Chaos

It'll be up this week, for reals. They did say you can start buying it (if you didn't preorder) on the 25th, so it's coming up soon. I will definitely get it up before then.

So, I don't know how many Android fans there are here, but I sure love my Android phones. Android 4 was just revealed today, and it looks really sexy: http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-4.0-highlights.html It kind of makes me want to go sell my Droid 3 for a Galaxy Nexus immediately.

Congratulations!

Awesome. I'm glad a solution was that easy. Closed.

I agree. The UK Warbreaker is gorgeous. Right behind Way of Kings for me.

Nice job! That kind of makes sense, statistically, but does render the whole "what did you get on the test" thing relatively moot. You just have a 30 relative to people who took the test at the same time. Meh. I'm fairly convinced there's no way to perfectly standardize a test.

Yeah, seriously, getting a 30 is the 97th percentile. It's fine. I know it's hard to wrap my head around that normalization they always do to the score to realize it isn't, like, 30/36 (83%), it's that you're really in the 97th percentile. It's a much happier way of looking at things.

Hey, it worked. Awesome. So Emeralis, you'll need to just click the orange box to get to the most recent reply. Eero is exactly right; what the Unread Replies is doing is just building a list, much like the normal topic list when you look at an individual forum.

Huh. Go reply to this post again, so I can see if that's true I've used up all my unread replies.

He's talking about the View Unread Replies feature. Click the drop down menu (the same way you get into Messenger) and the option is there.

I see what you mean now. I might be able to get it to change, but don't count on it. That Unread Replies thing is already a hack on IPB as it is. I'm not very familiar with all the ins-and-outs, and the programming documentation is relatively poor. EDIT: I think Kerry may not have understood what you meant with View Unread Replies. However, thank you for bringing it up. I honestly don't use the feature myself.

Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but the amount you need to scroll is the same amount you would do on, say, every other page. I suppose it depends how big your screen is, but I can start clicking the unread replies link on my phone's resolution. Unless you are talking about View New Content, which is a little bit further down.

I agree. I think it's important to be prepared, but once you get into the high percentiles, it largely depends on the questions. I got a 30 Composite score my sophomore year, and I decided that since I was consistently getting around a point of that in the practice tests, why bother take it again?

No. I'm totally certain Brandon would much rather rewrite it than release it as-is. He's said the book was pretty mediocre. Plus, he cannibalized the Shattered Plains from Dragonsteel. He couldn't do that again.

Yes. Sazed's next sentence mentions that, actually. He doesn't know everything. And of course

Absolutely. What I will probably do is just move all the topics in there back to the main Mistborn board, and edit their topic titles to have AofL Spoilers in it.

Yay Alloy of Law! Honestly, the science portion of the ACT is a joke. You don't need to know any biology, chemistry, or physics. It's "hey let's read graphs and tables!" Sure, the graphs and tables are related to science, but you don't need to know or care about that to answer the problems. It just as well could have been about graphs related to Schlock's amorph abilities or Martians.

I've been intentionally avoiding this topic because I hadn't decided how I wanted to do an ARC board. I will probably get one up this weekend...

No, that's totally fine. Let me go grab some quotes for you. Sometimes I do get things wrong, and it's important we are precise about this stuff. This was one of the main quotes I was thinking of, but as I read it again, it isn't as strong as I thought it was originally. Now, here's how I am interpreting this. The physical form of a Shard's power does a specific, limited thing, because it is physical. Looking at that third paragraph, I feel that Allomancy is like that same principle in action. Allomancy is of Preservation, but it is what the Realmatics of Scadrial allows for. In mortal form, that physical body is limiting the types of power that Vin can access into that one conduit of Allomancy. So, reading that, there's a strong correlation to the physical (solid) form of a godly essence and the Physical Realm. I don't think I'd get any arguments if I said that the mists were the Spiritual form of Preservation's power, because indeed, the mists were the primary body of Preservation (and with black mists, Ruin's) power. I feel that makes sense. So then there's the liquid essence. One last state of matter, one last realm. But I think it makes sense, too. The liquid form isn't the main body of power--the Lord Ruler only touched a fraction of Preservation. It's not the main body of a Shard's power. So what part does a Shard have, which is strong, but fairly weak in comparison? Well, it does have its Cognitive aspect. Perhaps I am jumping the gun with the liquid=Cognitive connection, but the Well of Ascension is explicitly stated to be Preservation's mind. Also, from an annotation: So, at least the Well of Ascension is Preservation's Cognitive aspect (or a great chunk of it). I suppose you could make an argument that not all Shardpools need to be related to the Cognitive. Maybe this stuff doesn't generalize to other worlds. That's a perfectly good point. However, Stormlight feels similar to the mists, and seems to be a Spiritual thing. I stand by my Realmatic analysis of those godly essences. So, maybe Shardpools don't have to be Cognitive, but hey, it's the best we have right now.

That'd be fun to read some of Brandon's essays for something like that. I suppose you are right about the PSAT. I don't think I put it on my applications, though. I saw an article like that. That made me so mad, because I didn't know that when I wrote the essay. I actually cared being factual, and it's hard to do that in the time constraint. Man. If I was doing that now... I'm imagining someone just blabbing about Shards and Splinters, referencing Brandon's works all the way through, and getting a 6. That'd be hilarious.

