Titan Arum

It's Chinatown/Gallery Place in DC. I knew you live in the DC area, so I thought I'd let you know in case I couldn't go. I have my tickets for Georgetown. If I am in the country I'll make sure to take the 17th off of work or take a half day so that I can get in line for a good seat. ScottLeft...one is NEVER too old for Star Wars underwear. Wear it with pride!

I am cautiously optimistic about this movie. I love JJ Abrams because I thought the first two seasons of Lost were brilliant. I also like that the screenplay was written by Lawrence Kasdan...the man that brought us, in my opinion, the best Star Wars movie ever: The Empire Strikes Back (even if I think he screwed up with the Return of the Jedi because George Lucas was more concerned with selling toys). Even with that cautious optimism, I have obviously already purchased my tickets to see the movie at 7 pm on Dec. 17th. Kipper, it may be hard to find tickets still available for an early viewing on the 17th. I tried to buy tickets at the Chinatown theater a few hours after they were up for sale and it was sold out for the entire day already...however, I may be willing to sell my tickets to you if I can't go. I might be in Bangladesh for work on the 17th (crossing my fingers that I won't be!!).

So, technically, a Breath is not health. It just helps you stay healthier because I'd argue it's similar to being part of your immune system. You get rid of it, you're immune system is repressed. That's what happens when someone becomes Drab. I also don't agree with your assessment of giving up your Breath as suicide or euthanasia. If someone has a terminal illness is the US, a lot of people "pull the plug". It doesn't make economic sense to keep a person alive via a machine if they're going to die anyway. Keeping someone alive for an extended period of time costs quite a lot of money, and frankly (and in my opinion), is quite selfish. If you're keeping the person alive long enough to say goodbye to friends and loved ones, that's one thing, but if you're keeping them alive for the sake of life but they're suffering and can't live a normal life...what's the humane thing to do? That's why a lot of people decide to turn off the machines. And usually, when this happens, people don't die right away. Their body just starts to shut down on it's own, but not immediately as if it were a light switch. To ease this time period, doctors can and do prescribe medicines to relieve pain and prevent any additional suffering. For example, my girlfriend's uncle recently passed away after having a brain infection. He was being kept alive with machines because the medicine wasn't able to kill the infection, and even if it had been able to fight it he'd be brain damaged and no longer able to communicate with anybody. His family made the difficult decision, based upon his wishes in his will, to take him off of life support. The doctor's didn't want him to suffer so they gave him some morphine and let him pass on his own. Two days after being taken off of life support he died. But before that, his entire family had time to pay their last respects, in honor of his memory and life. In a few cases, while holding his hand, he squeezed back as they talked to him. If we think about it on Nalthis, if the person is terminal, and their single Breath can't save them, why not bequeath it to someone else? You won't die immediately, most likely, and I'd argue it's like pulling the plug in our world. That person is going to die eventually, whether or not they give someone their Breath. So bequeath it to someone, especially if they're family.

Got it. That makes perfect sense. Awaken something that doesn't need all your Breath, then give the remaining Breath to someone else. Then get your Breath back from the Awakened object. That is a convenient hack. I like it.

It has been while since I've read Warbreaker, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it's possible to give some of your breath to another person with the "My breath to yours" command. I think it's an all or nothing scenario.

Ahh, Pechvarry, even with flesh eating bacteria, you don't die immediately. If you can't kick it, you'll probably realize your death is coming and thus pass your Breath on to someone. Also, if you only have one breath, that's the baseline for Nalthians, right? Thus it probably doesn't "help" people heal better because it's just normal for them. They already understand what their Breath is capable of doing for them. If I have a flesh eating bacteria, I'd assume my normal Breath wouldn't be enough to heal me because I know its limitations. Tarion, I actually hadn't considered the implications of inheritance of Breath. It seems like it would be an amazing thing to pass on to your descendants and would be a great way to accumulate wealth for your family. But...then Breath would be relatively worthless over time because poorer people would now have (potential) access to more than just one Breath as is the normal for Nalthian society. This would cause inflation: the value of an individual Breath would decrease because what before one Breath was capable of, we'd now assume you'd have to trade more of your Breath to acquire. Now, instead of one Breath being locked up in a lot of people, each family has at least one person with more than one Breath and all other members of the family have at least one (assuming they didn't sell it...because if they did they wouldn't get the same sized basket of food). Also, such an inheritance system could cause a lot of internal strife within families after a death. "Why did Jim Bob get all the Breath from dad? I deserve it more than him!"...which leads to fights and possibly betrayals and death. Which could be the end of the wealth of Breath because someone would rather die with it than cause such animosity. Unless, culturally, it was just expected you'd give your breath to your eldest child (heir) or through whatever other traditional system is in place.

