Kurkistan

Wait just a minute... *Leras...lerasium* *Ati...atium* By the Lord Ruler! It all makes so much sense now! Seriously, though, I can't believe I didn't get that one. *Hangs head in shame* TLDR;

This is a complete side note, but I just had the image of Kaladin going mildly berserk after Navani accidentally seals Syl in a fabrial, leaving him to break the stone and free Syl in what appears to be an either an act of insanity or a bizarre "spren rights movement" as applies to windspren in general. On that point, we know that there are a range of sentient spren (from Brandon's Google+ Q&A), so I wonder exactly how magnetic the "attraction" of cut gems is to spren. Could Syl just say "Ooo shiny" and then fly away once she (as a thinking being) realizes the unnaturalness of her attraction, or would she be drawn in like a vacuum? It's a question of whether the spren's attraction to fabrials is as a moth to flame or as a filing to a lodestone. There is also the question of whether a simple "windspren cut" would be sufficient to attract Syl, or if a specialized "Honorspren cut" would be necessary.

Terminal velocity is a function of weight and surface area. Decrease weight while maintaining (or increasing: parachute, anyone?) surface area and you get a lower terminal velocity.

Also, it would be nice if someone could alter the code on the login page so that the cursor starts out in the username box. Right now you have to tab 20 times or use the mouse in order to enter your username.

A bit late, but I just got back from a PM with Satsuoni, who says that, the higher the gravity, the less the splash in air. If we could finagle a vacuum, then we would be all fine and dandy, with splashes galore. Air resistance does not like splashes at high velocity, though, so it looks like we need to rework how to mundanely murder Windrunners. I still say that, if you manage to get enough bolts from enough directions, the Windrunner will be forced to pull something through him/herself on its way to impacting whatever object s/he is using as an anchor. Ex. ..0 .0A0 0AWA0 .0A0 ..0 Whichever potential anchor 'A' the Windrunner 'W' uses, several of the projectiles/flaming liquids coming from vector '0' will have to travel through the Windrunner in order to reach the anchor.

@harakeke A fair enough criticism. We do know the phonetic sounds of many of the letters, though, so I think it's acceptable to try to phonetically spell words instead of simply going for vague approximations. I wasn't actually aware that I was putting more work into a true transliteration than the artist (Inkthinker, I think), but I see no reason to stop now that my evil plan has progressed so far! As for over-replacing vowels--having a different line for essentially the same block of text except for needing to check which vowels precede or follow it--that's because I fail regex forever, which JoeST will hopefully fix as soon as we can get a JavaScript implementation off the ground. Overall, thank you for your enthusiasm. It's been a bit sad and lonely around here for a while now. Also, welcome to the forums! You might want to head over to the Introduction section to get your cookie/waffle. Watch out for spikes, though! EDIT: Harmony's forearms! I hadn't realized until now (a month later) that you're the guy who diciphered the text originally. Great work on that! Also, I didn't mean anything negative when I said I was working harder on a "true transliteration" than Inkthinker. Reading over it now, it sounds harsh and a bit dismissive. I guess I've gotten a smidge caught up in the details of the transliteration, to the point where the thought of reverting to a "nuts and bolts" transliteration is near-sacrilege.

Just as a native-speaker note, saying "experts of the mistborn-trilogy and AoL" could be interpreted as some level of irony, ranging from self-deprecation to straight sarcasm depending on how you read it. While a "principle of charity" guides us to assume that you aren't being sarcastic if there is a reasonable interpretation otherwise, you might be better off saying "those of you who are more familiar with the mistborn universe" if you want to avoid any possibility of misinterpretation.

Ah, that makes more sense. I was a bit confused as to why you singled me out there.

Argh, this is not my day for properly expressing myself. I personally have no knowledge of the nature of the Wii U as a controller or a console, so I'll just go off what you say here. While I will reiterate that I oppose motion controls--they will either be thrown in for the heck of it or result in the development team expending large amounts of time and resources to implement them properly--I have no problem against porting MBR, with essentially the same control scheme, to the newest Nintendo system.

I agree with you that they shouldn't try to force in motion controls, and I was not advocating the inclusion of a Nintendo console for MBR. I was simply trying to alleviate Sweetness's confusion.

The game is not advertised as being available on a Nintendo console. The newest Nintendo console, the Wii U, is set to come out this November.

^Which is why I need to both re-read the book and think more about what I remember from it before getting all theory-laden on stuff.

I assume that Shardplate is Invested, which is why Szeth can't use Lashings on Plate. The gems are embedded in the Shardplate, so they probably share its immunity, similar to metal objects being un-pushable when they are embedded in people. EDIT: Or it could not be the "embedded" aspect. It could be that Shardplate just "gets in the way" of someone trying to steal a gem's stormlight, since I now recall that Szeth's Lashing's would "interfere" with them if he wore Plate himself. EDIT 2: Or it could be that the person wearing Shardplate has privileged access to its gemstones, just as they have privileged access to its others functions.

