Cuaiir

Eerongal

The bartender whistles gently at your offhand comment. "Expensive tastes, your acquaintance. A bottle of T'Loakian is worth a full skymark. Each shot is at least a diamond chip, probably worth fifty of that Dancing Spheremorph." The price makes you glad that everything is pre-paid. A diamond chip, with even its small amount of Stormlight, was worth more than you'd made in six months as a Defender in Lake City. His smile shows off his many gold teeth as he says, "Rots the teeth something awful, too, if you drink too much of it."

As the flavored ice sphere melts in your mouth, he speaks again. "Our benefactor seems to like the mystery. I wasn't contacted first-hand like some of the others here; I was invited by my Spheresmith friend Ghrant, who was invited by his former master Tori. Did you know that Garson Gustav is here, personally overseeing the sale of Spheretech? Few people in the world have the kind of influence to get him to go anywhere. But like I said, I was invited here third-hand. You probably know more about our mysterious leader than I, what with being a Morph."

The daydisplay on the wall, with it's rotating, glowing images of sun and moon, shows that on the outside world it is near noon, and the first matches began at mid-morning. Not a normal time for heavy drinking, but down here - wherever 'here' is - it always seems near dusk.

"But, it's best for me to not talk of it too loudly. Piscun and Jezebel - you'll recognize them as the other two overseeing everything - they don't like it when I start talking about them or the benefactor." The bartender pours himself another shot of the black brandy, swirling it around in the glass contemplatively before downing it. "There's a few theories I've heard about the third Mist match, but nothing solid. The one I find most likely is that it was someone with a Grid that shifts through every Form instantly, and that the guy had a Special Form. But that doesn't explain how fast it happened, apparently. I really don't know enough about Spheres to theorize more. You could try talking to Ghrant, but he's probably busy. Sorry, Morph. Another Dancer for you?"

Figured someone should start one of these.

Page 202

Two instances of 'chromium' instead of 'cadmium,' which confused the heck out of me for a minute.

I think we're also forgetting the warping that Hemalurgy can have. Look at koloss, for instance; two spikes that aren't even Allomantically charged, and the body gets changed into something radically different. Who's to say that after the first dozen or so spikes, the Catquisitor won't grow in size, giving us even more surface area to stick spikes into.

If we assume that the surface area of a Catquisitor grows logarithmically relative to the amount of spikes in it, that the initial surface area is 150 sq.in., and take the log as an additive multiplier we get...

0 spikes - 150 sq.in.

1 spike - 150sq.in. +150sq.in.*log(1) = 150sq.in.

2 spikes - 150+150log2 = ~195sq.in.

3 spikes - 150+150log3 = ~222sq.in.

simplifiing the list, we go to...

4 - 240

5 - 255

6 - 267

7 - 277

8 - 285

at this point, the growth has become negligable, roughly 8 sq.in. per spike - the first few spikes, though, drastically increased the size of our Catquisitor. If we go for the full 256 spikes, we end up with a cat with 511sq.in. of surface area. This is a little over three and a half times the surface area; this increases its height by nearly two times, and it's volume by six and a half. Here's a little chart, based on the Wikipedia entry on cats

Stat - Starting # - # w/ 256 spikes and logarithmic growth of surface area

Height - 10 in - 18.7 in

Length - 18.1 in - 33.9 in.

surface area - 150 sq.in. - 511 sq.in. (Note: this is the only one I made up, I don't actually know the surface area of a cat)

volume/weight - 11 lbs (5 kg) - 61 lbs (27.7 kg)

Catquisitors would be terrifying and magnificent to encounter.

