Chaos

I choose to intentionally misinterpret Raoden's idea for the sake of the theory. Raoden easily could be interpreting this as the Dor, when it isn't. Of course, there's obvious problems with this idea. Shards should be able to tell when powers are distinct. But, then again, they never knew what atium was (not of Preservation like the rest of Allomancy) until the very end. At this point, Raoden would think of pretty much any energy source as the Dor, because he doesn't know of any other. The short answer is that we simply don't know what the Dor is. If both AonDor and Dahkor can access it, that means it is a combination of both Aona and Skai's dead power. There's definitely more to uncover.

Nice post, leinton. I agree with Zas on that note about heretic. I would also note that lerasium is never capitalized, just like atium never is. No metals are capitalized.

Audio recordings are always preferable.

I'm okay with that. Compassion sounds a little more like a Shard name anyways. Love and Devotion could be replaced with a suitable synonym, with a similar idea behind it.

Sent you a PM about one of my recommendations

Let's talk about Elantris, because that seems like the hip thing to do. There's plenty of mystery to go around. Any full theory about Sel addresses a few facts: 1. What Aona and Skai's Shards are. 2. What is the pool 3. The Shaod 4. What exactly is the Dor? 4. Why Odium needed to go to Sel. 5. The mysteries behind the Seons and Skaze #1 is by far the most important of these mysteries, as everything is related to Shards. I don't know what's going on with the Shaod, so I'll give that one a wide miss. But I have an idea for the Shard names. I managed to misread the ending with Hrathen to give me an interesting conclusion for Skai's name. Oddly, by completely misreading some things, I create an easy argument which makes sense on almost all levels. There are many suggested Shard names for Aona and Skai. One for Aona was Release, because it relieved the hoed of their pain, and also made sense with the Dor and its nature to release its energy. Another such one is Harmony and Discord, from Aona's harmony with the land of Arelon, and its supreme importance with the Aons. These are entirely reasonable, but they didn't feel right. Endowment is a name that feels right. These candidates for Aona and Skai don't feel right. So I was reading Zas's Brandonothology, and he had handy links to the Elantris annotations. One night I decided--at 1am--to read these annotations. It's been quite some time since I read Elantris, so its good to relook at these. First item of interest, Chapter Sixteen's Elantris Annotation. Well, we're all in agreement that Seons are related to Aona. Probably Splinters of Aona. The exact specifics aren't important. By the Principle of Intent, whatever fragment of Aona's Shard is in there should be informing what's going on. If they are bound out of love... Looking at the segment from the pool, the pool wants to relieve Raoden's pain. Out of love, let's say. That'd definitely be a loving thing to do, relieving pain. This seems entirely reasonable. Aona's Shard is Love. After reading Raoden fixing Elantris, I couldn't exactly go stop reading the Brandon Avalanche, could I? So at this point its embarrassingly late, but there are too many interesting things going on at the ending. One is Shuden, with his ChayShan dance. The other is the Dahkor monks. There's really no complete theory of how these two things work. It's been suggested that, similar to the Allomancy-Feruchemy-Hemalurgy triad, Aona was net gain, ChayShan was the balance, and Dahkor was the net loss power. Since Dahkor's magic requires sacrifices to work, this seemed like a good bet. But ChayShan can't be "balance", in the same manner Feruchemy was. In Feruchemy, the energy comes from yourself, and you use it later. Shuden appears to be drawing upon an external source, so that's net gain. This triad system has a problem in that case. But on Sel, these are different Shards. There's no reason to expect them to have exact symmetries with Scadrial magics. Dahkor use sacrifices, you see. Hrathen and Dilaf talk about how Dilaf sacrificed a man to transport a easy distance. "Absolute obedience is required." [Note: I don't have Elantris on me, so it's paraphrased] Dilaf has a better handle on Dahkor magic than Hrathen does, so anything he says is more likely to reveal clues about its magic's power. With those quote, I'm reminded of the Fjorden system of odivs to ...whatever those mentors were. There were oaths, and the logical structure eventually goes to Wyrn, who communicates directly with God. Wyrn is interesting, you see, because he has the ability to see the future. That's some serious Shard power. Splinters have the ability to see the future, so Wyrn is likely to be a Splinter. Whatever Wyrn is, he's got power on his side. If obedience is related