FeatherWriter

On 8/31/2016 at 7:45 AM, jofwu said:

@FeatherWriter Not sure who to report this to... I feel like there's an error with the forum. Or maybe it's set up this way intentionally, I dunno. I was playing around on another forum that uses the same software and found some options that are missing here.

When you open up "Unread Content" here you have a lot of filters you can apply to narrow down content. If you make changes to these, a button appears asking if you want to "save as new stream". You then also have the option of making this new stream your "default", which replaces the functionality of the "Unread Content" button. And you can name the stream. But there is no way to access other saved streams aside from your default. So I got on this other forum and it turns out they have some additional options at the top of the page, right under the main tabs. There's a dropdown menu titled "my activity streams" which lets you access any that you've created.

This functionality sounds awesome... It would be nice to set up different streams for different series for example. And the fact that this forum lets you create streams but not access them afterwards seems broken. Any chance we can have access to these options? Who should the request be sent to?

This sounds like a topic to bring up in the Site Discussion board, actually.

I'll admit, I don't do any of the coding or functionality stuff, but if I had to guess, I believe this forum software stuff is very highly customizable. Functionality like that might be custom code that that forum added to their site, rather than a setting that could just be toggled on.

But again, I have no idea what I'm talking about here. @Chaos or one of the other admins would be the one to talk with. You can always suggest site functionality things to inspire them. They may or may not try to figure out a way to make it work!

Ooh, veteran Sharder status. Shiny. That said, as a mod, I probably ought to spend a little more time perusing the forums than I do. Heh, it gets easy to get distracted away towards other things, for me. Speaking of, one of the best ways is to follow the basic rules, like avoiding double posting and thread necromancy. Those two are the easiest for people unfamiliar with forums to be tripped up by, I think. Much easier to seem like a pro if you don't have the mods coming in to remind you on etiquette.

As for forum tricks, I've got my settings rigged so that any topic I respond in is automatically followed. I get dinged with notifications if anyone responds, whether they quoted and mentioned me or not. If I become disinterested in an active topic that I responded to a long time ago, I'll just unfollow it.

Another thing is I try to periodically search for "Feather" or "FeatherWriter" just to make sure I catch if people are talking about me. With the new @ system, this is less necessary, since most people will just drop a mention and send that notif to let you know.

I also tend to try to keep on top of discussions involving my... areas of particular interest. Which is to say, every now and then when I get bored I'll site-search "Renarin" or something like that and see what people are saying.

Finally the most important way to be a forum pro is to love Renarin and Steris Harms and protect them from all harm and sl

*coughs* Ahem. Anyway.

Thems my advice!

On 8/26/2016 at 4:29 PM, Carcinios said:

Another one I have just remembered. I always think of Wit as looking like Jack the foolamancer from the Erfworld webcomic.

I should probably be a good moderator and remind people that thread necromancy (especially threads almost a year old) is frowned upon, but that comparison between Wit and Jack is a little too perfect. That said, I think in universe, Wit himself would probably be a Carnymancer. Maybe a Signamancy special?

Thread Croakamancy is still not good though.

Admittedly, I write a lot more SA fic than Mistborn fic, but I do have a few kicking around! Some of them I haven't gotten around to putting up on AO3 or FF.net, but they're on tumblr right now.

Only one is straight up in-universe fic, my most recent, "Slipping Through Her Fingers" which is spoilery for SoS. Fair warning, it's meant to be a bit of a swift kick in the emotions, because I'm a terrible mean person like that.

I've also got a Marvel/Mistborn crossover "Otherworldly Intruders" written as a request, where Thor and Loki end up in TFE-era Luthadel to cause trouble. It was a secret-santa gift for another fandom member, who requested it.

Lastly I've got something a bit more self-indulgent, my own original characters from my novel, but an AU where they're actually from AoL-era Scadrial. Because it's fun figuring out what kinds of powers they'd have and also letting them get into trouble on another world for a change. So, it's on Scadrial, but a different cast. That one's called "Catching Her Interest."

