KalynaAnne

Hey guys. I asked for something about Kaladin when he was signing WoR. Before I tell you what he wrote, I should mention that he was halfway through writing it when I opened my rithimatics notebook and kind of distracted him. "Kaladin has known multiple lightweilders." I also asked a bunch of rithmatics questions at the signing today. I'm afraid I don't have a recording (which wouldn't be completely clear because it involved me pointing at drawings in my notebook) or his exact words, but I can pass on what I learned.Note: The tumblr posts linked below are meant to help you understand what I mean by constructions, but they were written before the signing and any theorizing not confirmed here is still theorizing. Yes, 5 and 8 point defenses (constructed from applying the 9-point circle construction to right triangles and isosceles triangles respectively) could exist. They haven’t really been explored in world though. You can always bind more than one thing to a bind point, but binding multiple things weakens the point. It is a much better idea to add a small circle that gets 3 additional bind points. It doesn’t change anything if the point comes from multiple points in the 9-point construction. When I showed him the 9-point ellipses constructed from different triangle centers (see the constructions here ) he stared at them for a moment before answering. He hesitantly said that, yes, those constructions should be valid in theory, but that they shouldn’t be used in practice. The sides of ellipses are weak enough that if you expect to need to defend your sides you really should be using a circle. Yes, Lines of Vigor behave like light waves. Yes, this means that higher frequency waves are better for doing damage, lower frequency waves are better for transferring energy (and thus moving things) Yes, Lines of Vigor follow the rule that the angle of incidence = angle of reflection when bouncing off Lines of Forbiddance. LINES OF VIGOR ALSO REFRACT. I asked it in terms of whether they slightly change speed and direction when they move between materials like, say, concrete and asphalt. He said yes and that you also get the wavelength adjusting.

EDIT: I've been informed that the signing report belongs in a different part of the forum and that what I should put here is all of my theorizing with the comments I got today added in, so... In the interest of this not being super ridiculous long, I'm going to link you to the series I've been posting on Tumblr with a note about what each post is about: Part 1 Here I outline how to get all of the binding patterns in the book from special cases of 9-point triangles Part 2 How you could get a 5 point defense as a result of looking at right triangles. Brandon confirmed the existence of 5 point defenses at the signing today, but said they haven't been well explored in-world. Part 3 How you could get an 8 point defense as a result of looking at right triangles. Brandon confirmed the existence of 8 point defenses at the signing today, but said they also haven't been well explored in-world. Note: In these tumblr posts (which were written before the signing) I postulate that some bind points might be stronger than others. Brandon told me that this is not the case. You can always bind more than one thing to a bind point, but binding multiple things weakens the point. It is a much better idea to add a small circle that gets 3 additional bind points. It doesn’t change anything if the point comes from multiple points in the 9-point construction. Part 4 Where I analyze the 9-point circle construction on obtuse triangles and come to the conclusion that they don't give us anything new. Part 5 Lots of thoughts on the changing curvature of ellipses and my guess at the Blad defense. I didn't get a chance to confirm any of this. Part 6 So, there is a generalization of the 9-point circle construction in Geometry that allows for the construction of ellipses. Here I talk about different triangle centers and how they could be used to produce 9-point ellipses. When I showed Brandon my page of 9-point ellipses constructed from different triangle centers he stared at them for a moment before answering. He hesitantly said that, yes, those constructions should be valid in theory, but that they shouldn’t be used in practice. The sides of ellipses are weak enough that if you expect to need to defend your sides you really should be using a circle. Part 7 More on 9 point ellipses Part 8 Various thoughts on lines of vigor many of which were confirmed today! Things that Brandon confirmed for me at the signing today: Yes, Lines of Vigor behave like light waves. Yes, this means that higher frequency waves are better for doing damage, lower frequency waves are better for transferring energy (and thus moving things) Yes, Lines of Vigor follow the rule that the angle of incidence = angle of reflection when bouncing off Lines of Forbiddance. LINES OF VIGOR ALSO REFRACT. I asked it in terms of whether they slightly change speed and direction when they move between materials like, say, concrete and asphalt. He said yes and that you also get the wavelength adjusting. There, ah, may still be more theorizing coming as I get it written up

So, I just called to make sure they are planning to have copies of The Rithmatist(because I had checked it out from the library previously, but am fascinated with rithmatics) and to confirm that if I bought The Rithmatist that would count for the wristband. The lady I talked to told me that to get a wrist band I have to pick up a copy of either Steelheart or Firefight. If we are getting conflicting information, that would be interesting to know, but I just wanted to let you guys know what I was told today.