Fine, yes there are still some people living in Chernobyl and the Exclusion Zone (estimates of less than 300), but relative to the pre-disaster population (estimated to be 120,000) it's basically zero. So, semantics. But you get the point I was making, right? On your second point, are you discounting visual learning in the pursuit of scholarship? If you're teaching kids about Aons and their shapes, wouldn't it make a great "field trip" to hike to the top of the mountains to show this real world equivalent to Aon Rao? Or at the least point it out on a map and then explain its importance? It'd be a great learning tool and one that a child would remember. My parents and teachers always strove to show us proof of things by giving us examples. It's how learning works. Otherwise we're all just drones who blindly accept things as they are. For example, I took a hydrology class in college where the professor took us on white water rafting trips to show us in nature/real life what we had learned in class. To this day I can still identify eddies, point bars, and other geological aspects of rivers when I'm on one; all because he showed it to me. Also, I'm not saying people forgot Elantris is there. Of course they haven't forgotten about Elantris. I'm talking about Aons and how I find it implausible that nobody knew that Elantris and the area was shaped like Aon Rao. Ladris basically summed up my point well: 10 years is too short a time to simply forget things that are meaningful culturally.

Welcome keeper! I love your country, as I got the chance to explore quite a bit of it back in June. Istanbul, Cappadocia, and the Turquoise Coast are beautiful places! As others suggested, read Mistborn when you get the chance. When Words of Radiance comes out in Turkish, make sure to pay close attention to the epigraphs for information on the Cosmere. I'd be curious to see how those things get translated; maybe you'll get information that is different but vital from what it says in English?

Ha. You're correct. They changed their capital a few years back...and now that I google it, a few years back really means 18 years back. I must be getting old when that time period is remembered as "a few years back".

You're forgetting that it's A LOT more difficult to create a lifeless that's not human. They assume that someone used a lot of Breath to create a Lifeless-Squirrel because it would normally take a lot of breath to make a lifeless animal. (Assuming I am remembering this correctly. I'll try to find references to this when I get a chance after work...because maybe my head canon is just making this up.) Remember that if an object is more anthropomorphic, it uses less Breath than something a lot less human-like. That's why Vasher makes the straw into little human forms, because it takes less Breath to Awaken it. That's also why Vivenna is surprised at how much Breath it takes to Awaken a rope vs. her clothing.

Landis, I completely disagree with you. People don't just forget something that they revere or is so culturally significant for some period of time. Unless there is a group actively trying to provide misleading information or stoke fear to change a viewpoint. In our world, the Chernobyl disaster occurred 29 years ago. Chernobyl was completely abandoned by humanity and now is overrun with wildlife. But we as a society have not forgotten, nor will we. We know what happened there and as a result we allow this history to dictate our future use of nuclear power, even though it has been proven to be very clean and generally very safe to use. (Fukushima doesn't count as a counterpoint to this because it was damaged in an earthquake/an outside force. Not by humans.) Basically, I find it hard to believe that information can be lost in only 10 years, especially something tied to a local religion or local deities. Even if that religion has fallen out of favor. Further, Raoden still knew what Aons look like and I assume other people in society do too, since their names are closely associated with Aons. Someone thus should have remembered, or known through observation, that the area was shaped like an Aon Rao because these symbols are still so relevant to society.

king of nowhere...in a world where Parshendi are not human, why would humans fighting them for revenge be worried about harming them? I don't understand your point, because they're at war. War is inherently strife. War inherently causes harm. Furthermore, Kaladin (and I assume the vast majority of people on Roshar) did not realize that using Stormlight to fight the Parshendi would push the Parshendi to Voidbringer ways. Also, it appears that Venli was looking for the forms of power secretly before all of this happened, so I don't agree with your leaps in logic.

Maxal, your example about Kaladin and the side-carry forgets several key things after the fact. Kaladin came up with his idea to protect his squad, yes, and did not think about the implications to the broader army as a whole. But the second he realized that his scheme, while successfully protecting Bridge 4, was causing the death of many others, he immediately regretted the implications this caused. He saw that he lost the battle for the army and probably caused more death than otherwise would have occurred. After that, he did not use the maneuver again, even if it saved his people. He learned from this mistake. Kaladin's one major flaw, as you noted, is that his focus for protection is rather narrow when he's planning how to protect those he cares about. However, once he does realize the cost to others he usually changes course and tries to come up with a new plan. He continues to grow from his mistakes and his flaws. As further proof, we see that once he gets past wanting to protect Moash and Bridge 4, he finally concludes that he has to protect Elhokar, even if he does't agree with it in his soul. He realizes it's his duty and then spoke the third oath of the Windrunners:

Yata, I'm pretty sure that the One-Breath Lifeless have been the standard since the Manywar. What makes you think that all of the Lifeless we see are 50-Breath versions? I'm also pretty confident that Clod is a One-Breath Lifeless.

I have no idea why they'd want to withhold it, other than the fact that scholars historically (in our world) did withhold information from the masses. I just suspect they DID withhold the information since, 10 years after the fall of Elantris, it appears nobody realized that Elantris and the surroundings were shaped like Aon Rao until Raoden saw it from the mountainside.