If you're looking for a good archive though, the #fanfic tag on Adonalsium has about twelve pages of Cosmere fics, though because tumblr is a garbage trash website of garbage, there's unfortunately no way to search multiple tags to just see Mistborn fanfics, so they're all mixed in with other Cosmere works. You can either sort by type (#fanfic) or by source work (#mistborn or #mistborn adventures) or by world (#scadrial), but searching by source or world will bring up more than just fanfics, you'll also get art and graphics and stuff like that. If you're just looking for fics, I'd go with the #fanfic tag, since there's fewer things in there so it's easy to scroll to find Mistborn stuff.

Alright, I'll admit that I'm coming into this with a little bit of shipping goggles on, because despite the fact that Words of Radiance took my poor sensitive shipper's heart and stomped on it with sharpened cleats, Shallan/Renarin (or Shallarin) was my first real I will die here on this hill kind of ship during Way of Kings. Even though currently, the thought of Shallan interacting with Renarin in any way other than profuse apologies kind of makes me want to bare my teeth and hiss, the old nostalgia for the idea of them being together is still kindled a bit beneath it all. 

Listen, I put years into that ship. I can't just leave it all behind now.

That said, I really love the idea of Truthwatchers being illusion breakers for somewhat of that shippy reason alone. Cultivating a relationship between "The Liar" and "The One Who Sees Through Lies" is a favorite trope of mine. The "Agent of Asgard" comics had a really fascinating friendship between Loki, literally the God of Lies, and Verity Willis, a girl with the power to always know when she was being lied to. It would be fascinating to see a dynamic between Renarin and Shallan if their uses of powers are complimentary in this way, whether working together as allies, or even, perhaps more interestingly, if they were to end up on opposing sides of the conflict somehow.

It reminds me a bit of the class+aspect titles from Homestuck, actually. Two characters might have powers that link them to the same aspect (like Light, Space, Time, Heart, Hope, Void, Breath, etc.) but the class, or role, (such as Knight, Maid, Heir, Prince, etc.) that gets paired with that aspect defines how they actually interact with it. A Knight of Time and a Maid of Time might have a shared understanding, since they both work with the Time aspect, but the roles of Knight and Maid are very different, so they use Time in very different ways. In the same way, a Truthwatcher and a Lightweaver might both share an understanding of what Illumination is and how it is used, and yet their Orders might cause them to actually use that power in very different ways.

It could possibly also be something similar to like, internal and external metals in Allomancy now that I think about it. When Shallan puts on illusions, Pattern pushes her to reveal truths about herself. By exploring different identities, Shallan uncovers facets of her own personality and drives back closer to the heart of who she actually is. Shallan's Lightweaving is very internally focused. However, what if Truthwatchers are more externally focused? What if, rather than using illusions to explore themselves, they change the appearances of situations around them in order to discover more about the people they're interacting with. Watching them for truth. I imagine a Truthwatcher just... subtly shifting various things about themselves or about the environment in order to see how their target changes and reacts. They aren't trying to figure out who they themselves are when they put on illusions, they're trying to figure out who everyone else is.

Either way, it's fascinating, and I'm desperate for more, honestly.

Well, Rock says outright that kaluk'i'iki is not a wife, but he doesn't actually explain what it is. Could be a matriarch of some kind.

Quote

“Yes,” Rock said, laughing, “and when you are able to travel that far without being eaten by chasmfiend or killed in floods, I shall name you my kaluk’i’iki.”

Kaladin raised an eyebrow.

“Only a woman can be kaluk’i’iki,” Rock said, as if that explained the joke.

“Wife?”

Rock laughed even louder. “No, no. Airsick lowlanders. Ha!

That image of Syl sitting on the end of Kaladin's spear may be one of my favorites of all time. I love the flowing Rapunzel hair, it's perfect!