to Skai's magic, with its sacrifices, then this entire power structure in Fjorden funnels power up to Wyrn. Maybe every odiv gives a little bit of power to its krondet (?), and so on up to Wyrn. This would explain rather simply how Wyrn has such power, and it follows directly from this obedience idea. Finally, to my misreading of Hrathen's ending. He fights Dilaf, his arm glows (obviously using some power), and he just collapsed. I immediately thought, "he's drawing from his body's power. There was no reason for him to die." Okay, I now realize he had already been stabbed, but the idea was already planted in my mind. What if Dahkor magic is fueled off of a person's own energy? It would absolutely fit with the sacrificial nature of the magic. Its high cost. Remember, the only reason for explicit net gain/balance/net loss symmetry was specifically from the natures of Ruin and Preservation. Ruin destroys, so his magic system would be related to destroying stuff. Because Preservation balanced Ruin, that meant Preservation was net gain (for more crazy logic on the subject, go read the Principle of Intent, but that is the essence of the idea). When we go to different worlds, there is no reason why we need to categorize magics that way. It depends completely on the nature of the Shard. Endowment and Awakening aren't about explicit net gain. It's not important. They are important in that Endowent requires that its magic endows, like Ruin required things to be destroyed. So, don't categorize by net gain. It is less than helpful. Now that we have dispelled that myth, let me suggest that Skai's Shard is Devotion (an alternate possibility is Obedience, but let's say its Devotion for now). Its magic would then require devotion from its users. Sacrificing people to power magic? Yeah, that qualifies. To a lesser extent, any Dahkor's power is fueled by his or her own body, like Hrathen. Dahkor is all about preparation. To make those bone symbols, you need to sacrifice people. Different sacrifices grant different powers, as Dilaf's ability to negate Aons was rather unique. And really, Raoden didn't have much trouble against those Dahkor (except Dilaf). They had enhanced strength or whatever, but their magic was fueled from their own body, while Raoden had a crapload of power to draw from. It makes a lot more sense that the Dahkor are fueling from their own bodies rather than the Dor. Remember, Roaden assumed that by the nature of the symbols in their bones, they were drawing from the Dor, like Aons. This is an entirely reasonable assumption for Raoden to make, despite being not quite right, according to this theory. Given enough time, energy, and sacrifices, Dahkor can kick some serious butt, and defeat Elantrians. But kind of like Feruchemy, you need to prepare beforehand. Skai as Devotion makes sense, since Skai would then need people to devote themselves to gain power. Aona as Love, however, has no such qualms. Her magic is like a gift, out of love, for people to draw upon. In that sense, I have now made the necessary Aona-Aon connection, as required by the Principle of Intent. ChayShan, then, being kind of a "balance" between Aona and Skai, makes sense since both the aspect of drawing energy from the Dor (like AonDor) and the connection with the body (like Dahkor) exists. We obviously need more information to analyze this further. This is all from a very theoretically, magical point of view. It took me a day to realize that, holy crap, Love and Devotion was the whole split of Shu-Keseg. Let's think of this from a historical perspective, and assume Aona and Skai are Splintered, but Seons and Skaze exist (Brandon has said the Skaze are responsible for a lot of what Fjorden does. Go with me). Our nice guy, Keseg, has this idea of unity. In Elantris, the conflict came because Korath and Dereth couldn't decide how to go about unity. It doesn't seem unreasonable that the creation of the religion began somewhat randomly, with Keseg, but the agents of Aona and Skai twisted his ideas to conform with their Shards' Intent. Magically and historically speaking, then, these Shard names seem to work pretty dang well. There's more. If you think about Ruin and Preservation, they were drawn together since they were such polar opposites. Love and Devotion aren't polar opposites, but they sure as heck are linked together. From the deepest sense of why the Shards came together, these two Shard names are reasonable. Finally, this suggests a reason why Odium went to Sel. The Almighty/Honor always said to "unite them", in preparation to fight Odium. Love and Devotion were manipulating Keseg's teachings of unity. I don't think its unreasonable for Odium to want to defeat Love and Devotion, for the same reason as he killed Honor. I think Aona as Love and Skai as Devotion makes the most sense of any Shard names that have been suggested thus far. I hope you agree.