Eerongal

As the bartender goes to mix your drink, he says, “Sounds like someone’s had a long day. Just a moment.” He pulls three bottles from the shelf and gets out a tall glass, then pops open a hidden compartment filled with something that look like Formspheres, all separated by color. The first bottle is spun around his left hand, and a bright blue liquid pours into the glass as he tosses in a deep purple sphere. He pours the blue liquid until it fills half the glass, then pours in both of the other bottles at the same time, one stream of red the other yellow. He nearly fills the glass, then adds two more spheres – one a bright yellow, the other a lime green. The liquids all separate into distinct layers as he carries the drink over to you.

“One Dancing Spheremorph. Popular drink around here, it seems. Had one lady, fresh off a fight, come in, order one, down it, and dash off to the Spheresmithy. She was muttering to herself about some prophecy or other, I don’t remember the words, then said something about a Bleeding Sphere just before she left. Can’t tell me that sounds good.” He grimaces in distaste, and pours himself a shot of something black, drinking it with a smile.

“Much better. Nothing like a T’Loakian brandy to clear the memory of unpleasantness. Not available to the public, of course, as it’s distilled from Archivist Spheres. Copper Chemists, Ferrings, whatever they’re going by these days. But anyway. The arenas are where all the action is, I just hear about it afterwards.

“In Waterfall, some guy lit a puddle on fire to win his match. Crazy, if you ask me. Not sure how that happens. Glyph had someone pull out some sort of blinding light and end his match pretty quick. But Mist… something’s weird about Mist Cavern.

“It’s the fifth match in there right now, I think, but the third was over before anyone could blink. Some joker with an eye-shaped Grid did something, no one’s really sure what, and blew his opponent out of Form and into the chasm. It coulda been lethal if Mr. Benefactor hadn’t shifted into some crazy blue and black thing and sped down there faster than you could spit.”

He takes another shot of the black T’Loakian brandy, and looks over the bar. “You came at the right time for information. Much later and one of the arena’s matches would probably be over, and all those Spheremorphs would be in here buyin drinks.”

River

Peter takes your hand and shakes it briefly. There’s no strength in his grip, though, which is something you’d expect from a man who over-does everything. He meets your eyes and says, deadpan, “Aye. Good match.” His hand drops to his side and feels for something, likely a flask, but doesn’t find it. He notices himself doing this, and stops, shaking his head.

A bit of life comes into his voice as Peter says, “That was a cruel thing you did, River. The Sisters of Preservation can’t Soulcast what they can’t touch, and no Soulcasting means no healing. I can’t have a drink for a month.” His voice escalates until he is spitting his final words at you. “A month, River! Do you know what my life is like, the life of a Defender? No, you left before you could truly take on that role, Defender and head of a Riverheart house. Some argument between you and Arthur, that chull. Believe me it would drive anyone to drink.”

Peter’s hands check for his flask again as his voice drops back to a more normal level. “You used to be a good man, River. Sera gushed over you even after you dumped her; how kind, virtuous, and ever so proper you were. Whatever happened between your house and Arthur’s stupid crusade made you vicious, nasty, and small. I’d love to hear what Sera would have to say if she saw you now, but she can’t say anything anymore. She’s dead. Three months before you left, and you never even dropped by to say ‘I’m sorry.’” Peter is practically in tears at this point, but he continues, “No one came by. Two years and no one said ‘I’m sorry, Skell.’ I lost my little sister, my only family, and no one said a word to me. So I left. Riverheart only has twelve Defenders now.”

The large man sags to his knees and cries, his façade finally broken.

Thanks, Coma, and yes, it does mean that Eerongal and River will be on a team vs....well, you'll have to wait for that. However, it also means that Ambrosius and Jay'el will be teaming up against Trip and Flip, while the rest of the matches have yet to be set in stone.

Emeralis, I plan to keep Nexus alive and kicking for when Silus gets back. He's got a ton of ideas that he's shown me, and the long-term plan for this is nothing short of epic. I'm still nit-picking at some worldly details, just to pin it all down, but I think I now have nearly as good a grasp on the world as Silus does.

It's been a year and we're barely a third of the way through the first big plot arc. I think we'll be fine for another two.