I'm planning to go and would be happy to meet up with fellow fans before hand, but that moment I'm not certain exactly how early I will be able to get there (I might have things that have to be done in the morning, though I'm trying to clear it). I don't have any other obligations that afternoon/evening, but, ah, my phone also isn't smart enough to record with. My laptop would be, but that seems rather intrusive.

I hadn't thought about the strength thing, but I've wondered if it would be possible to attach more than one chalkling to the bind points where multiple points from the 9-point construction coincide. By the way - I was playing with the triangles stuff before I came here hunting for what other people have done. We mostly seem to agree, but I've also figured out how to make the 2 point circles fit. My take on triangles and 9-point circles for the existing circle based defenses (including 2 bind point defenses) is here: http://kalynaanne.tumblr.com/post/107361151487/rithmatics-part-1

*waves at the other Atlanta/Georgia people* I only got sucked into Sanderson's work in the middle of last fall, so I haven't been to any signings yet, but I'm hoping I can avoid having to work that afternoon so I can make it to this one :-)

Newnan is a suburb south of Atlanta, out along 85. It seems like an odd choice of location to me - if he was going to pick an Atlanta suburb rather than Atlanta proper I would have expected something like Marietta or Roswell - but I'm *hopefully* going to be able to make it even though heading down to Newnan is likely to take up the entire afternoon.

Hmmm, I'd forgotten about that part, Moogle. But ok, so we factor in the time dimension. His name could still describe the exact shape of the fractal part of his form at any given time. It could still be the case that the only movement Pattern has control over is effectively translation/rotation type movement. I really like the idea of a fractal character who has to work within the confines of his form rather than being able to simply move around like a human. The intricacies of his shape would give him a lot of freedom in what he would be able to do, but the process for making it happen would be completely different. Pattern has some control over how much of him is present in the Physical realm as displayed by his ability to both hang out on the surface of things and to appear as a wriggling mass of lines. It doesn't seem out of the question to me that he could move to where we are getting a smaller cross section when he shrinks. Transformation being represented by a mathematical construct makes me really happy.

Our dear friend Pattern is a fractal. This much is clear from Shallan's comment the first time she draws him: “The pattern seemed impossible to capture. Its complex repetitions twisted down into infinity.” (pg 67, WoR kindle edition) It takes a while, but Shallan finally gets around to asking Pattern if he has a name beyond the one she has given him. His response: “Name is numbers. Many numbers. Hard to say. Pattern…Pattern is fine.” (pg 215, WoR) Fractal patterns that are on some level infinitely complex can often be described by seemingly simple equations and/or sets of rules. You can see this in things like the Koch snowflake, Sierpinski's triangle, the Mandelbrot set, and the Julia set. Theory: Pattern’s true name is a mathematical description (in some form or other, there are multiple possibilities here) of his fractal form. The fractal exists in multiple dimensions and his appearance in the physical realm is just one tiny slice of his full form - the intersection of his fractal with the physical realm. His apparently changing patterns are not actually his pattern changing, but instead him moving so that the intersection changes and we get different views of him. His ability to shrink corresponds to moving so that his intersection with the physical realm is smaller. As a fractal, even a tiny intersection would have the complexity necessary to, say, pick a lock. Now I really want to know Pattern’s true name.

Mmmm. I see. I have to say, I tend to prefer non-metallic cookies. I've finished the Mistborn trilogy (and Alloy of Law). Hemalurgy... *shudders*... no, thank you.

Mmmm cookies. Between my housemate and I there is almost always some kind of baked good available in the house though, so I'm really trying not to eat so many. What kind of cookies?