I'm on a Pokemon binge right now, and so after listening to Pokemon soundtracks on Youtube, I'm stopped at the Team Magma/Aqua battle music: I'd forgotten how catchy this particular track was. One of the better aspects of Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald.

It doesn't explicitly say it's a "big" part of society, it says that it is useful for maintaining order in the Roughs. Allomancy would be much more common, since there are no Inquisitors restricting interbreeding. So it would be rarer, but still very much present. At this point, I think it'd still be possible to find Mistborn. The Preservation granted from lerasium is hardly diluted all the way out of society. It survived a thousand years. It can survive however many lasted until Alloy of Law. (I'm not certain how long this book takes place after Hero of Ages. I know the second trilogy happens "a few hundred years" after HoA, so I don't think this book can take place more than two hundred years later)

@Shiv The Lord Ruler's mom, obviously. @Endra Don't worry, I'm rusty, too, even though I run the Mistborn RP with KChan. She remembers those things better than I do. She pointed out Ladrian, and I had just skimmed over it.

You should be able to get an RSS feed on leinton's blog, if RSS readers are your thing.

@Endra Ladrian was Breeze's surname. As Link on the forum said, "It took me a few minutes to figure out where I'd heard the name Ladrian, but once I started looking in the right places it was a breeze."

You have now made the most upvoted post on 17S. That was awesome. It's way more classy than my sig. I think the city is obviously named after Elend. Also, I'd imagine the Church of the Survivor is still going strong.

Holy crap guys, that ending was amazing. It does exist, but it's after the Elite Four in Giant Chasm. Samurott, the final form of the water starter, is totally BA looking.

Yeah, but Luthadel may not be in a habitable position any more, given it's weird relation to the tilt of Scadrial and the change that happened at the end of Hero of Ages. It could just be a city in a new place (probably where the storage caverns appeared at the end), in the same naming style as Luthadel.

I didn't even think of that. Brilliant!

Are you ready for this? The official cover is revealed for Alloy of Law. It's made by the same artist who made the Mistborn paperback covers, so it feels a lot like them: Also, the synopsis: Okay. There's some interesting world stuff here. One: the word Twinborn. This naturally refers to someone who has abilities in Allomancy and Feruchemy. I wonder what they are called if you have it in the same metal. That, of course, would be even rarer. I really like the name Twinborn. Since Mistborn would be much rarer, Twinborn suggests that this type of magic user is especially strong. I'm eager to learn what Feruchemical "Mistings" are called as well. The next interesting thing is the city of Elendel, which I think is great name for a city. Also, the mention of "noble house"? Could the Final Empire structure return, albeit in a much less slave-inducing form? What do you think of the cover and the synopsis?