There's the thread you were probably thinking of, Delightful. Funnily enough, it seems that Quiver was the one to start that one as well, a little over two years ago!

I didn't go reread that whole thread, but I seem to remember making points towards how fanfiction can be incredibly exploratory and explanatory. People talk about it's "training wheels" or it's "harmless fun before you work on real things" and yet I feel like there are many ways that fanfiction can contribute great value as a writer and as a fan. It all depends on what kind of story you're writing and what you want it to convey.

For me, a lot of my fics take a character that I've put a lot of thought into understanding and try to display some of the conclusions I've come to about who they are as a person, the kinds of crises I feel like they struggle with. It's one thing for me to write out a dissertation on why I think Renarin is great. It's entirely another when I can set up a scene and, by writing him in-character, show a reader why I think he's great. I think it takes chops to both conceive the proper kind of situation to write as well as maintaining the integrity of the character. When another fan reads my work, I want them to recognize the characters I write and be able to connect that character's actions, motivations, and ideas back to what we've seen in canon.

I tend to have a lot of complex thoughts about characters and their motivations and I often write fic to untangle those ideas and share them with other people. Sure, I could just write out my thoughts, but there's something powerfully creative in taking the reins on a character you're invested in and seeing if you can make everything mesh.

There's a similar thought process behind things like AUs and crossovers. Crossovers and AUs feel more like a puzzle or a game to me, and I love it. How can I take this character out of their original context and recreate them with these new tools. What kind of person would they be in this world? What kinds of aspects of this world would shape them into who they are? How can we change their backstory and situation to make them fit, while still retaining the core of who that character is. Again, it comes down to motivations to me. 

If I put Renarin in the Dragon Age universe, he won't be a secret Radiant anymore... but maybe he'd be a secret apostate mage. If Tien doesn't get conscripted into the army for Kaladin to follow and protect him... maybe Tien got taken to a Circle and Kaladin volunteered to join the Templars to protect him instead. If Shallan is no longer a Lightweaver from a minor Veden house... maybe she would be an Orlesian bard, sneaking through the night. 

What about Marvel's Asgard? What if the Kholins were actually Asgardian, and Shallan took more of Jane Foster's role, the mortal human studying with one and being fascinated by their culture? Rather than trying to get to the Shattered Plains, what if Shallan was trying to figure out how to get to Asgard and tell Jasnah's family that she'd been killed?

Anyway, there's so many other amazing things that I feel like fanfic can accomplish and explore, but this is already long and I'm running out of writing steam. Long story short, fanfic's great and a worthy fannish endeavor for all.

Aaaaand there we go. As Maxal is the Adolin expert, I'll defer to her expertise. I did warn that I'm really bad at assigning MBTI, right? Heh.

Just now, CaptainRyan said:

@FeatherWriter that was incredibly clever to answer as you think Renarin would! I really like that! I would throw an upvote your way but I have apparently hit my quota for the day even though I just signed on a few minutes ago... Anyone want to help a fellow Sharder out and pass an upvote to Feather for me?

It was more difficult than I would have thought, actually, despite the fact I'm rather obsessive about him. I'm going to lay the blame for that at the feet of someone who decided we haven't yet needed any Renarin POV in canon. My kingdom for a Renarin POV, honestly.

Brandon, ya killin' me.

11 hours ago, Eccentric Hero said:

I am curious as to what @FeatherWriter thinks about this.

(Please note that while I consider myself to be an INTP, I do not relate much to Renarin's character.)

So, I'll admit straight up that I'm pretty terrible at just assigning MBTI types to characters. I know my own (INFP) but it's often difficult for me to choose the letters, even for characters that I know well.

Therefore, I decided to cheat. I took the sorting test while answering as I feel Renarin would have.

Results were fairly conclusive: INFJ. This website calls it "The Advocate." The question seems to come down to whether or not Renarin's a J or a P, but in testing, the results gave me 85% Judging. He seems to me to be a person who is far more in favor of planning and structure, whereas Adolin is far more 'go with the flow' Perceiving.

