into anyways: what are the actual frequencies? I think the popular theory is that it's a scale-and-some-change, that there are twelve notes in a chromatic scale and then four Shards that are the beginning of the scale in the next octave. (So, for example, C through the next E-flat.) This has a lot of potential for harmonic Shards that get along (that might share the same note on different octaves) and dissonant Shards that would be opposed (who could be a half-step apart, and have a lot of musical tension). The big problem I have with that is that it's going to put a lot of constraints on the actual Shards themselves, if we were to attempt to map Shards to pitches. Every Shard would need at least two very dissonant Shards (for the half-step above and below, and then any for that octave-and-a-half-step), and then you'd have to consider the fifths as being fairly well aligned, and man that's a lot to keep straight and we're just getting started. Based on the WoB above, I don't think Brandon designed the sixteen Intents around a chromatic scale; he's doing it the other way around, coming up with the Shards and then fitting them to pitches somehow. So either a) most of the musical relationships wouldn't actually matter, beyond maybe the octaves, or b) the notes are not using the chromatic scale. I wouldn't mind a digression into the nitty-gritty of why we have the twelve notes we do in western music, but I'll keep it at the level you presented it above: the harmonic series, where you have a fundamental frequency and use multiples of that frequency for your harmonies. But instruments that we play don't rely solely on the harmonic series to play a full scale: they all need to change the fundamental (whether hitting different drumheads on a timpani, moving your hand up on a string on a violin, or depressing a valve to add tubing to a brass instrument). The harmonic series defines the scale, true, but an instrument that only uses the harmonic series (like a bugle) can only play a selection of notes. I think that's a second option, that the Shardic tones are like a bugle. So that would give you four octaves (say, 110 hz, 220 hz, 440 hz, 880 hz, 1760 hz for your A's) and then a selection of notes within that range (330, 660, and 990 hz being being Es; 550, 1100, and 1650 being D-flats, 770 and 1540 being G's, and then I think an E-flat and an A-flat to round out the last few primes [with the associated minor changes to make it actually sound good because music is crazy]). I think this does a good job of giving us a wide range for the tones, rather than cramping them together in a single octave, and it's a little simpler to try to harmonize Shards. The ones nobody likes (like Odium and Ruin) can get the dissonant multiples of 7/11/13, and then you have a few groups of 'good' Shards that all fit into a major chord. But, the one I go with is purely based on vibes. Three octaves of the pentatonic scale gives us sixteen notes, and it's (relatively) harmonically pleasing for any of them to go together. If I recall correctly, this scale is also based on the harmonic sequence, but without a need to space the notes evenly across like the 12-note chromatic scale, so you don't need to incorporate some of the more dissonant multiples. I like it because I don't think that any of the Shards are truly dissonant, since they were all part of Adonalsium's "divine virtues" but are now "without context," so I like how this doesn't have any really harsh dissonance like an E and an E-flat. The Shape of the Rhythms This is where I'm going to greatly disagree with your interpretation. I don't believe rhythms are sine waves or dyads or anything like that; I think they are complex piecewise functions that become the amplitudes of sine waves, while the tones are the frequencies. A manifestation of Investiture (whether they be Stormlight or allomantic powers) is defined by a waveform with both frequency (tone) and amplitude (rhythm). We can get order-of-magnitude estimates for frequencies just from assuming that sound works in the cosmere like it works on Earth. For tones to be heard as pitches, we'll generally say that they fall in the range of the piano (27.5 hz to 4000-ish). There is a periodicity to the rhythms, but even a fast rhythm is going to be single-digit cycles per second. Two pitches will give you an overtone together; but a metronome and pitch won't make an overtone. The metronome is just too slow. So that's why I don't think you can look at rhythms in terms of a second frequency that's a harmonic of the Shard's tone. I've got some images from one of my abandoned writeups; let's see if I can get them embedded. Here's an example of a simple piece of music with both rhythm and tone: Here's the rhythm represented as a piecewise function with the magic of math: And then given a pitch (or its tone): That's more what I feel is going on: the Command is defining the broad shape of the overall wave, while the Intent of the Shard powering the system specifies the frequency of the wave. You can't just mix and match any old rhythm with any old tone; in the example I threw together, you've got discontinuities. So there is a little bit of a relationship between the periodicity of the rhythm and the frequency of the tone; you need any of your step changes to happen at a node when the sine wave is at 0, so amplitude step changes are continuous. (That will explain why the surges work slightly differently depending if they're of Odium or of Honor; they're very similar broad shapes, but subtly changed to match the tone.) But even though the rhythm's pattern will need to reflect the tone's frequency, it's not in a way that will produce resonance or overtones. Combining Shards We actually see the tone of a combined Shard from Venli's perspective. It's not the Tone of War that I'm thinking of: it's Odium and Cultivation (which I think we've been calling the Tone of Freedom): It's a single tone that is two other tones mixed into a harmony. What does that even mean? A tone can't be a harmony, so it has to be a harmony in context of all three tones, Cultivation/Odium/Freedom. Is Freedom an overtone? That might cause some trouble with some of our scale options I presented above. (What if Cultivation was C, and Odium was C#? What if Cultivation was C, and Odium was an octave higher?) Is it a third note that is in harmony with both, but not necessarily an overtone? (Like if Cultivation was C and Odium was G, then Freedom could be E.) That might also step on some toes for the scales, but that's why I liked the pentatonic scale, because you had the most room to play around in. But the biggest trouble is going to be the sheer number of notes. If you assume that each Shard has its own unique tone (16), and then you assume that each Shard pair has its own tone (16*15/2), then you've got 136 notes, which is over 11 octaves. If we take our lowest note on our piano (A, 27.5 hz), and we allow a half step for each Shard or paired Shard, then we're going to reach over 27,000 hz, which is outside the range of human hearing. Even if we start using microtonal stuff, it's still going to get extremely cluttered, and I can't imagine we'll be able to give each Shard combination a unique tone if we try to meaningfully apply harmony. So, just by crunching the numbers, we can see that we're going to have to reject the idea of new tones for combined Shards. Even though the text describes it as a single tone, it will have to be understood as multiple tones together. Maybe something like this:

so basically the question was simple: What is direction? Angles relate two different axes within an n-dimensional space where n is an integer greater than one. You can split up angles into planar components (x,y/y,z/x,z) and use that to find solid angles, which exist in 3d space. In addition, by extrapolating upon this axiom, we can theorize that a "hypersolid angle" within the fourth dimension would not only have a right hyper corner equal to 1/16th of the unit hypersphere, but it would also exist in 6 different planes. Speaking of planes, you can examine how different bodies interact with a dimensional space above them- for example, the unit line exists within the 1d space, but two distinct axes exist within 2d space, and 3 in 3d space, so on. But there's also planar representation, which isolates for two specific axes respectively. for example, the two dimensional space only has one plane (x,y), but the three dimensional space has three different planes (x,y/x,z/y,z). The fourth dimensional space with axis a has seven different planar components (x,y/x,z/y,z/x,a/y,a/z,a) and the dimensional space above it would contain an additional five new configurations to two-dimensional planar components. Now where this gets weird is when you start to use a solid 3d component- three-dimensional space only has one solid component, that being (x,y,z), but four-dimensional space has three additional components. Five-dimensional space has Vectors can be added if the properties of all elements but one are alike, or if they're in the same direction. This is by changing the frame of reference, but there exists new axes perpendicular to the axis a where a is in line with a vector and vector components are thus defined within terms of parallel to these axes.

show kindness also got HRT today I guess

They say that the fastest way to get threads doing battle analysis about Cosmere powers is to leave Frustration alone with time to think. I don't know if they actually say that, but it's probably true. This will be a companion thread to both Frustration's Firepower Index, and The Hazekiller Coefficient. The difference is that this time I am analyzing a military structure rather than any particular individual. As a quick recap for those who don't know Frustration's Firepower Index is a collection of threads analyzing the combat capabilities of various worlds and magic systems. The Hazekiller coefficient was an attempt to give ballpark estimates of the number of ordinary individuals needed to kill various invested individuals. Originally this was just going to be about regals, but I've decided that it would be fun to do a full analysis of Odium's desolation armies, so before BAM took up the well of Control. I will go over each of the various units in Odium's army, and assign them a recommended strategy, as well as a Hazekiller coefficient. Some of this will involve mild amounts of speculation, so please bear with me. The Unmade with few exceptions will not receive a hazekiller coefficient Thunderclasts These things can serve both as siege engines, walls/bridges, and as unstoppable offence, depending on the situation. Unfortunately there are only three of them. Hazekiller coefficient: 4-5 thousand. Fused Regals: This is where I think that Odium's army really begins to take shape. Earlier units were for the most part unremarkable fighters that even mistings wouldn't struggle to take down with a few stellar standouts. Here however we begin to see the formation of an actual fighting force capable of taking over a world. I'd say that in the Desolations the regals were probably far more powerful than the fused, and might just have been enough to actually make Odium's forces a threat to the people of Roshar. Other singer forms exist, but really shouldn't be used, as forms of power are just better. If there aren't enough voidspren then warforms will suffice as weaker Direforms, however those warforms would make great hosts for Yelig-nar. Overall rating: Odium's army is incredibly well rounded, having a decent capacity for just about everything. They do over rely on spies and informants, when they have plenty of ways to do just that. Odium instead should have invested more into leeching like abilities as the ability to counter other forms of investiture is severely lacking, and Raysium isn't near enough to make up for it. However I can confidently say that with the exception of Radiant forces this is by far the most dangerous army we have thus seen in the cosmere.

At Jordancon 2026 Brandon had this exchange: This wording is ereily similar to an Advert in "The New Asendacy," Is this where Cultivation ended up? Did she seek asylum from harmony? Or did she sneak into the system?

That’s a depressing thought. Imagine in Ghostbloods Mistborn Era 3, we see some descendant of Ham’s burning the midnight pewter while trying to reconcile a spreadsheet on a 1980s era PC equivalent, and reflecting how “once, Allomancers like him were called Thugs, prized warriors or at least, bodyguards, for the advantages of having bursts of strength, recovery, and agility. Now, with aluminum guns and bullets commonplace, pewter was now most useful for professional sports leagues that permitted it, and for the endurance it granted. Like in long-distance airship piloting, long-haul trucking, and untangling accounts receivable, he thought wryly.”