Feel free to PM me with any questions, I'll do my best to respond in a timely manner.

As I understand it, round two is 2v2 with the winners moving on to round 3,which is a four-way free for all. The winner of the four-way free for all moves on to the finals.

I think I can clarify this.

Surgebinders existed before the Way of Kings was written, but they were not organized into the Orders of Knights Radiant that we are familiar with. Someone with Szeth's or Kaladin's abilities would not have been called a Windrunner, he or she would merely have been called a Surgebinder.

Basically, the magic system was around, but Nohadon and his book gave it a sense of order and organization that lasted for centuries.

So I did some trolling through old posts, partially for the Synopsis (more forthcoming, I promise!), and I put together a bracket based on what we know as PCs. Only point I had to make something up was on the guy who had a Cartoonist Form, and that was just a quick name. The structure is something I consulted with Silus on, totally accurate.

It's a bit large, but I checked with Silus and he says it's accurate. Yay reference material!

Jay'el

"You're not from the Foothills, so you wouldn't know. The thiefskin is a mark, it marks the descendants of those who stole from us. Those we shunned. It marks the untrustworthy, the murderous. And while you may assume the best about your 'friend', it's obvious he would slit your throat without a second thought if he had the inclination.

"The thing that bothers me the most about you is that you assume so much. You think you know my friends, and me, after less than a day. You think that the solutions to a teenage girl's problems will carry over to the real world, the world of Spheremorphs. You're wrong.

"You sabotaged me, or tried, you assumed on that one too, and no simple apology will make up for that. I can't take you at your word alone. Now if you'll excuse me I need to find some sucker who'll take this Bleeding Sphere."

She walks out and away toward the living quarters.

Seeing that the situation can't be salvaged, I let Victoria walk away without chasing after her. "Dark take it," I mutter to myself as I get back to the SphereBreaker. There goes another perfectly good relationship down the drain. Does it always come down to choices like that? Does being friends with Ambro mean a lot of people will hate me? If they hate me based on that association, are they really worth my time? Will Ambro try to kill me, like Vikki said? I hope not.

Who can I really rely on here? Tori is using me for free labor. Eero... we barely talk. Ambro, well, he's Ambro. Jack seemed like a nice enough fellow, but a bit flighty. River? Bah, his introduction was a lie, that's not the mark of someone you can trust. The family... but no. I've taken enough from them. Victoria doesn't trust me, and i think she'll talk to Burly and Gregory about this incident. So who can I trust? It's always the same answer: only myself. Ati's tears, why can I never make friendships work?

I arrive at the SphereBreaker to find Quinn inspecting my latest cuts. He went to reintegrate those pieces. Seems like that's a time-consuming process if it took him this long.

I've finished cutting up that Sphere, and she's obviously frazzled. But if I'm not here when Quinn gets back... Endarkened take it.

I chase after Victoria, still trying to get her to calm down. "You realize I'd have done the same thing for you if you'd asked me to? Heck, I don't even know if I was accurate - I based that little phrase off your use of an omni-tool, I've never seen you in Form. I don't know what you mean by thiefskin. Ambro seemed normal enough to me, maybe with a bit of chronic rash, but that doesn't make him a bad man. A little paranoid, yeah, but not bad."

She's irrational... is this what Hapori meant when he spoke of heightened pains and betrayals? Because this is getting out of proportion

"Vikki. I'm not going to try and flatter you - you've already said you don't like that kind of thing. But I am going to try to be a decent human being and fellow Spheremorph, and be here if you need someone to talk to. Burly and Gregory don't exactly seem like the types to be good at listening. Not to brag, but I am because I had to help my sisters get through tough breakups while they were dating. I know what I did seems like a betrayal, and I'm trying to apologize for that. I didn't mean for it to harm you, I only meant to support my friend - you've got Burly and Gregory ready to catch you if you fall, while Ambro has... well, he has me. Maybe Eerongal, too, but that's beside the point. Every Spheremorph here fights alone, but that doesn't mean we have to be alone outside the arenas."

