Kurkistan

It's good stuff. It's a bit sad whenever everyone says "I've read all of Brandon's stuff besides Alcatraz..."

Interlude 3 after Part 1, "The Glory of Ignorance" This does allow the possibility that the Windrunners as we know them were simply the branch of Radiants who were also Windrunners, though I agree that Szeth being mistaken is more likely.

...and Kelsier's a very driven psychopath...

Nah, Kaladin can hear spelling.

The epigraphs in WoK that make a letter if read in sequence, Hoid appearances, underlying similarities in how the magic works... Honestly, there isn't that much to keep an eye out for. It's usually just a few lines or hints in each book, if that. We've got a lot of basic stuff on the Coppermind wiki (like each of Hoid's appearances) if you're interested, btw. Though the wiki does contain a fair number of "spoilers" in the sense that we incorporate quotes that come directly from Brandon.

That is a basic question, but a foundational one, and this is the thread for asking questions. Yes, though not the same "world", per se. All of Brandon's books not on Earth (or Randland) take place in the same universe (the Cosmere) and all the magic systems follow the same basic underlying rules. A few characters (such as the foreigners in the Purelake interlude and Hoid in everything) show up on multiple worlds in multiple books, and there are other crossovers (some of the epigraphs in WoK discuss events that took place on Sel, the Elantris world, for instance), but Brandon has very deliberately tried to make it so that knowing about this underlying connection and/or reading all of his books is only an added bonus, an easter egg. Not at all necessary for enjoying or understanding the story. As you may have noticed, it's also proved to be absurdly fun for the fandom, since each release in just about any series gives us fodder for theories spanning all of his other works.

Very nice work, Weiry. The Shadows reading is still locked, though. The link would hyper-fy if you undid the italics, I think.

I suppose my impression of shouting was an artifact of the medium and/or my ignorance, then.

I'm loving the Legion 2 reading, I must say: "I don't have dissociative identity disorder; if anything, I'm schizophrenic."

Thank you! Poor Brandon having to shout out everything. They didn't have a mic set up?

Welcome to the forums! The thought has been floated before, though it's important to remember that quantum states collapse when observed because the act of observing means hitting the observed with something: a photon or a particle or whatnot. The universe does't track whether a sophont is looking at something. That being said, the Cosmere does track that kind of thing, and the idea of spren as existing as "generalized" entities until they're nailed down into a specific form does have merit.

Uh oh, it usually takes at least a few months before they figure out our true natures. Quick, spike him now!

Hm, interesting then. Thanks for the info

I think you underestimate their mining skills, though it is a tangential point. WoK Chapter 19: The fact that digging out a cellar is "basic" mining suggests more sophisticated techniques, though the dangers are obviously quite steep. Which in turn suggests yet more sophisticated techniques to mitigate those dangers. --- As for supply/demand, I'm suggesting that the actual of supply of gemstones will go up if demand is a real demand rather than incidental: so existing resources will be exploited more completely and efficiently and much more effort will go into finding new sources of gems. Also, they probably won't go around burying their money with people's bodies, which is actually a fairly significant drain on our supply of jewels in the present day.

Sorry, I'm getting all over-credulous now: is that a fact from SpoCon, or a joke? It's almost certain. Brandon has alluded pretty strongly (answer 4) to the two holding stormlight at the same time, at the very least.

Either I'm very ignorant or you are vastly oversimplifying the modern world of the lapidary. By my understanding, people use motorized tools, but the vast majority of the work on each gem still has to be done with one-on-one human supervision. "Shiny and smooth" isn't going to cut (har har) it, when we specifically are looking for cut, well-crafted gems rather than just gems distinguishable from rocks. Also, I was mostly referring to the ease of getting gems cut in Roshar as compared to other societies of roughly comparable technology, since the Rosharian focus on gemstones would necessarily give them unusually robust industries revolving around them. I suspect that mining is also more advanced on Roshar than one would naturally assume. You are also assuming that gems are as scarce on Roshar as they are on Earth, which assumption is not very well founded. There is enough emerald in a wealthy, but still relatively small, city to by dispersed through innumerable braoms to illuminate a bottomless upside down pyramid. That's a lot of emerald. Even if scarcity is about the same in terms of how much of each gem type is accessible on the planet's surface, I wold hazard that a society with a much much higher demand for gemstones would still manage to get more in circulation. As you said, all we want gems for here on Earth is to look at: they want them to light their homes and feed and house their people. The entirety of gem mining, cutting, setting, and distribution is a relatively frivolous niche industry in the real world (albeit a very large frivolous niche industry), while it is far more vital on Roshar. I can see this as a possibility, though I also see the gems in at least broams being cut, at least a bit, as a good possibility as well. Also: Oh ye of little faith. Brandon will almost certainly drop the "source" of the gems in spheres in exposition at some point, especially if they are the end destination of shattered soulcasting stones or the shaping process. Failing that, we have a several decades in which someone can ask him at a Q&A or AMA or signing.