Finishing the rest of the Mistborn Trilogy is my number one reading priority (because I'm and the middle of it and AHHHHH!) The library system here appears to have one copy of The Emperor's Soul (oddly enough, as an audiobook), which is currently checked out. I've put in a request for it, but there's no telling when I will actually get it. I am working on it though. Oh Syl is fantastic, but Pattern.... Pattern is a fractal, which is going to win me over every time, but Pattern can also pick locks and read things written in forgotten languages because, I mean, both of those things are just patterns, duh. If his education in humor continues down its current path (and given that he is Shallan's pal, it will), he is also going to become increasing sarcastic and snarky and brilliant. I also find Pattern's understanding of "truth" and how it affects his interactions with the world fascinating.

I had this (probably crazy) idea today and posted it on Tumblr and it was suggested I bring it here as well. I tried to search to see if it was already here somewhere and didn't find anything - I apologize in advance if my searching-fu was lacking and I'm creating a repeat topic. Theory: At the very end of WoR, Nin gives Szeth a black Shardblade that lives in a metal sheath and asks in a cheerful voice "Would you like to destroy some evil today?" It is fairly clear that this is Nightblood from Warbreaker. We know that Nightblood was Awakened by Vasher and Shashara. However, even accounting for the sheer number of breaths involved in Awakening steel, Nightblood is odd for an Awakened object. We don't see any other Awakened objects that actively draw the breath from their users or leak black smoke. Here's my crazy idea: What if Nightblood was not originally from Nalthis? What if Nin is returning Nightblood to its native Roshar? We know Vashar was involved in awakening it, but I can't remember or find any mention of where the sword came from before it was Awakened. What if Nightblood was originally a dead-spren shardblade? The thing that got me thinking about this was noticing how well Nightblood's attempts at understanding what evil actually is in a human context parallel conversations we get involving Pattern and Syl trying to understand human concepts. Syl tells us that the dead-spren shardblades are partially revived when they are summoned. Awakening seems like it could be brute forced into reviving a dead-spren shardblade, though without a proper human/spren bond things would be wonky. This could explain Nightblood's odd mental ability. Like the spren in the Stormlight Archive, Nightblood is able to slowly learn to understand human concepts. However, unlike Pattern and Syl, Nightblood lacks a proper human-spren bond and thus is proving to have a much, much slower ability to learn. Spren lose their sentience if they loose their bond with their human (we see this with Syl and Kaladin in addition to being told about it). It would be reasonable for a dead-spren Shardblade Nightblood to require frequent replenishment of breath - just like the Returned require a regular supply of breath to remain "alive". This could provide an explanation for Nightblood's breath draining property. We know that black is a powerful color for fueling Awakening. If Nightblood is originally from Roshar rather than Nalthis, then the BioChromatic breath is not actually the right power source. It would want Stormlight which, as far as I can tell, is white. The process of converting Breath into power the spren-based sword can use could plausibly involve filtering out the color resulting in the black color of the blade and then the excess being released as the signature "black smoke." So, yeah. There's my idea. I'm fluctuating between thinking it is completely insane and thinking it is just the kind of crazy that might actually have a chance. On the off chance there is any truth to it, the power implications for an Awakened Shardblade seem like they would be off the charts... Regardless, I have found it interesting to think about and would be happy to hear other people's thoughts :-)

A friend pointed me to the Stormlight Archive a little over a month ago when the WoK free e-book promotion was going on on Amazon with a comment along the lines of "It's free. You have no excuse. Go read." I finished it quickly and promptly got WoR. I've since also read Warbreaker, Elantris, and The Final Empire and am currently reading The Well of Ascension. Brandon Sanderson's brilliant writing has well and truly sucked me in. I've been poking around the relevant tags on Tumblr and today I posted a crazy idea I had. Someone on Tumblr informed me that what I thought was completely crazy theorizing actually sounded like an interesting theory and suggested I should come post it here. Crazy theories don't seem like they belong in an intro thread, but I figured I should come say hi before I go find the right place to post it. Also, Pattern is the absolute best. I wish I could have a sentient fractal as a friend :-)