Seonid

Just to say - Bands of Mourning is awesome! Also, I talked with Josh about the possibility of an official 17th Shard meet up at SLCC this fall, and he seemed interested. We'll see where this goes.

I asked if the Shard that just wants to survive has something like the intent of fear. Brandon replied that that shard's intent is only tangentially related to what's going on. That shard is well aware of what is n going on in the Cosmere, and is smart enough to try and just get away from it all.

That was, to put it shortly, amazing. Nothing more to say right now, other than that I'm glad we've resolved the "is harmony a villain" thread.

Just hit it for the first time today. Weird experience - never done that before. I tend not to upvote a lot, so it kind of surprised me.

And the name of the Shard Bavadin holds. That was rather large as well...

Coming back to my writing project after having been away for a week (due to homework, and a host of other busyness) is awful. I'm trying to remember exactly where I had intended to go with things. At least it's just worldbuilding, not plot, that has disappeared into the ether.

Ah, now that is an interesting question. Interesting indeed. A number of follow-up questions could be asked - where is the island, how long do they remain there, and a number of others. But the simple answer is: they are Chaod Leu. Their children will be given souls. I cannot say whether or not that would remain constant in their descendants if they remain far from the Chosen Land for generations and more, for Spirit could easily grow displeased with those of the Chaod Leu who leave the Chosen Land to live forever somewhere else. But their children of the first generation would certainly have souls. Past that, I cannot say. A priest would have to take the children of each generation and cast the omens for them to see if they had not been given souls.

You have indeed understood correctly - the chirnagi are splinters of the Great Elements, cleaved from their being during the great conflict of the First Time. They are elemental spirits, but they are also demons, and they are also the souls of the Chaod Leu. This is one of the great mysteries. All such beings had their origin in the Great Elements. The commoners, of course, do not study such things, and therefore do not know them. To them, the demons and the chirnagi of the Great Elements and their own souls are of different kinds. But I have been inducted into the great mysteries, and to the priests is entrusted the knowledge that all such things are of the same being. All being is of the Great Elements - even such half-lives as the Soulless live. No chirnagi inhabit them, of course, which is why their being has an end when they die. But such being as they have came from the Great Elements too. So, if I understand your question right - all things that live and move and have an enduring consciousness are of the chirnagi. The Soulless live and move, but their consciousness has an end when they die, and there is no more. Thus, they are not of the chirnagi. To answer your second question - why should a demon not want to steal the souls of the Chaod Leu? Our souls are created as a tribute and a monument to the Element of Light, and the demons are of Darkness, who hated her. And so they lie in wait to deceive the Chaod Leu into forfeiting half their soul. Thus they disfigure and defile the gift of Spirit as a tribute to the fallen Light. It is their great pleasure. Your final question is a complex one. There are chirnagi of the other Elements, and it is certain that any of them might have power to inhabit a Soulless, if they should wish. But these chirnagi were ancient indeed before even the rising of Spirit - there are no new chirnagi save those that Spirit creates to inhabit the Chaod Leu. Beings so ancient and set in their habits ought to have no desire to meddle with such insignificant forms as a human, either of the Soulless or the Chaod Leu. They are more likely to destroy one than inhabit it. I have never heard of such a thing happening. *Interlocutor's Note: I speak here from the perspective of one who has traveled the Outer Realms, and regularly crosses the Realm of the Unmanifested - called by some the Spiritual Realm. Some of the basics of the Chaod Leu religion are centered on facts of the world, but most is incorrect extrapolation. There do exist many spirits - though the idea that they came from Great Elements is, frankly speaking, absurd. Some of these spirits do, in fact, interact with mortals, and many are mischievous. The rituals of binding have some effect to prevent the attentions of these spirits, but much of the rituals they perform are unnecessary additions onto the simple spells of warding. However, this is common among many Edassan religions, not merely the Chaod Leu. Theology shapes the rituals that interact with the unseen world. The Chaod Leu distinction between themselves and the so-called Soulless is wholly fiction, as is their cosmological history. I am in a position to know this, for I have read in the records of Asteros - that Outer Realm where the great god Taris rules as the steward of the Great Mother - that reach back into the time shortly after humans were created. As far as can be told from the records that exist there, the souls of mortals (like the spirits of all intelligent beings, from gods to the unmanifested) are eternal in nature, and cannot be either created or destroyed. So it appears that the Chaod Leu have fashioned an incorrect theology around their observations of various spirits at work in the Realm of the Manifested - what you would know as the Material Realm. They call these spirits chirnagi, but have created wholly fictitious origin stories for them, and created artificial distinctions between them. The truth of these things is long and complicated, but I may someday explain it to those who are curious. By all means, if you have more questions, feel free to ask.

