Chaos

This is the Q&A Josh and I were vaguely alluding to here, which I will now put on the Brandonothology: This Q&A was obtained in May 2010 and was never posted. Josh and Mi’chelle took good notes, but the answers are not direct quotes, rather, the paraphrasing of them. Some stuff here is very outdated (like my question about “imbue”), and so on some things I have put my notes in, to avoid misinformation. 1. In the most recent Hero of Ages annotation, you said that Preservation chose Vin to be the recipient of the power, just as Preservation had chosen Alendi previously (thus, this was why Ruin had manipulated the Prophecies). Was Alendi also chosen precisely sixteen years before the Well of Ascension's power returned? ANSWER: Yes. He was chosen exactly sixteen years before, but he was a bit older then Vin when he was chosen. 2. Why did the Well of Ascension refill every thousand years rather than 500 or 200, etc. ANSWER: It's actually every 1024 years. The Lord Ruler just befuddled the information a bit. 3. What would have happened if Ruin *did* get the atium? Yeah, the world is destroyed, but how does Ruin "absorb" the atium so he can utilize the power? ANSWER: He would metabolize it, just like the normal people have to do. However, if he did get it he would then be able to distroy the world. (My input: I think the reason he would be able to is because without the atium he's balanced on power level with Leras. As soon as he got some of his physical body back, he would then be more powerful then Leras and thus have the ability to destroy.) 4. Why is there such an imbalance between the amount of atium and the amount of lerasium in the world? Also, why are atium and lerasium very imbalanced in Allomantic power (erasium is far more useful than atium, really)? ANSWER: There isn't. Leras is just spread out further. He is in the mists, in the Well, and in the lerasium. Ruin's power however is considerate strictly in atium. 5. Since the dawn of Scadrial, why was Feruchemy isolated in a single distinct population in the world, namely the Terrismen? Allomancy, while rare within the population of Scadrial, at least was not isolated to one population, it was spread evenly, it seems. What is special about the Terrismen that only they get the power of Feruchemy? Does it have something to do with the previous Ascensions before Rashek, with the guardian keeping the power for a time? ANSWER: It's all in the spiritual DNA, which is passed on like normal DNA. However, they are a separate people. They've kept themselves isolated, similar to the jews in our world. When I asked he said there have been some Feruchemical-mistings in the past, but they are very rare. 6. Is Edgli Endowment's real name? ANSWER: RAFO, however the flowers are related to Endowment somehow... 7. Why are specific focuses chosen for specific Shards? Why metals for Ruin and Preservation and not Commands like Endowment? ANSWER: RAFO 8. Are Shards all paired? Does Endowment have a counterpart? ANSWER: RAFO. Also, yes and no. Not all Shards have perfect counterparts like Ruin and Preservation. 9. Why were Ruin and Preservation linked together? ANSWER: Because they're such perfect opposites. Basically it's just an opposites attract thing. 10. Is Endowment blind to the words spoken by Awakeners? Is he blind to art? ANSWER: RAFO 11. Is Endowment linked to the ocean in Warbreaker? ANSWER: RAFO 12. Long, long ago when Hero of Ages came out you listed four Shards other than Ruin and Preservation. You said we interacted with two directly. One is a tough call, we've never met the Shard itself but have seen its power. The other one we've not met directly but have seen its influence. My questions: -Is the Dor the "tough call" one? -Do you count Hoid in this list of four shards? It makes a difference for the theories, Brandon! You don't even need to say if he is bound to a shard, rather just if you consider him in this list. RAFO, and no, Hoid is not included in the list. (Still not sure if he has a shard or not) 13. How many Shards have existed on Roshar? ANSWER: Three 14. Will Hoid's character arc, as well as the whole Adonalsium arc, get a satisfactory conclusion eventually? ANSWER: It depends on what he decides to do. We also might or might not get the rest of the story (pre-story). From a market standpoint it's not wise, simply because if the books require you to have read 32 other books before you read them it doesn't make sense to work on them. However, if the demand is high enough he MIGHT do them after all of the rest of the cosmere books. 