Aiken Frost

Ooo! Ooo! I need to participate too! I'll be... uh... Flamethrowing. Yeah! I'm the official Epic God Metal Flamethrowerer!

But he have a lot of Unity.

Uhm... I like this. I still think that Sazed could take Dominion and Devotion without changing his personality, though. And Roshtafarian: I call the combination of those two shards Unity. I feels right to me and it's why I think Sazed could handle them.

Ok, ok. We already discussed that. I gave you more bagels and we agreed that next king is Shivertongue's kill. Now lets drop the subject, people are already looking funny at us. And we don't want to turn this situation into something like that another subject we agreed not to talk about...

That's the thing about hateful people. They are shortsighted.

Dude, seriously, let it go. We told you not to lose so much time with the dukes! Also, about fairies and magic. I recommend Dresden Files, having just finished reading all the released books.

That was my assumption too.

Huahuaha, awesome!

Molotovs, guys. Or flamethrowers. No way a shardplate user will keep fighting while his face is melting.

Nah... I don't know. Odium, in my interpretation, is a lot more physical. Brute. Violent. Horror is insidious. It works disrupting a society by feeding its own fears, its own inner darkness, desperation and corruption. The agents of Horror are doomsday cultists, serial killers and stuff like that.

None, because Bacon is Life. And a fabrial don't have the power of a god to create Life itself. Yes. As much sense as the method of delivering a catfish's diner with a bamboo made of gold. No cookie for the infidels.

In a RPG campaign I'm preparing to GM for my group, using the Mistborn RPG, I created the shard called Horror. It's basically a big cthulhian thing. Its magic system have something to do with utter maddening fear, shadows and materializing creatures from horror stories.

Ok, I didn't read the entire topic yet, sorry. But this just jump me while I was reading the first message: Maybe they Travel through Ley lines? There is a RPG setting called Iron Kingdoms. In this setting, traditional Teleportation magic like seem in D&D is highly dangerous because it attracts Infernals, so the druids meld with Ley lines and travel as energy to get to distant places. Maybe the Stonewardens work in a similar way in Roshar, what you think?

Not rude at all. What I'm thinking is that, maybe, the interaction is not a exclusive one-way thing. Maybe the planet affected the shard the same way it affected the planet. And from this interaction, the magic system was created. What we see on Sel in not actually an alteration of the magic system, in my opinion. It was still Devotion's planet. It might have an alteration, but it was an internal thing. Urgh... Ok, my explanation is not working... I'll have to make a huge post to try explain from where I'm coming from. Please, bear with me. Remember the interview with Brandon Sanderson, when he explained how Compounding works? That you use the energy from Preservation's magic system and the molecules in the metal, its pattern, determines which power you'll be getting? Maybe the same happens with the Shards and the planets they arrived. We know that there is a reason for why they are in those specific planets. And we also know that the shards, per se, are NOT in the Physical Realm. They are on the Cognitive or Spiritual, I'm not sure exactly which, but it's not very important. My idea is that, as the metal, in Preservation's and Ruin's case, is necessary for the power of the shard to "travel" from where the shard is to be able to affect the Physical Realm, there is other "steps" in this ladder. Maybe the transfer of power is not simply Shard > Metal > Allomancer. Maybe it is Adonalsium (Power of Creation) > Shard > Planet > Metal > Allomancer. In allomancy case, obviously. Now, the shard can spiritually (or cognitively) go to other planets to do stuff there, but the planet from which its power is being "distilled" into the Physical Realm might not change. Can you understand me, or it became too convoluted? damnation, I surely shouldn't drink so much before using the forum...

Windrunner, maybe the focus got fixed when the magic system was first created with the Shards arriving in the planets. After that, it might not change again, no matter what happens. Another idea: remember that in a interview, Brandon Sanderson said that the shards had some freedom of choice to which planet they where going to, when Adonalsium shattered, but not complete choice? Maybe it have something to do with it.