Just a quick side note - the general counsel for Mormon youth actively discourages pairing off during the teenage years. Some Mormon parents go further and put rules like this one in place to even further discourage early pairing off. Post-high school dating expectations are much different, and encourage pairing off to form stable monogamous relationships that lead towards marriages.

Ah....that makes sense. My general attitude towards the issue is as follows: Niels Bohr (one of the formulators of QM) once said that if anyone said that they understood quantum mechanics, that they were either deluded or lying. Richard Feynman remarked that, while there were thousands or tens of thousands of people in the world that could understand Einstein's general theory of relativity, not a single person on the planet - in his estimation - understood QM. (So I went and studied relativity instead ) The big problem is that the math works better than any other theory in physics ever has.

What does he think is wrong with them? I took quantum mechanics last year (both semesters) and I'm in quantum field theory this semester, so I'm rather interested in the field.

I"m down for 2017! Also, realizing that this might be a good thread for blatant promotion of my aunt's business - I invite one and all to feast their eyes on my aunt's theme truffles. Anyone have any ideas for Sanderson truffles? She makes whatever will sell, and SLCC is one of her primary venues. (She also goes to other cons in the western US - I don't think she's made it to San Diego yet, and I don't think she's done any of the midwest or east coast cons. I can try to convince her into JordanCon. But, she does ship within the US. No idea about international shipping...)

If we could all get together for SLCC - in no way chosen because it is in home state and my aunt generally can get free tickets for me - I would be down with that.

I've wanted to for a while, but I lack sufficient funding for now.

I'll be there!

Music is, of course, an important part of our culture, but it is not prominent in what you would call our religion. Our rituals sometimes involve a gong, a drum, or a horn, but that is the limit of the presence of music in our rituals. In our wider society, however, I am told that much music is made and performed. The sorcerer who binds me here informs me that the instruments in your world most similar to those we use are the sitar, the Saraswati veena, various forms of drums, and several forms of reed instruments from a place he calls India. I am informed that our music is much like the music of this India place in many regards, including tone, rhythm, and melodic structure. Truly, though, I know little of music. I have heard the performers at the festivals on the rare occasions I find myself on business in the city during that time, but there is little music in the temples.

There are a couple of different approaches to developing an original world. One is mine: DEVELOP EVERYTHING! And then just use what you need. Pros of this approach oxide incredibly developed worlds with immense background and detail. Cobs include spending so much time worldbuilding that the plot is thin (or, in my case, I haven't even got to that yet - this is what is known as worldbuilder's disease). Kaymyth has a better plan if you are at all interested in getting an actual story out in a reasonable timetable. Worldbuild a little to get your setting ready, then develop what you need as you need it. Don't be afraid to build on tangents - but be in control. Build because you can use it - or because you need it for background. But in any case, all development happens because of questions. Why does my character think that? How do these changes to history affect religion? What do politics look like? Even simple questions like "what is my character eating?" can lead to fruitful development for the world. Above all, don't be afraid. Writing is hard work, but it's some of the most rewarding in the world.

Biased in what way? The American news media tenda to have (at least historically) a strong pro-Israel bias, and Arab news outlets are obviously possessed of a strong pro-Palestinian bias. I've not studied the European tendencies though.