Mind if I change this to a general Black and White discussion thread? I don't have my friend code yet, but I sure as heck want to discuss Pokemon. First off, I would like to say that I have not complained once playing through this game. I complained (a lot) about Diamond/Pearl and Ruby/Sapphire. Black/White is awesome. I was at Disneyland today and I can honestly say I was more interesting in Pokemon than Disneyland. That is how much I am loving this. Team Plasma is interesting. I'm to the eighth gym (I have put in a lot of time into it this week), and I really hope they resolve some character issues in Plasma, or I will be disappointed. But dear god, people, there's character development in a freaking Pokemon game. The bad guys do stuff. The good guys have their crap together instead of laying in their gyms ineffectually. They are getting me to discuss theme about why I play Pokemon in the first place! This game has taught me what's good about Pokemon. The formula can work, it just needs to be executed properly. For the first time in a long time, I think they've done it right. It's restored my faith in the series. (Not that I'd have stopped playing them, because I still love it. But it's good to have reminders why I love this series) You'd be surprised how much more active the battles seem with those animations. Next, some reviews of the game are complaining about the Pokemon choice, but I like them. Lots of people seem to rag on Trubbish, but that thing is wicked cute and no one can say otherwise. There are lots of interesting Pokemon, both cute and powerful. For example, check out Eelektross (http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-bw/604.shtml). He's electric. He has Levitate, so he is immune to all ground moves. He is weak to nothing, and he can learn Crunch, Thunderbolt, Flamethrower, and Rock Slide. That's strong against nine types, if I count right. Sure, he's a little slow, but let me assure you--because I have him on my team--that this is hardly a concern. He could also learn cool things like Dragon Claw, if that's what you like. I would bash on the lack of a good Alakazam/Espeon clone. For a long time, the "really fast psychic that has a ridiculous special attack" was a staple of my Pokemon teams. One of my essential slots, in fact, because he would have both Psychic and Shadow Ball. Lots of psychic/ghosts/darks can fit this role (Espeon and Mismagius are my favorites), but in Black, there doesn't seem to be anything like this. And... somehow I'm okay with this. Dark, as a type, gets some awesome Pokemon, so requiring a team to have a Psychic+Shadow Ball thing is no longer necessary. Lots of Pokemon can learn Crunch, and it's much more effective to use against a Ghost or Psychic than, well, a Ghost of Psychic. That was always kind of awkward. My current team, because I think it'd be interesting to share some of the bizarre type mixings that exist. (All at level 41 right now) Samurott. Water - Surf, Razor Shell, False Swipe, X-Scissor Comments: Sure would love an ice move on him, especially since I'm at the Dragon gym right now. Alas, none to be found. This saddens me. Ice Beam is a staple for me. Apparently judging by other reviews, people think this form of Oshawott looks weird. I don't know what they are talking about. This sea lion is BA. Sawk. Fighting - Brick Break, Rock Slide, Dig, Strength Comments: You get Sawk right after Nacrene City, and should you get him? Heck yes. Of all my third evolutions, you know who still has the highest Attack score? Sawk. He's speedy and powerful, just what I like most in a Pokemon. Sigilyph. Psychic/Flying - Psybeam, Shadow Ball, Fly, Reflect Comments: In my quest to find the right Psychic Pokemon... well, there are no easy answers. I typically don't use Pokemon that don't evolve, but I was using Woobat/Swoobat, and realized quickly that Sigilyph was much stronger. Eelektross. Electric - Spark, Crunch, Thunder Wave, Rock Slide. Comments: I already told you what I thought of this Pokemon up above. He's awesome. The fact that he's kicking butt with Spark instead of my usual Thunderbolt should tell you how strong he is. I need some more TMs to make him better, though. Krookodile. Ground/Dark - Crunch, Dig, Rock Slide, Mud-Slap Comments: Here's that dark type. I always like a good ground type (none of this pure Rock. I want my Electric resistance), and Sandile came with the extra added attraction of Dark on top of it. He's strong, but I need to be careful to not let him go up against anything he's weak to (of which there's a lot), because his defense isn't good enough to block an attack like that. Slot Six - Empty. Yes. For once, I'm not using six Pokemon (okay, that's not fair. I have an Egg ). Normally this would be taken with a dedicated Psychic, but I don't have one of those. I should probably have a Grass or a Fire, but I have to be feeling it to use those types. They aren't essential, by any means. Since I'm on Black, I can think of nothing better than to fill this slot with Reshiram. Dragon/Fire? Yes. That will fill out the team nicely.

That's what I've been using.

Yes, yes we will...

I didn't know about EVs for a long time, but I knew there was something like it from playing Pokemon Stadium. If you ever cheated and cloned in 99 Rare Candies to level Pokemon for Stadium--which I frequently did--you quickly realized that your opponent's Pokemon were stronger. If you level your Pokemon naturally, they will be stronger. EVs (Effort Values) are responsible for that. Basically, it involves this: if you beat a Pokemon, yours will gain an EV in a stat. Which stat, and the amount of EVs you gain, depends on the Pokemon you beat. It's all very complicated, and I'm too lazy for that

Okay, that's a good analogy. But Adonalsium takes less grinding to understand (Well, maybe not, if our theories are considered grinding)

So? Some magic systems are better at creating a big story arc than others. We didn't get viewpoints from every Misting, and that worked just fine.

Or a good excuse to teach your friends about irrational numbers.