Satsuoni

Hm... Tired now, so there might be mistakes, but let's see. 1. There is not and can never be an ideal concept of "window". There are collections that the majority of people would call a window, but some people would always disagree. Hence, the idea of form is... weird. Yes, I have studied Platonic forms (it was a while ago, though), but, well. In context of Platonism (IIRC), you can see my argument as a posit that no form is manifested purely in any of three realms, only mixed shadows of several forms blurred together. Now, again, I point out that Shai is somewhat of a poet And so prone to certain amount of exaggeration. 2. Look at advanced theories of physics String theory posits that everything is strings, loop quantum theory that everything is loops of spacetime, standard model - that everything is so many interacting fields. And in the end, everything is made out of energy. Quite simply, if you say that something "anchors" pathways, you have to say what the anchors are made of... and what keeps those anchors together. My theory is probably closest to the cross of string and loop theory, but I don't know enough about them to be certain. 3. Spren. Hmm. Well, assuming additional energy influx during Shard splintering somehow went into those pathways, therefore strengthening them, I don't see why they wouldn't grow strong enough to persist. There are many things about spren that will be made clear in the next book (said Brandon, RAFOing me on reddit). For one, I wonder if spren individuality persists over periods without Nahel bond. I mean, Syl seems to remember more and more stuff, but is it her memory, or collective memory of honorspren (well, the fact that she has a name strongly suggests individuality of at least that knowledge. And that suggests that the number of spren is finite.) Also, Honor and Cultivation were once human, you know Maybe Tanavast liked him some ale. Or maybe that connection arose independently from the Shardic intent, just from raw power filling up the existing pathways. 4. Eigenvectors are vectors that do not change direction (up to sign) under certain linear transformation. In a way, they define the core of transformation. In our case, they are something that persists over all permutations of concept in some form

I glanced at Alfie. He barely waited for the butler to leave, and I was nearly sure I heard his steps falter outside. I wondered if he heard enough to identify the voice. Well, that was over and done now. I doubted he would think of a talking cat anyway. "I am not going to meet them here. Customers, especially first time customers, are met in the room arranged for the purpose. Arrangements include a hidden door for the guard and another peephole is in the corridor nook, closer to the floor if you want to watch. The coppercloud is in the house, and Susan is instructed to burn when unknown guests are in. Still, if the woman is tineye, you should be careful while moving around, or she'll notice you." I stood up, and changed my glasses to a darker version. We should be careful not to bae our teeth on these guests, nya. I took a few breaths to calm down, and went down to the meeting room. Soon after, Finnar appeared, showing way to the two people. I recognized the woman from the description, and Terrisman seemed to be the same as in the train, though I didn't get a good look at him then. So, his name was Sindred. Well, well, well. This was not good. My reading of human expressions was rusty, but I thought he recognized me, too. Nyaaa... Will he challenge me? He has no proof that I had the book, and most of the evidence was destroyed. Let's see. "Mr. Sindred, I am Satsu. Pleased to meet you." I keep my voice as normal as I can. "Would you please take a seat?" I address my butler, waiting expectantly near the doorway. "Finnar, please provide refreshments. Tea would be good, I believe. And samples." Sindred nodded at me politely, and sat near the table, with me sitting on the opposite side. The guard, still without introducing herself, eyed me suspiciously and declined my offer with a shake of her head and stood not far from the door. "So, while we wait for refreshments, could you outline the reason for your visit, Mr. Sindred?" "Mr. Satsu." - Terrisman inclined his head politely. I didn't like the way the woman kept glancing on my glasses. "I have heard you are one of the finest providers of rarer alloys in Elendel. I would like to talk to you about ordering a shipment of nicrosil. Still, the reputation is well and good, but I would also like to arrange for a testing before the order." So. No talk about the book. Well. Such things were not really mentioned in the polite society. [ooc]You can move in the position, or go explore the city or their site I'll add more dialogue tomorrow[/ooc]

I can bet that I won't like new changes My reasoning is simple: A. I am satisfied with forums now. B. I almost never go above satisfied. C. I abhor change, with the exception of additions. Hence, the most I can hope for is the same level of satisfaction But I understand your desire to change. Go on ahead And thanks for the warning.