As a matter of semantics, your word worship is an imprecise way of describing what we of the Chaod Leu do. I have heard of the services you Soulless give those beings you call gods, of the sacrifices and festivals and sermons and rituals and all manner of incomprehensible things. We of the Chaod Leu do no such things. We reverence the Great Elements, true. They are the source of the world, and the foundation of this creation, and deserve our respect. But they do not demand our praises, our worship, sacrifices and festivals. Unless their attention is captured by some unfortunate event, they pay no mind to humans either of the Soulless or the Chaod Leu. And we are content to have it that way. To draw the attention of one of the Great Elements is to invite destruction down upon not just you, but your whole village, town, city, or even kingdom. Of far more importance is the art of dealing with the chirnagi. And as a priest, that is what I am trained to do. I read the omens, and watch the portents of the Chhuyha in their enclosure. I cast the divinations that tell which of the Elements has touched one of the Chhuyha or which chirnagi is troubling a particular family or person, and the reason why. And I can call the abjurations that can bind a chirnagi at need, for a price, of course. I also take my turn keeping watch over the Great Fire, which our records say was placed in the Chosen Land by the Great Element himself. It has never gone out in the twelve thousand years since then, and we are tasked with keeping it so. I am told that the initiates of the Great Temple of the Spirit, placed in the center place of the Chosen Land, have been known to approach the Great Spirit personally to ask for favors or other intercession. She has a closer relationship with those of the Chaod Leu than the others, and her attention is not uniformly disastrous. But of the means and methods of their approaching I have no knowledge. But I have allowed myself to be drawn onto a tangent. The magic apparently permits this. Interesting. I must investigate that further. At some other time, though. All Chaod Leu recognize the five elements - Earth, Fire, Air, Water, Spirit. Five is a number of the second perfection, and that the number of Great Elements agree with it is a sign. But there are the Four Hidden Elements - Light, Darkness, Order, and Chaos - and these added to the Five are nine, a number of the first perfection. This is a greater sign. I deal with esoteric matters now, Soulless, and will clarify as I can to you if you do not understand. But the sum of it all is this - no philosopher or priest of the Chaod Leu would begin to think that there were more elements than the five and four. It is such an obvious thing, born out by science and mathematics. But there are heretical sects among us - many devoted to the Hidden Elements. As if Order or Chaos could rise from the dead when their life force had passed from Being. Or as if one would want to free the Darkness, or draw the attention of the Light. She may have captured the love of the other Great Elements, but it is only Spirit who ever notices mortals without bringing down disaster on their heads. Why should the Light be different? More insidious are those sects that pervert some form of the true Way. There are some who teach that the Soulless beyond the Wall actually were given souls created by Spirit. This is blasphemy, of course, and easily refuted. After all, did not their originator - may he ever be nameless - have a half-souled wife? Is not such a thing proof of his perfidy? But the teachings remain, especially among the half-souled and those who deal with their kingdoms on the other side of the Wall. Some will not be convinced no matter how obvious the truth is. To answer your final question - not all the Soulless are possessed by demons, though any of them may be. It is only the Chaod Leu who have protection against that, for we have a spirit inhabiting us. The Soulless are animated by the latent power of the Elements who made the universe. One needs not a spirit to make such a life as the Soulless live. The ambient force of the Universe is sufficient to sustain them. But we of the Chaod Leu have an individual spirit, a chirnagi of the Great Element herself, inhabiting us. It is a mark of honor indeed, and it is why we strive to maintain our purity.

Yeah, I ran into that one too. So I sat down and figured out what it would take to have an FTL system that made strategic locations valuable again, and worked at it until I got something working. I probably ought to post stuff on that, too. When I get the Edassa worldbuilding thread up. I am actually working on it again, though, which is a good thing. Now that I have school to keep me busy, my creative juices are flowing beautifully again. Solution to writer's block: Stay in school forever In other random news, I finally came up with a good name for the background universe Edassa is set in. "The Thousand Realms." I like it, and I think it's just catchy enough without being overwrought - and it avoids even more of Seonid's crazy names from becoming front pagers.

Not working for me either

You're probably right. I will happily concede. After all, there's enough awesomeness to go around.

My wife and I are 3 years married, 10 years since our first date. I don't have a (recent) ultrasound, but I can see both disgustingly adorable and ultrasounds and raise you a toddler just beginning to figure out how awesome books are

Miss Whitelaw, would you mind describing for us what it feels like to see the future? Is the future a fixed path, or is it a many-branched experience?

Actually, if you read the actual quote given by Brandon in the post above, you'll see that he asylum days that they are attracted to each other. That's one of the ways you tell what sex a kandra is, apparently.