This description paragraph in particular struck me:

Quote

Really though, it is most important for Advocates to remember to take care of themselves. The passion of their convictions is perfectly capable of carrying them past their breaking point and if their zeal gets out of hand, they can find themselves exhausted, unhealthy and stressed. This becomes especially apparent when Advocates find themselves up against conflict and criticism – their sensitivity forces them to do everything they can to evade these seemingly personal attacks, but when the circumstances are unavoidable, they can fight back in highly irrational, unhelpful ways.

Sound like a certain duel or chasmfiend attack to anyone? Renarin catches flack from people sometimes for trying to help in ways that do more damage than good, and that description above pretty much nails it.

Advocates are also noted to be exceptionally good at "seeing through dishonesty and disingenuous motives, Advocates step past manipulation and sales tactics and into a more honest discussion" which amused me for our Truthwatcher.

So, this little theory is in need of an update. How about that Bands of Mourning and Secret History, y'all? Whew. As we are in the Stormlight boards, this discussion needs spoiler tags. Be warned, this folder contains spoilers for both Secret History and Bands of Mourning.

I'll update the actual theory post up there soon, but for now I wanted to get down some information about how I feel this theory looks going forward with this new information. I'm sanguine about all this, guys.

Also, because I can't help but brag:

On 5/28/2014 at 10:05 PM, FeatherWriter said:

Imagine one of our main characters dying and then waking up in the afterlife, only to discover this whole other side of the story. What if we had a point of view character who was already dead and could show us the cosmere afterlife from their point of view?

Hehehehehehehe. Called it. And almost 2 years early, too. It wasn't in Stormlight (yet) but I totally nailed that this is a kind of story that Brandon would tell.

2 minutes ago, hwiles said:

One thing I'd like to add is having a second blade could be an absolute game-changer in a one-on-one fight between two shardbearers if your opponent didn't know you had it.  

1. Start summoning second blade

2. Drop first blade on 8th heartbeat

3. Lunge/swing at opponent with empty fist on 9th heartbeat

4. Opponent, thinking you'll be unarmed for several more seconds either goes on the offensive, or only steps back enough to dodge a punch so they can give a counter-swing

5. 6ft of shardblade they didn't see coming plunges into their chest plate

Radiants can probably do this same trick, since there probably aren't too many people who know that they can summon instantaneously. Not that Surgebinders really need more advantages in battle against regular people...

4 hours ago, Darkness Ascendant said:

Please.The spoiler tags are there for a reason. (The eye icon). I haven't read Bands yet  I was planning to read it after finishing some other books.

Quick moderator note: This topic is in the Cosmere Theories board, and spoiler tags are not required here. Members can use them if they wish, but perusing topics in this board is done at one's own risk. 

On 6/21/2016 at 4:00 AM, Darkness Ascendant said:

She does? In that case the problem still stands of the tech inside the machine. What I mean is that woud you be able to soulcast, say an iron beam, into an emerald beam, inlaid with diamonds with gold veins running through them?

If I remember correctly, the one thing you can't soulcast is gemstones. Gemstones are used up in the process of soulcasting, which is why it can't be used to make more.

1 hour ago, DreamEternal said:

You should be ashamed of yourself. Everyone knows Iyatil/Veil is the best ship. Everyone except maskless barbarians, that is.

Okay listen, I'm not saying that I've written Iyatil/Mraize/Veil fic in the past, but...

Maxal's right, I believe.

Though we have seen a pain-reducing fabrial, I seem to remember it being rather spiderlike in construction. A thing of legs that clamped down around the pained area. In fact, I should go see... But I think I remember Navani actually offering to use it on Renarin first, who turned it down, as he didn't have any major pains to speak of at the moment. Adolin took her up because he was sore from practice, right?

Lemme go find it...