I'd like to note that gem cutting is probably far less expensive on Roshar than is the norm. They'd have developed sophisticated techniques and have an unusually large number of jewellers, I would think.

You're right: they aren't. I was over-cautious in the formulation of my questions when Shardlet asked for them, asking "basic science" questions for future theorizing rather than a relatively niche question for the sake of a single theory. I also thought a subjective burn rate question would be unnecessarily involved. Still, I probably should have bitten the bullet (or, more accurately made Shardlet bite the bullet) and piled on a subjective burn rate question.

Just an update on spheres: They are all approximately the same size, about "the size of a thumbnail"--so yes, about a small marble. The size of the gemstone within the glass is all that changes, ala Word of Shallan's Exposition. EDIT: I've just been assuming (in an acknowledged fashion) that, at least within denominations of the same gemstone, it was all done by mass of the stone. So 1000 diamond chips have the same amount of actual diamond as 1 diamond broam.

I also think you're a bit off there, Gloom. The fact that gravity is a force that moves things is the only connection that I can see. The pens move perfectly in all axis, with the "pushing" end putting forward all the extra work to move the "pushed" pen. There's also differential rotation and orientation in general to consider, although I suppose one virtue of picking gravity is that "down" is always fairly well defined.

Ah, so your "my friend" was directed at Ffnord and bubbles being wholly contained in one another, not at my post. That makes more sense. Thank you again for all the clarification.

Hm. It just seems odd, though, given the MAG's insistence that the net "bubblage" is the outcome. I think the fact that bubbles can be adjusted, in and of themselves, to higher or lower compression factors by the misting is indisputable, at the very least. But, from your question we get that even if Wayne is flaring and Marasi is burning as little as possible, the intersection will necessarily be real-time. It still doesn't ring true, but the god of the Cosmere has spoken, so I'll have to adapt to it.

Why couldn't they cut the gemstones embedded in spheres? It's not exactly impossible. Even if they didn't and the stones were rough, they would still be "gemstones" because... that's what they are. Rough or uncut gemstones, but still gemstones. So still useful for examinations of size as a factor in stormlight retention, so long as we make the (rather easy) assumption that the extra stormlight held by a cut stone is a difference in quantity, rather than quality; that the two "kinds" of gemstones are fundamentally of the same type and behave in the same way. We don't know the third point, actually. I'm not even sure where you inferred it from. The first is only true if the uncut gemstone is larger than the gem in some sphere, I would think. The second is possible, and perhaps even a bit more likely than not, but by no means guaranteed. It also directly contradicts your first claim. The third is, once again, dependent on size, to some extent; especially if the gemstones in spheres are actually cut. Even if they are rough, I would say that a cut gemstone the size of a speck of dust would still hold less light than a rough gemstone large enough to be in a broam. As for the "longer" part, we actually don't even know--that I can recall--that uncut stones hold stormlight for any shorter than cut stones. They're less "brilliant" and bright, but my entire argument might be wrong and all stones of all types might, conceivably, just hold stormlight for X hours no matter what. Or I might be wrong and whether a stone is cut is all that matters. Or I might be wrong in some other new and interesting way. The problem is that we're deeply unsure, and so cannot safely infer as you have.

As for bubble strength, we do know for a fact that flaring the metal can give a higher compression factor, so variable factors are possible.

Thank you again for asking bubble questions, Shardlet. I think you just single-handedly doubled our supply of quotes on the matter So, to recap: Several of my FTL-models are hurt by the vacuum thing. Less personally affronted, though, this means that bubbles are almost certainly a straight effect on local space-time, rather than an effect on local objects that happens to be roughly spherical in shape. -Darn, should have asked you to ask about Distension... Overlap is nice to have settled, though his specific phrasing (if you got it right) leaves it open the overlap flat-out cancels, rather than partial cancelling for strong/weak interactions (so half speed instead of 1/20 if the Cadmium bubble is stronger, or the like). Yeah, Hemalurgy. Can't say I'm shocked, but that does spike (har) my theory about Hemalurgy. That's odd, as the other options for how Hemalurgy is unique to Scadrians are a bit less appealing. This requires thought and topics...