I agree in principle, darniil, but I'm also looking at the origin story for modern Elantrians on the Ehe Pendant. What I'm seeing is that while it took a little while to happen, the new Aonic people became Elantrians relatively quickly, more quickly then normal DNA recombination-style evolution can account for. The conclusion I'm coming to based on this is that Spiritual DNA mutates and evolves to use new magics faster than actual DNA, and that's part of why I think that given a generation or two, even Fjordells could become Elantrians.

It's not even been a day, what could have happened?

"Victoria!" She turns to face me, clearly just recognizing who she shoved off the Breaker. "Rust and Ruin, Vikki, what's going on? You seemed fine three hours ago, and now you're bursting into the working section of a busy Spheresmithy and shoving other Spheremorphs off expensive equipment to work on a personal project? While I appreciate the speed that you worked at - Rayse's blood, I was floored by it - I think I deserve a bit more of an explanation than your mutterings to yourself. I thought we were friends..."

I did, and I asked for cosmere hints. Someone did the same for Elantris, can't remember who, and that seemed like a great idea.

Derailment: what if someone were very Devoted to advancing something morally wrong or ambiguous, such as, oh I don't know, the political power of the Derethi religion? It doesn't seem to fit with Skai's shard (do we have a name for that yet?), but if he'd been around longer maybe Hrathen could have become an Elantrian.

Shady reasoning for the last bit, but the first question still holds. And then if we combine Aona's shard with others that we know, like Honor or Odium, we could get some very interesting magic systems. Devoted to binding oaths, or absolute hatred. No real relevance, but an interesting thought experiment.

Jay'el

The lines appear random at first, but examining them reveals a subtle pattern to them. You almost miss it, but the curve splits the bindings evenly, each line progressing into the next to continue the even cut.

Huh. Interesting. Theoretically... let's try that. I start the first cut slowly, paying even more attention to where I'm cutting than before. Rather than cutting through the sphere like I'm using a saw, I vary the intensity on the cutting torch as I rotate the Sphere in its clamp, cutting deeper at some points and shallower at others. What would have been one normal cut takes me seven minutes, a bit on the long side, but I don't have to reset the position of the Sphere for the next cut - my cutting torch's unnatural flame smoothly flows into the next section of binding code. Yes. Not wasting time moving the sphere... this should be faster.

Another option is to put the campaign on the 17th Shard RP forums, so that anyone who comes to these forums can join in. Less redirecting, and all. It also keeps the Mistborn forum RP self-contained.

The hardest part about developing Aons would be finding the right base, and then figuring out what that base Aon does. After that, it's just a case of finding out what modifiers you can use, where they go, and what they modify.

Let's look at Aon Ehe for example. Your basic Ehe will make a column of flame in the direction the Aon is drawn. So you draw the Aon while facing east, and your column of flame goes east. Quick and dirty, you could draw a small Ehe to light a fireplace or a large one to burn down a house. Either way, the flame goes out quickly if it doesn't contact any fuel.

But finding that Aon took some time. From the pendant:

The story tells of the first princess of Arelon. This was some years after the founding of Arelon following the migration of the Aonic people from other lands. Elantris, of course, had already existed as a city when that migration occurred, and had been discovered empty. While some people assumed it haunted, Proud King Rhashm (later renamed Raoshem) determined to conquer the fears of his people and set up a kingdom centered on Elantris.

The transformation of the first Elantrians happened beginning several decades later. Princess Elashe—the first of Raoshem's line to be chosen as an Elantrian—claimed to have seen the pattern of this Aon inscribed on a coal in her hearth the day after she underwent the transformation. Whether or not this story is true, a coal or rock written with Aon Ehe on it is considered good luck and a ward against winter spirits. (Though this kind of superstition is frowned upon by the Korathi priests.)