Sorry, Thor, for my long posts on the subject. This is essentially the best Mistborn topic you could have made to get me to blab forever Actually, Returned are Splinters--or rather, their divine Breath is. Seons are thought to be Splinters, and Brandon has said we are on the right track, but hasn't outright confirmed this. The only confirmed Splinters are the divine Breath. It's a fairly key distinction. A Sliver is a human intelligence who has held the power, and released it. A Splinter, on the other hand, is more like a substantial fragment of a Shard's power. A Splinter has never been human. They are sort of qualitative opposites. So, what's happening with the Lord Ruler and Vin is they took up a Shard's power, and that power allowed them the ability to do Shardy things for a bit. In the process of touching the power, a residue was left in them, and that makes them a Sliver. A person who holds a Splinter (say, a Returned) hasn't touched the purified essence of a Shard to do what the Lord Ruler did. They hold a lesser fragment, and that limits their power in some way. We don't know much about the effects of being a Sliver, unfortunately. I'd also argue that when Vin held the power, she wasn't actually better at Allomancy. It's just holding the power felt like Allomancy. Good point, about the savant-ness increasing power. I'd imagine there would be diminishing returns (if not an explicit upper bound, much like how there is an upper bound for flaring metals). We'll definitely have to discuss the mechanics of being a savant more. That's a very good point. In fact, as we're discussing all the Lord Ruler's powers, it seems that the Lord Ruler should have killed Vin much more easily I was persuaded that the Lord Ruler can control Inquisitors, though. Vin tried to control Marsh, and she almost succeeded, if there wasn't that pesky dark god preventing it from happening. The Lord Ruler controls a ton of koloss, and they just have four spikes. Sazed says that Inquisitors would be much, much more susceptible to Ruin's control, and I think the same applies for taking control via Soothing. (Indeed, the Soothing technique and Ruin controlling them are mechanically the same: both are controlling them because the Hemalurgic spikes caused a flaw in them. Though Ruin obviously can do this trick in a far vaster capacity, of course.) More spikes, easier to control. So from that standpoint, the Lord Ruler should be able to do that. Then there's this, from chapter 49's HoA epigraph: Emphasis mine. Doubtless Ruin could have tried to kill the Lord Ruler at some point with an Inquisitor. Ruin, while impotent due to his prison, would have had the easiest time controlling Inquisitors. But, with the Lord Ruler's extreme Soothing abilities, I'd imagine that Ruin would have had a hard time overcoming the Lord Ruler's control. (Though if Ruin was freed, this logic doesn't apply.) And even if Ruin did get an Inquisitor, the Lord Ruler could have pulled out its lynchpin spike. Now, as for why the Lord Ruler didn't bother to use Marsh... Let me read this again. Okay, it's pretty clear that the Lord Ruler didn't think Vin was a threat at all. After a thousand years of people trying to kill him, he's probably densensitized from it. It is suspicious that he didn't take control of Marsh. However, by the time he knocks out Marsh, he could have been holding Marsh in place. Marsh can heal pretty quickly, after all. Though I do concur. The Lord Ruler should have used the Inquisitors. (And he should have killed Vin immediately as Vin called him Rashek. It would've been easy.) I don't have a good explanation for why he didn't, except that it would be rare for the Lord Ruler to actually need that kind of direct control. It's a pretty crappy explanation, but it's the best I have. Maybe he required that level of control if, in the early days, some uppity noble Mistborn tried to overthrow him. Even with the Lord Ruler's Feruchemy, their Allomancy would be fairly matched. So break out the Inquisitors and show the dude who is boss. (Control Inquisitors, like a boss!) Indeed, I thought of that too. The Lord Ruler would certainly have had an easier time keeping things stable in this era. And I know, right? Elend should have really tested that stuff... but unfortunately, he was fairly busy, too. Unfortunately. Though, then again, he doesn't even fight an enemy Mistborn. Some Inquisitors, near the beginning, but they would all have koloss. His attention could have been spent elsewhere. I concur. And for Silus: It's been really hard replying to this thread without using that ...one word.

FYI, Silus, that Feruchemical table doesn't have the symbols in the right order. It's a mock-up to show how the shape is different. (It's pretty, isn't it?)

I didn't find that the PSATs mattered at all. Sure, if you do super awesome, it's possible to get a scholarship, but competition is so incredibly high for that. As far as I can remember, the PSAT didn't matter for college, or really, anything at all. Most of the tests you take in high school don't matter (though I guess it depends on what you want to do). The real SAT? Yes. However, if you get a choice, take the ACT instead. Colleges always can convert between the two, and I found the ACTs much more straightforward. The SAT tries to trick you. Also, the SAT writing portion is such BS. You can't write a proper essay in 25 minutes. Hell, I can barely write certain theory replies here that quickly, and I know and care about the cosmere. A 25 minute essay on a prompt you've never seen before is ludicrous. The ACT writing gives you a bit more time, and their prompts are straightforward persuasive essays. Anyways, since the PSATs don't matter, just have fun and don't worry about it.

Oh, we have lots of powers like that. EDIT: Hmmm, I wonder who did that!