15. Does Ruin have a pool, similar to Preservation's pool with the Well of Ascension and Skai's pool in Elantris? ANSWER: Yes. His pool is the pits. 16. Can Sazed "will" himself to any Shardworld if he so desires? ANSWER: Yes, he has the capacity for it. However, will he? Don't know. If he did there would be a lot of ramifications for it... 17. Will Sazed eventually go mad trying to hold two Shard's power at the same time (being pushed to two different Purposes simultaneously for millennia)? Why hasn't anyone else tried this trick before in the Cosmere? ANSWER: No. Since they're so opposite they work together to create a whole. However, after a LONG time it would change him as a person. 18. This one is a personal favor... See, for metals that have Feruchemy, this verb is "charge". A metal is Feruchemically charged. But, you've been using the term "charge" for Hemalurgic metals, too, which I think is confusing. Before HoA I called Hemalurgic metals "Imbued" metals. I humbly petition to have that be the official term, because it's just confusing otherwise. ANSWER: The 17th Shard members use the term of Invest for all of those type of things. However, what they use in world is different on each world. For example WoK is infuse. 19. Could you tell us a chronology of the Shardworlds thus far? Like, did Warbreaker happen after Mistborn or before, things like that. Personally, I was under the impression you said Mistborn was a sequel to Elantris, but Mi'ch and Josh disagree. ANSWER: He wasn't positive on where Warbreaker went, but Elantris is first and MB is after it. [[Eric’s note: This is outdated; we know Warbreaker happens after Mistborn]] 20. Can Inquisitors still breed through human reproductive methods? ANSWER: Yes. 21. Why did Rashek create mistwraiths the way that he did? ANSWER: He wasn't sure what you meant by this, but he was sure that the annotations would cover what you wanted to know. 22. How long is the lifespan of an Inquisitor? ANSWER: It depends on the powers they're given. Some burn up quickly, and others are extended. In general though they do tend to have slightly longer lives. Since Marsh has the missing bag of atiums he's going to be around for a while. 23. Does being female alter the spiritual overlays on a person, so that a Hemalurgically imbued spike would need to be placed differently than in a male body? ANSWER: No. In fact, there are female inquisitors in the huge fight when Vin goes blasting through them, but he felt like bringing that out would have been distracting. 24. In the future when atium is rare again and we have a good Table of Allomantic Metals, which metal steals Allomantic Temporal powers? ANSWER: It will be on the table when he brings them out. Fur is the next poster to come out. Until then RAFO. 25. Let's say hypothetically we get Ruin, Preservation, and Endowment to create a planet. Would there be *more* magic systems due to Endowment's involvement (think permutations), or would this specifically not work at all? ANSWER: It could work. There is the potential for more magic systems. 26. Is Hoid evil? ANSWER: (direct quote) *chuckle* What do YOU think? 27. Can Hemalurgy be used to steal magic attributes from any Shardworld? ANSWER: Hemalurgy has larger ramifications then just Scadrial. That's about all he'd say. 28. Does atium have a "side effect", much like how lerasium has a "side effect" in creating Mistborn? ANSWER: RAFO 29. What do you call mixing Allomantic powers with Feruchemical powers? Allochemy? ANSWER: He hasn't decided yet. SIDE INFO WE DISCOVERED: *Skaze are the evil seons, and are related to Skai. Seons are related to the AonDor and thus Aona. *WoK2 title: High Prince of War or else Shattered Plains. He's not sure if it's going to be a Shallan book or Dalinar. If it is Dal's book then it will be HPoW. [[Eric’s note: the next Stormlight Archive title has still not been decided at this moment, though Brandon said he was shifting to have more Shallan than he originally thought]]