You're right, we do lack clarity over whether it is the spike itself or it being embedded that hinders Allomancy. We do get indications that Hemalurgy steals investiture, though, so I tend to see the spikes themselves as invested. I'm beginning to agree with you. I think we can see surgebinders as infused with stormlight rather than invested in any significant way. *Warbreaker spoilers* I doubt that an Allomancer would be able to Pull/Push on Nightblood, for instance, but an Allomancer should be able to Push/Pull on a merely awakened metal object, the Breath of which can still be retrieved. Perhaps an object is only invested if the magic is an essential part of the object in question, as opposed to a temporary characteristic. I do wonder whether a Returned could be Soothed/Rioted--I tend to think not, due the essential nature of their Divine Breath. Ah, my mistake. Still, standing over a pile of dead bodies isn't exactly a common event in most people's lives.

Didn't Kaladin see Szeth ripping people to shreds during his vision in the Highstorm? Also, recall that Kaladin will probably get details of what exactly Szeth did during his assassination of the Alethi King, and deduce that he is a psuedo-Windrunner. Add those together with a detailed description of that one Shin who walks around in white assassinating people, and Kaladin might have a chance of seeing, recognizing, and reacting to Szeth in time. I hadn't considered their ability to Lash themselves... Still, I think that there could be a fundamental difference between using magic on oneself and using it on another. *Mistborn spoilers* Hemalurgic spikes can only be Pushed/Pulled using massive expenditures of Allomancy, Duraluminum or TLR levels required. I believe that this is the case with all invested objects--with people included in that category at times, as seen in how TLR can Push on the metal in Vin's body. Recall that, though shardblades can theoretically be Pushed/Pulled, they are invested objects and thus its very hard to do so. (Question 10)

I think they're probably invested when they are holding stormlight. On the point of infusion, I do wonder whether or not they would be able to recover the stormlight from either their own or each other's Lashings. The book describes both gems and Lashed objects as being "infused" with stormlight.

I just laughed out loud at the thought of Szeth strolling into Dalinar's keep and immediately getting all of his stormlight stolen by Kaladin: instant KO. I agree that a Cognitive/Spiritual shield probably keeps surgebinders from stealing each other's stormlight once it's in their bodies. Excellent idea overall. That's the kind of thinking we need to combat the Final Desolation!

I agree with the first possibility that he just had a normal, non-hemalurgic metalmind embedded somewhere in his body. Just because a piece of metal is embedded in someone's body doesn't make it a spike. Marsh's attack embedded Sazed's ring-metalminds in his skin as early as WoA. All Miles would have to do is drive a "needle" of gold into a muscle group in order to have a reserve metalmind. No hemalurgy required.

Your "Scadralians, conquerors of the stars" vision of the future has some potential, I think. Although perhaps not on a population-wide scale, I can imagine our heroes combating a small group who have augmented themselves to the point of god-hood with Hemalurgy, and who want to extend their reach to the stars, using their Allo/Ferro FTL (which I still haven't figured out, urgh) to pillage the powers of other Cosmere worlds, as a (remotely possible) story arc for the third trilogy.

@Voidus It's my understanding that Szeth is Truthless of his own free will, bound only by his honor and not by any magic. Unless the existence of a KR happens to be the requirement to free Szeth from that bond, I don't see Kaladin simply being a KR "freeing" Szeth from being Truthless. @Reader I hadn't considered the presence of other actors in any Szeth/Kaladin fight. Adolin might be able to even the odds, I admit, but that depends heavily on him being both on scene and "suited up" for any fight. The only reason Szeth's other target had Shardbearer guards on hand was because he was expecting Szeth, which Dalinar is not as of now.

Soooo SHINY!

I think we have different definitions of "the same ground." My understanding is that normal soulcasters must be physically touching their target in order to work. I interpret this to mean that they have to be touching some part of their target, which allows them to soulcast the whole of it. So to soulcast a 1x1x1 meter cube of stone, they have to touch at least one corner of that cube. They can't touch the ground ten feet away and then soulcast an arbitrary segment of stone which happens to be part of "the same ground." This would necessitate uncomfortably close placement of your invaluable Ardents within spitting distance of a windrunner, since it is my understanding that the larger the soulcasting target, the more difficult, time-consuming, and costly it is. Yeah, the Szeth/Kaladin fight. I sincerely hope that it doesn't happen, since poor Kal would get his eye-burnt head handed to him. Maybe a brief clash were they each go "he has my powers!" and then disengage, but Szeth is the past master of windrunning techniques and possesses a shardblade, while Kal doesn't even know the Basic Lashing exists as of now and does not have a magical soul-shearing weapon at his beck and call.

Unless you go all Jasnah-ranged-death-bolt on him, the soulcaster would have to be touching that same ground at the same. Not exactly the safest proposition. If you notice, I've also been trying fairly hard in my ideas to avoid using magic to deal with shardbearers/windrunners. I would prefer a mundane, reliable solution, preferably useful in a range of situations, including the battlefield.

Hmm... I'm not exactly up to snuff on my fluid dynamics mechanics, but doesn't the height of the splash depend largely on the amount of energy the liquid in question had when it impacted a surface? So the higher the "gravity" of the reverse-lashing, the more energy the liquid has to splash "up" with. Does anyone (Chaos) know if I'm actually right, and/or to what extent this additional energy would offset the additional pull? Does it balance out entirely? EDIT: See? I didn't even know the right name!

Remember that liquids splash upwards all the time, so even if the oil is caught up in the lashing, it could still quite reasonably splash "up" towards the windrunner.