Aon Ehe Pendant

So even with the new Elantrians rediscovering the magic of AonDor (possibly using the books in that hidden library), it took them some time to find new base Aons. I'd be willing to bet that Aons with easy symmetry (Edo, Deo, Ata, Sea, etc.) would be the first discovered, then things with more complicated symmetry (Ehe, Reo, Teo, Ela, etc), and finally things that seem completely random (Mea, Eda, Are, Nae, etc). The 'random' Aons would probably make more sense if we had a better and more accurate map of Opelon/Sycla, and a deeper understanding of how the Realmatics of AonDor work.

Once you've got a base Aon, then you can do the fun, experimental part - modifiers. Raoden modified the heck out of Ehe in the novel, but specific modifers that he used can be deduced, if not stated outright.

Duration: make the column of flame last for a longer time after the Aon is finished being drawn.

Intensity: artificially increase the size of the flame without modifying the size of the base Aon.

Shape: instead of a column, you could make a cone or a line. Think 'Burning Hands' or wall of flame.

Obviously there are more modifiers than this for all the different Aons - i can think of targeting for Ien, and distance for Tia off the top of my head - and that raises different questions entirely. Do the Duration modifiers for every Aon go in the same location (e.g. do the ones for Ehe go in the same location, relative to the Aon, that the ones for Ire go in)? What about the Shao-based illusion that Raoden used late in the book, what kind of modifiers did that have on it and where did they go in relation to the base Aon? We don't have the answers to this yet. I wish we did, it would help our understanding of AonDor - and by extension the system the Dakhor monks used.

Interesting thing I noted on the pendant description: Ehe can be used as a modifer, specifically as a ward to trigger other Aons in a sequence. This suggests that Aons can be used almost like a programming language, if you know enough about them. Aon Ashes that light up when the sun goes down, water that flows hot or cold at the touch of a button, an Ial-based auto-healing chamber... Elantrians would never need to develop technology if they studied AonDor and used it right. I'm thinking of all the stereotypical science-fiction things that show up, and then replacing the science with Aons... It would be possible, if you knew the Aons. And it would give Arelon and the Elantrians a complete monopoly on Aon-based hardware. Supposing this could happen, the only real competition would be Dakhor, and since that requires human sacrifices I can't imagine it would become very popular.

And now I've derailed the thread. Back on topic: once you've discovered a base Aon, the real danger comes in misplacing modifiers, which is what I think happened to Dilaf's wife - the Aon was drawn with all the modifiers on the opposite side of the Aon, and that entirely changed what would happen. I am, of course, making the assumption that a correctly drawn base Aon will always do something, even if it has modifiers that completely alter its effect.

I'd wager you can still create more, but you'd have to run it by Silus for approval first. Especially if you wanted extra Spheretech, like Fusers, Evolvers, or other things seen here.

It's a combination of spending a lot of time here looking through theory threads and having read everything Brandon's written at least three times, including the annotations. One thing I can point to specifically and say "this inspired me" is actually your first quote.

The Aons had to exist before Elantris — otherwise, the original Elantrians wouldn't have known the shape to make the city. Their study of AonDor taught them a method for amplifying Aon power.

Emphasis mine, of course.

The Elantrians we are familiar with did make a study of AonDor - we have proof of that in the text - but Aon Rao was only briefly mentioned, in passing. I cannot remember the page number, but I know that Raoden mentioned that his study of AonDor stated that Rao was important, but not why. It's possible that the Elantrians we are familiar with did not make use of or study Aon Rao as intensely as they did Aons with an immediate effect.

I could go into deep Aon-development theory, but I'm trying not to derail the thread. Let's say for right now that if the Elantrians we know knew exactly how important Aon Rao is to their magic, it would have been far more prevalent in their lives. Instead, the only example we have of a functioning Aon Rao is the city of Elantris. Had they known more about it, I think that each Elantrian would have carried a smaller version on them if they left the Elantris-effect area. It's part of why I'm so curious what a tattoo of an Aon would do, but that's a topic for another time.