Eh. Well. As I said, food for thought. The possibilities I see are: 1. Non-nalthians can't give Breath after they get it. No Awakening 2. First Breath they get sticks to them as to the lifeless, and gives ability to Awaken. The breath is lost, though. 3. They gain ability to Awaken from Breath itself, and lose it once they run out. They can't withdraw their breath from objects if they lose ability. 3a. They can withdraw Breath from objects 4. They can transfer received Breaths to other people. No awakening. 5. A single Breath wakes up their Awakening, and can then be given away without damaging that ability As an offtopic, Windrunner, do you know if Mistborn japanese covers are available anywhere? And if not, is there any need in them? I can take photos in store (probably), since I found them pretty.

Ah, I see your point. I wonder if that means that they can't give breaths back, since the process is largely identical. Of course, it does not state that receiving Breath won't give you the ability to manipulate it... Still, food for thought.

Could you please give a source on that?

I have just been looking at the japanese version in a bookstore. The covers for all 9 books are awesome! Unfortunately I couldn't find the relevant passage, so maybe next time.

Ok, I'll try to answer, but no quotes, since phone 1. Well, you touched on it, but yes, you are the one who forges new connection between a window you see and all others. Each person's concept of "window" is different, and is formed by other people assigning labels to rather arbitrary collections of stuff, but they are close enough. Once again - different languages, different concepts, similar to mild personality change for the person switching language he is thinking in. Hence, no single, ideal form for window, just something average. (pity I can't draw that now ) 2. n^2 or more connections As mentioned in my theory, connections go one way, so you need at least two, in most cases. As for simplicity, well... Doctor once said that I have simple and complex backwards For me, having more connections but less separate entities is easier. 3. Did you miss the part where I noted the persistence of pathways after the objects are gone? Unsupported pathways will decay, but for a stable concept that will take a while, and also Spiritual stores history, so stuff can be ( technically) recovered. Here I would like to point out that you separate pathways and objects, while in my head objects, well, everything, *is* pathways and energy in them (interchangeable). Even human can be viewed as a tangled, pulsing web spanning all three realms So yes, branching, formation and persistence of pathways are allowed. Besides, will a concept of window even persist for long if everything window and everybody who remembers window are destroyed? 4. Death, wind and pain are more of processes. Btw, do we know if animals attract painspren? Ok, that would require explaining concept of resonant networks of pathways, but essentially similar changes attract pieces of Shard that resonate with change, and Stormlight fuels those pieces to become visible. I may expound more on that later. 5. Look up eigenvalues and eigenfaces. They are cognitive-based because they are formed from cognitive perception, while being stored in Spiritual. Edit: hit post by mistake

Well, it is easy enough Spiritual connections arise, in part, from the arrangements of objects in question in both Physical and Cognitive. Hence, a human thinking "yeah, that is a window" forges a new, however weak connection between an object and other objects of the same name. And there are a lot of humans... (as an aside, there is an interesting problem of language. For example, my concept of "window" in russian is mildly different from same concept in english. Objects like a window are not a good example here, but still, some concepts may not even have an equivalent in another language, and what you see as an object may be seen like so many parts by somebody else. Ahem.) Anyway, in such a way, a network (of pathways) between similar objects is formed. When such a network is strong enough, it may become self-sufficient (at least for a while), and continue to exist even if you destroy everything window. Also, I think Shai exaggerates a bit, since the is a poet at heart EDIT: And be happy that I remember to add paragraphs to begin with for I tend to forget, for in my mind, all sentences are often as one concept But I'll keep it in mind. Edit2: And yes, you can technically refer to an independent tangle of pathways in Spiritual realm as a "form", I guess. But why bother, when you refer to them as "cognitive-based eigenpathways" or something?

As this linksuggests, Szeth isn't bound to a spren: So his power source is unknown (although it can be argued that using spren in fabrial form is not "binding", but no known fabrial allow a person to act as fabrial, i.e. infuse stormlight into himself Even soulcasters use gemstones.) As an aside, Kurkistan, I do not really agree with a form theory, much preferring my own, into which I can more or less clearly fit all interactions/magical systems to date, and think that TLR aged because of his spiritweb, which remained mostly human. I am relatively sure a few spikes would have fixed that problem (like they give Kandra immortality - a mistwraith only lives for 50 years, but first generation of kandra is still around after a thousand), but, well, some humans a weird about that thing. Maybe he didn't think to figure it out while he held the power, and never risked afterwards. Nevertheless, he had human sDNA, and it evolved according to human rules, including senescence. So, as you mentioned before: "okay, well the OP was wrong/unreadable, but look at Aaradel'sSatsuoni's theory"