Huhauha, awesome. With you, we are officially all over the place in our positions: People that think "Life" is significant AND a Surge; People that think "Life" is important BUT NOT a Surge; People that think "Life" is meaningless BUT IS a Surge; And people that think "Life" is meaningless AND NOT a Surge. The full spectrum. Yes, talking about real life, I agree with you. But my point was about the book. The tree only exists at all, much less fall and make a noise, if it is important to the story. Life is of ultimate importance if the Cosmere work that way, despite how inconsequential it is (or not) to OUR universe.

Uhm, I like it very much. You should choose a flowery name for this theory so people can put it in their signatures. About Endowment being a pair with Cultivation, seems legit. Doesn't we have information that Endowment is fairly recently arrived to... Naltis? The Warbraker world?

About the tree falling. Does it affect any character or the story in any way? If it doesn't, then it not only makes no sound, but doesn't happen at all. It isn't anthropocentrism, because I'm not judging it based in our universe, where only our planet, for all we know, have life and it have and impact on things. I'm talking about a fictional universe where living gods make war over worlds for nothing more than the destiny of the life in it. If there were no life, there would be no shardholders and no story. No surges, either, because the shards would not travel anywhere and would not interact with planets and create no magic systems. Surgebinding only exists because of life, really. Because a person controlled a shard and got to Roshar. In the end, life is the driving force behind everything in the Cosmere and its stories. In our universe, life might be inconsequential. But it is not necessarily so in the Cosmere. I can say that gravity is even less important than life. Without gravity, the universe would still exist. It would be a weird, gravity-less universe, sure. Bizarre, I think. But then we would be creatures of a gravity-less universe and would not miss it. But without life? The universe might as well not exist at all. With no one to experience it, to discover it, to do stuff in it... What's the point? Big rocks and balls of fire in a void? I mean, why would be an universe with no Liv Tyler in it? Just not worth the cosmic time, really. One would think that Surgebinding is as fictional as the Cosmere, no? And for all we know, everything have the physical, cognitive and spiritual aspect to it, not only life. A half eaten carrot, a goblet (ask Shallan), a sword, a dog... Even a rock have a cognitive and spiritual aspect to it. By refusing to deal with it, you are ignoring two of three fundamental aspects that deal with the magic of Cosmere. Ah. Remember as well that only a person, bound to a spren, can do surgebinding. Or any magic at all. Life, then, is pretty necessary to magic, don't you think?

Speaking of which... Something curious just occurred me right now. Why shardblade disappear when a holder release it, but not when it is stuck in stone? Keep in mind: stone is sacred to the Shin. Maybe there is something related to this?

Oh, but it is important as hell. I mean, I am very much alive and I like being in this way. Life is damnation important to me. I could live without gravity. I'm sure it must be weird and have its problems. But damnation, I'm sure would rather have no gravity than no life. And really, without life? No cosmere or the books either. If life didn't exist, then there would be no shardholders, no mistborns, no elantrians. All the problem behind the Mistborn trilogy was the fight of two shards for the creation and subsequent destruction of Life in a barren world. Preservation and Ruin agreed to create Life in Scadrial with the point that Ruin would destroy it eventually, but Preservation tried to stop him. All that happened was because of Life. We could say almost the same about all the books and I would bet that the Cosmere Metaplot is basically this, too. All happened because of Life, in a way or another. So, yeah. Life is definitely a Thing, with a enormous "T". It might not be a surge, but it is damnation well important enough to be.

In our universe it is. Supposedly. You cant say the same about the Cosmere.

Interesting, I didn't remembered that. The original philosophy behind Shu-Dereth and -Korath looks similar enough to Sazed and how he became Harmony by holding Preservation and Ruin. Maybe the guy that created Shu-Keseg once held both Devotion and Dominion, becoming Unity.

Bolters and Chainswords. The Emperor protects!

There is a pattern all right, I just don't think this one holds any significance. Its just the texture of the map, I think.

I thought that at some point BS said that Hoid never held a Shard. Am I misremembering or someone else can remember that too?