What I'm seeing here is that there were two groups of Elantrians - the ones that we are familiar with, and the ones that originally built the city. The second quote seems to reference the group we are familiar with, and includes the Aonic people in Arelon and Teod. It implies that those people did not originally inhabit that area, but instead moved there from elsewhere on Sel.

The first quote references the group that originally built the city many hundreds of years ago, and implies that this group at some point either abandoned their city or were wiped out. In favor of the abandonment theory is the fact that we've seen Elantrians in other parts of the cosmere (see WoK), but this seems unlikely as it would require every proto-Elantrian to leave Sel. Instead, the more likely explanation is that Odium's visit to Sel long before the events of the book wiped out the original group, but left the city intact.

Maybe not a complete answer, but I do think you're confusing yourself with the up- and down-scaling. Let's say, for the sake of simplicity, that the Elantris-Aon, Rao, is a scaled-down version of Arelon, not the Elantris Metropolitan Area. This would be accurate, as Elantris itself is only a small part of the land of Arelon.

This would put the Chasm Line in the southern portion of Arelon, and thus in the southern portion of the Aon Aon within Aon Rao. It has already been stated in previous threads that the map in Elantris is inaccurate, but even that doesn't account for Raoden being able to put it in Kae instead of the city. The answer may be in the annotations, but if it isn't this hole isn't something I'm sure I can explain, and seems more like a question for Peter.

Jay'el

"Relax, you're as jittery as a flyrat." He looks over the Sphere. "For your first Spherecut? Not bad. I'll go fix it up while you get started on the next one. Don't screw that one up too bad and I say you'll pass. Here, I'll lay down the cuts for you." Yellow lines, but you can tell that he's speeding over something.

"Quinn, what order should I do these in? That seems important..." My sentence tapers into silence as I realize that Quinn has already taken off with his characteristic speed. Shoot. Okay, you can do this, Jay'el. Just look first, think it through. I take the next ten minutes to examine the lines that Quinn laid down, trying to figure out what is off about them.

Also a possibility is that he was a Savant of the various metals. He is known to burn most of these metals near-constantly, and like what happened to Spook, his abilities with them likely increased many-fold over the millennium he was actively practicing Allomancy. In HoA, the epigraphs say that many Soothers and Rioters unknowingly become savants of their metal, and increase their abilities by doing so.

The combination of AIT and constant flaring of those metals probably increased his abilities to a point beyond even what Spook could do with his tin when he was a savant.

Jay'el

"The bonding code between pieces is thicker than you're thinking, and has its own pieces within itself. Wherever you cut it inside the bonding doesn't matter, since we'll just have to match it back up in the integration process."

Ah. So wouldn't more precision be preferable? But if it's joined to something that isn't as cleanly separated... I see. Easier to match rough to rough and add filler, especially when filler comes easily and cheaply. The cutting method also seems a bit quicker, and if the net result is the same...

"Very well. I'll just excise the entire bonding portion." With that in mind, I return to cutting the pieces apart, rather than pulling out the bonding portion. With three more cuts, I take my time and do a neat job. I finish roughly fifteen minutes later and ask, "What do I do with the rest of the Sphere? The armor, abilities, and other things are all still intact." Liar. "Well, except for that one that I cut into."

I could chop it up into component parts, but that seems wasteful of time since Tori needs those weapons quickly. Will I fix that mistake I made? Cut off the portion of the other ability so he can reintegrate it... I wonder if he'll go do that while I cut up the other Sphere...

I pause for a moment, not wanting to mess up my current separation, and reply, "Of course. I'm going at a speed that seems natural, and trying to be as precise as possible. Look. I'm removing just the portions that actually bind these together, nothing else. Actually cutting removes other sections - small, but I think they may be important."