Sigh. Here are the quotes you are looking for (HoA) :)/>/> There was also some info/speculation on the decay rate and capacity of spikes, which I can't find now. Essentially, smaller spikes can still store enough of the human soul to be effective, but will decay much faster, so the maximum amount of charge you can accumulate on one of them (by repeatedly killing more people) is less. The effect of removing the spike after implantation and keeping it outside is not well known, and my theory of charge fixing (slowing the decay down) is mainly based on the above quote vs Vin keeping a much smaller spike outside for months (as opposed to two days of a largish spike "not giving powers") EDIT: Ah! here is where I got the notion about Sazed fixing kandra, straight from the annotations:

The day began rather uneventfully. Alfie walked up to me asking about my nightly foray, and I told him all about her words. He seemed strangely agitated at the mention of Harmony, and I seemed to recall him talking about it before. I have checked up on his wounds, and confirmed that the bone was indeed knitting rapidly. I resolved to remove the spike in the evening. Also, I was goinya to introduce Alfie to her and vice versa, so I told him about some precautions he should be aware about. "Well, I think you should meet her today. There are a few things you should remember. One. She is tin Savant that has tin sense enhancement spike and Feruchemic tin stores. Her hearing is extremely acute, and I suspect that she is now tetrachromat. For this reason she prefers darkness, and when you talk to her, talk in as close to whisper as you can manage, though I know your voicebox may not be very good for it. The light of the day is barely bearable to her, and she can hear almost everything in her territory, so speech close by is the loudest shout. Don't expect to talk long. These senses, however, is why she is so good at information gathering, along with increased memory and processing from Mental strength. She just has to sit and listen, at considerable distance." My speech was interrupted by a knock on the door, and Finnar's voice. Strange. I didn't call him. I nodded at Alfie and called him in. "Sir. A terrisman Sindred here to see you, without appointment, but his references are good. Apparently it is something about ordering Nicrosil. He has brought a single female guard. Do you want to meet with them here or in the meeting room?" [ooc]Brain still mush... Sorry about grammar.[/ooc]

Ah, I remember there was a typo. Don't remember which one is correct though, but it was mentioned somewhere.

The night is here. The pain in my shoulder has devolved to a persistent throb, but the bleeding has stopped, and increased Investiture sense distracts me enyagh. Alfie sleeps peacefully, only stirring a little as I free my legs. He seems well on the mend. I leave the building, nodding to the guard. It may not be safe to walk the streets of Elendel at night, but that us acceptable risk. Still, I swallow some of the metal paste, even if normally I can't burn any except Nicrosil. I reach her area without incident, and settle to wait. About a minute later she appears from the shadows, her superior senses warning her of my approach. For a few moments we stare at each other, me motionless, her sometimes changing positions in a blur of motion. She is Siamese, with two golden eyes, lacking traditional eye spike in favour of tin and normal steel. Those eyes bulge slightly now, indicating Tin tapping. Despite the shadows deep enough that I have trouble seeing, her pupils are closed as far as they would go. Additional Human spikes didn't leave her unchanged. The eyes and ears are much larger than it is normal for her breed, her paws also appearing deformed. A feral from birth, she has no name pronounceable by a human, electing to be addressed by a cat's thrill. "Satsu" she whispers, and I return the greeting as quietly as I could. She continues to stare as I outline my question, then nods, a rather incongruous human gesture. I bring out a packet of tin and meat. She rarely visits the safe house, and I am not sure how she supplies herself. After accepting the packet, she starts to speak. "I know of the inquisitors spike, as it is close enough for me to hear from my place" She closed her eyes as she considered. "I may want Health... later. You would want the gang that was recently appropriated by a Connector who calls himself Harmony. He merged several separate gangs and replies heavily on metallic arts. He smells of metal... Come tomorrow night. Food is welcome." With that, she was gone, my eyes barely registering a blur. Well, that was fruitful. For obvious reasons, she preferred solitude and high places, but she was good at what she did, though combat was not part of it. Sanity was never a requirement for us... An additional day would be good for recovery. I returned to my house, to the relief of the guard, and went to sleep.

Iirc, the distinction is simple. Chulls and smaller are "shelled beasts" ( mentioned in the book maybe once, but still) Particularly large shelled beasts are Greatshells. All have similar body type, hence Adolin calling Chasmfiend an "overgrown chull" A lot of fauna on Roshar seems crustacean, so I think they are natural enough, though Spren in Greatshells help them to deal with large body mass. [EDIT] Shellbeasts, not shelled beasts: Greatshells are also called "great-shelled beasts"