Dun dun dun! I would like to announce that I've finally gotten the wiki subdomain to work. It is, for the moment, wiki.17thshard.com. It will be coppermind.17thshard.com very soon. The easy part was getting the subdomain operational. The hard part was getting everything to redirect properly, and I am happy to announce that I have completely succeeded. Muwhahaha.

Well, then you'd be the only one There's going to be a more clear spoiler policy coming soon here, but for Alloy of Law, you're all doing things excellently. (Basically, for the Book Discussion forums, you won't need spoiler tags except for new books)

Good plan. Consider it done.

I'd need a citation for the first one. In that interview you emailed me eons ago, all that is said is a vague wishy-washy thing on that point. Speaking of that, I need to do some typographical stuff and I will go post it in the Brandonothology. Sound good, Josh? I don't have a citation for the Endowment thing either, but remember guys, at the time of the Hero of Ages Spoiler Thread, Brandon listed four Shards we hadn't seen at the time. I thought we've fully accounted for them: Aona, Skai, Endowment, and Odium's influence in killing Aona and Skai. If there were other Shards on Nalthis, it would've been in that list.

You bet me to it.

I didn't downvote you, don't get angry at me. However, given this is in the Coppermind forum, and my post was focused on what I had been doing for the wiki, I thought it was pretty obvious what I was referring to. So honestly, I can't get mad at the people who had downvoted you. Sorry. In any case, I found the bizarro element which was causing the problem. Thanks guys. Topic locked.

Thanks Andrea. I've heard the first report of the scrollbar as well. It only appears after a extremely large window size (1480px, apparently) so that could be why most users aren't seeing it.

I would like to announce that I finally finished another chapter of my novel. 5117 words long, making the whole manuscript right about 20,000 words.

Welcome, welcome! I'm Eric, as you probably already know. I'm glad you could join us. It's always nice to get more theorizers on the boards. The more, the merrier! As always, if you have any questions (cosmere, website, or otherwise) feel free to get a hold of me!

It has now been posted:

That was... not immensely helpful for my immediate purpose. Just go to the main page of the wiki. Is there a horizontal scroll bar, yes or no?

This is going to be a really moronic thing. I am not above being called a moron when the time requires it. Today I decided to center the wiki, for various reasons, but mostly to increase consistency with the main forums and the Mistborn RP (all of which have fixed width layouts). Okay? Cool. Well I got the wiki to center. For some unfathomable reason, this has summoned a horizontal scroll bar on my screen, but only if my screen is maximized. So, I'm asking tech support. On my own site. When you go to the wiki, is there a horizontal scroll bar?

I sure hope so, otherwise that would just be disturbing. Happy birthdays to both of you, guys.

Ooh, yeah, I should post this on the main page. Thanks! I'm really excited Brandon won.

Well, the thing with gold is that the images are not real, they are simply illusions brought on by gold's effect. It's why when Vin stabbed the Lord Ruler's malatium shadow, it didn't do anything. (Let's be honest: if the effect of the god metal-alloy can't do it, a normal metal like gold certainly can't do it.) The shadows are mental--or, shall we say, Cognitive. They exist in the mind of the Allomancer only. So, TimeMaster, to answer your questions: 1. Hard to pin an exact distance down, since it's all in the mind's eye, but there would surely be such a cutoff. 2. I'd doubt you'd get another pair of eyes. And if the visions can "see" anything (like, you're burning gold, and suddenly Marsh bursts through the door), it'd probably be a function of you look at it, so your vision looks at it as well. Either way, you couldn't access the gold vision's extra sensory information. As for Silus, I think I answered your question. It'd be interesting to know if you can communicate with your gold vision (my bet is no). But I think if you could, it's all a function of your mind.

Fascinating! The fact that they are "Immortal Words" only serves to strengthen the Principle of Intent-Honor link to them.

My Roshar-fu is weak. Where does it say that?

I agree. Actually, I think someone did try and revive that Hemalurgy thread, and it was pointless. I was more referring to the theories in General Theories, though. The cosmere stuff would age better than, say, stuff in the Mistborn or Stormlight Archive sections.

Technically, the prose said he pushed on objects around himself, so he could very easily just not push on the metals that he's holding, but ones further away. How would Tan get atium? Silus could've been not including aluminum and duralumin, because they are gnats. But dual duralumin could be useful. *Wax Yeah, I don't know if the Feruchemical and Allomantic aspects have to be paired. Twinborn rarity is probably due to the genetics. They'd be so astronomically rare otherwise. If they had to be pairs, then could we never have dual of a particular metal?

So Mary Robinette Kowal is now a full-time podcaster for Writing Excuses. What are your thoughts on this? The start of season 6, I think, is quite stellar.

Good to have you here! It's always nice to have some new blood (Also, there is no such thing as thread necromancy here. It'd have to be a time sensitive thing for it to matter, and for the most part, theories can always use responses, no matter how late they may be!) I like this idea, too. I wonder what the other Ideals are?