RAFO on that, but given that it's the same soul, just saturated by Endowment I would think they would keep their Allomancy.

Cus I’m having a pool party and I forget how much I hate guys swim shirts so I think I’m just gonna wear one of my friends tops but my parents will most likely ask questions afterwards so I’ll just tell them the truth

Actually, Kaladin manifested his own Honorspear when re-forging the Oathpact. So, I think he doesn't really have a connection to Jezrien's old blade. Nale actually was bonded to a spren in addition to holding his Honorblade. Brandon has said that this makes you a bit stronger, but probably by less than you'd imagine: Yes. Brandon has even said you could get access to all 10 Surges at once if you collected the right Honorblades. I think we saw this a little with Szeth. I don't fully recall which ones, but I think he used some of the Honorblades in WaT - despite being a Skybreaker.

It's always frustrating and tricky to evaluate anything based off of the Diagram because it's more detailed and dense than we can comprehend (maybe we can identify with Taravangian and company on that!). So we always have the possibilities that the Diagram was wrong, that it was right but misinterpreted by its followers, that it was right but didn't have time to come to fruition, and other issues surrounding our indefinable lack of knowledge about it. Here are a couple of considerations/guesses: Taravangian's plans ultimately didn't work: he wasn't the king of everything, and so his imagined deal with Odium didn't work out as he had originally intended. It didn't even work for nations he actually was king of, like Jah Keved. So we should be careful of thinking that every single move was perfect and precise. He couldn't do everything at once (he often complained about lacking time), so "why not X?" might be better looked at as "why not X yet?". I tend to view the Diagram as less about making nothing but decisive moves than it was about playing the odds to create circumstances that he could later exploit in ways that were favorable to him. When there was a decisive opportunity, he took it, but there also seemed to be a lot of conditionality in predictions. Lots of contingencies, essentially, so that he could make the best possible decisions depending on how certain events played out. That he could have become Prime (if, indeed, he could) is probably less important than making sure that he became Prime in an appropriate way at an appropriate time. His schemes missed quite a bit, almost certainly including Szeth's death and rejection of being Truthless. They were also cut short (or seriously diverted by events). There is no reason to think that he had fully completed the waves of assassinations and subsequent machinations he had planned out, so perhaps Iri and Theylenah were spared because the plans were disrupted. Taravangian didn't want a shattered Alethkar, he wanted a whole one that he could control indirectly (by controlling Dalinar, which seems to have been his original plan) or directly in some other way. Dealing with ten Highprincedoms seems harder and worse than one single nation, though I have to think that Taravangian would have plots and plans for dealing with such a thing were it really more attractive to do so. As it was, Dalinar sidelined Elhokar and effectively ruled the nation anyhow. Removing Elhokar as a figurehead would probably have upset that. It was only when Dalinar turned away from the "path of the warlord", and therefore became a rival to him, that Taravangian sent Szeth to kill him. Taravangian's assassinations were widespread and (apparently) carefully chosen and planned, presumably to cause chaos and unease but also to create conditions that he could further exploit to achieve his ends. Paralyzing Azir by ensuring that the most capable candidates for Prime didn't want the position (because of fear of more assassination) may have pushed it into the state he wanted. Taravangian went to an enormous amount of trouble to hide his ultimate goals, such as being crowned king of Jah Keved "by accident". It was important to his schemes that he be seen as nonthreatening and something other than a power-hungry conqueror. Explicitly claiming the office of Prime wouldn't work well with that (even if it were legally possible, which it may not have been), while submitting an impossibly great essay would destroy his image as a doddering, kindly old man. For all we know, that was his ultimate plan but it had to come later when subterfuge was no longer necessary. He made use of the tensions caused by no one knowing who had hired the Assassin in White. We know very little about international relations and politics prior to the coming of the Everstorm, and even less about internal considerations for basically everywhere except Alethkar and Jah Keved. If we assume that the plan the Diagram outlined was pretty good, and that the participants in the conspiracy were doing an adequate job of decoding it, then we must also assume that these sorts of issues weren't oversights. Taravangian's early efforts were to control the most militarily powerful nations on Roshar. Maybe that was coincidence, but to me it suggests that military conquest was the route to becoming king of at least some places. But you aren't going to start with Theylenah for that, or even the regionally fractious Azir.

You know, when you get to wake up and watch the sunrise instead of immediately driving away from the house to go to school, you realize that nature is cool.

Gotta get blood drawn sometime within the week, but after that I get HRT on the 1st of June!!! (Assuming no complications) also someone came out to me as gay recently uh am I supposed to do something more or say something more than "neat"

It's been a hell of a time. Some ups (I married said girl) Some downs (my dad passed from cancer in January) Some interesting (wrote the best poetry of my life like a month ago and submitted it for consideration in a major competition) Hope things have been well with you! It's been too long.