I realize in retrospect that I didn't word what I was saying well. I was making several assumptions that I never stated including that Elantris and the four gate cities were not planned. My main reason to think this is that people should/would know, through historical records or word of mouth, that Elantris was shaped like Aon Rao if it was planned. I assume this because it was a huge surprise to Raoden that it looked like Aon Rao, thus I think it wasn't planned. However, maybe it was planned by the Elantrians who decided to withhold this information? Even if this is true, then just looking at a map (like the ones in the 10th anniversary) would make it clear that it was all shaped like Aon Rao. Maybe we're just meant to take this with a leap of faith, that nobody knew it was shaped like Aon Rao before. But I find this hard to do given my nature and the fact that Elantris had only fallen something like a decade before the book took place. Anyway my initial point isn't very good and poorly worded. I don't actually think Aon Rao was based upon Elantris, but that maybe by pure happenstance, when Elantris and the four gate cities were built, the aggregate took on the shape of Aon Rao. Granted, this is a stretch too, because statistically how could this be possible...unless it was shaped according to the Shards' desires.

Ahh Model UN! To finish the list: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Almaty, Kazakhstan (Actually, it's Astana. Thanks for reminding me little wilson!!) Ashgabat, Turkmenistan Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Oh man, if I had seen this earlier I would have nailed the African capitals (Ouagadougou, has to be the worst place I've ever been...)! Abuja is the capital of Nigeria by the way. I'll take a stab at additional capitals... 1) Accra, Ghana 2) Lilongwe, Malawi 3) Dakar, Senegal 4) Windhoek, Namibia 5) Bamako, Mali 6) Niamey, Niger 7) N'Djamena, Chad 8) Juba, South Sudan 9) Khartoum, Sudan 10) Lome, Togo 11) Freetown, Sierra Leon 12) Conakry, Guinea 13) Nouakchott, Mauritania 14) Bissau, Guinea-Bissau 15) Port Louis, Mauritius 16) Djibouti, Djibouti 17) Yaounde, Cameroon 18) Malabo, Equatorial Guinea 19) Brazzaville, Republic of Congo 20) Kampala, Uganda 21) Not Sure, Mozambique 22) Not Sure, The Gambia 23) Not Sure, Lesotho 24) Not Sure, Swaziland 25) Not Sure, Burundi 26) Not Sure, Botswana 27) Not Sure...but it starts with a B, Central African Republic 28) L-something, Gabon 29) NOT Dar es Salaam...it was moved to somewhere more central, but I'm not sure where, Tanzania 30) Not Sure, Angola Since I was able to add 20 capitals to the list, I'll take a stab at the next question... WLIU, name three capitals from the so-called "Stan" countries.

Actually, Aon Rao IS based on geographic characteristics, but man-made ones: As you can see from this map of Elantris and Kae, the walls of Elantris mimic the shape of the coastline and mountain range while the temple/university in the middle mimics Lake Alonoe. The circles of Aon Rao are the four gate cities around Elantris: Kae, Toa, Ake, and Ato. The lines connecting the Aon Rao circles to the central shape are the roads from the four gate cities headed towards Elantris. Thus, it is land-based, and as Javapython_ says, the Aons were all discovered, not created by man, so they are location based. WoB has even stated that the magics of Sel are all location based.

I'm going with Vasher for the win here. He just has so much more EXPERIENCE over time.

Welcome, Momspren!! Also, no need to change your name to LurkerMom. My mother holds that title well. I discovered that she was a 17th Shard lurker after posting a picture of my Aon Rao pumpkin on the forum...she texted me to tell me that she liked it and wanted to upvote it! Ha. Thanks, momma dear.

Bard, I disagree with your general assessment of Worldhoppers being unlikely to be too ingrained in a society. We have plenty of instances of Worldhoppers running around for quite some time in a given society: Vasher/Zahel: It appears that Zahel has been on-planet for quite some time as a master swordsmen trainer. Adolin recalls fondly of his training that he started when he was what, 6? He's now early 20s. Hoid/Wit: While he does leave periodically, he does come back as Wit and seems quite ingrained in that society. For now. Iyatil: She's quite ingrained in the society of Roshar since she is a high ranking member of the Ghostbloods. We can't be sure how long she's been active currently on Roshar, but it seems like it's been a while according to WoB: At this early stage of the Cosmere books, I'm willing to assume that many current minor characters could easily be Worldhoppers, even if they seem ingrained in society. Brandon has even said that at this point we're not really meant to notice all of the Worldhoppers. I'll see if I can find WoB supporting this, but it may have been from a recent signing...

This seems like a very redundant thread as we already have topics on everything you suggest. You should check them out; I'm sure you'll get a good laugh or two or at least learn something new: Sanderson Memes Cosmere Jokes The Ultimate List of Questions Lore==Coppermind

When you get super giddy and know that today will be a good day because Brandon retweeted your picture of the Rao o' Lantern that you carved for Halloween!!!