Quote

“Mashala,” Renarin said, using the formal term for aunt. “That fabrial on your shoulder, what does it do?”

Navani looked down at the device with a sly smile. Dalinar could see she’d been hoping one of them would ask. Dalinar sat down; the highstorm would be coming soon.

“Oh, this? It’s a type of painrial. Here, let me show you.” She reached up with her safehand, pushing a clip that released the clawlike legs. She held it up. “Do you have any aches, dear? A stubbed toe, perhaps, or a scrape?”

Renarin shook his head.

“I pulled a muscle in my hand during dueling practice earlier,” Adolin said. “It’s not bad, but it does ache.”

“Come over here,” Navani said. Dalinar smiled fondly—Navani was always at her most genuine when playing with new fabrials. It was one of the few times when one got to see her without any pretense. This wasn’t Navani the king’s mother or Navani the political schemer. This was Navani the excited engineer.

“The artifabrian community is doing some amazing things,” Navani said as Adolin proffered his hand. “I’m particularly proud of this little device, as I had a hand in its construction.” She clipped it onto Adolin’s hand, wrapping the clawlike legs around the palm and locking them into place.

Adolin raised his hand, turning it around. “The pain is gone.”

“But you can still feel, correct?” Navani said in a self-satisfied way.

Adolin prodded his palm with the fingers of his other hand. “The hand isn’t numb at all.”

Renarin watched with keen interest, bespectacled eyes curious, intense. If only the lad could be persuaded to become an ardent. He could be an engineer then, if he wanted. And yet he refused. His reasons always seemed like poor excuses to Dalinar.

-WoK Ch. 60

Ha! I would like to dedicate this quoting to "I have spent far too much time reading chapters that Renarin is in" thank you very much. Also important in this passage: the seeds of my Engineer/Aritfabrian Renarin pet theories. Lookit how good and curious and scholarly he is. <3

5 minutes ago, happyman said:

Never would have guessed.  You might want to be a bit less subtle about it.

Har har. I never know how far tales of my Renarin-insanity have spread. Surely there are still Sharders who have yet to witness my obsession in all its glory...

Allomancy is probably my fave magic just because of its physical precision. Surgebinding comes close, but we just don't know quite as much about it. Fights between two Mistborn are just so incredibly interesting, though. 

That said, Stormlight is my fave series, and Renarin Kholin is my favorite character from anything ever, not just the Cosmere. 

Don't mind me, I'm just going to sit over here in awe.

@sheep I know you said that you're a "shipper who should be exiled to tumblr" which leads me to ask... do you already have a tumblr? And if so, can I apologize for the fact that I am not already following you and sticking all of your fanart on Adonalsium? BECAUSE IT'S SO GOOD. I NEED ALL OF IT ON ADO.

I love your Veil in particular. It was one of those moments where the illustration wasn't what I had pictured in my head but my brain went "oh no, wait, that's better." And as a terrible Mraize/Veil shipper I'm just going to use that interpretation from now on in my head thanks.

Yeah, I'll admit, while I don't think Renarin would ever really intentionally go "evil"... that doesn't necessarily mean he might never become an antagonist. I mean, even aside from the fact that he has a lot of very obvious physical and emotional vulnerabilities that could be exploited by manipulative force or person, there's the simple fact that Renarin doesn't necessarily have to comply.

I mean, we've already seen firsthand: Renarin losing control of himself as visions of doom take him over and force him to scrawl prophecies on the ground as he screams, literally, "Almighty, why have you cursed me so?"

There's a good chance he could be used by evil forces regardless of whether he wants to or not. Or an evil force could be controlling the visions. Dalinar was fearful of that: he didn't want to trust his own visions until he could be sure where they were coming from, afraid that someone was manipulating him. I mean, for those of you who have watched Avengers: Age of Ultron, Wanda Maximoff is a stellar example of how showing someone visions of their worst fears and "darkest timeline" futures is a good way to A.) manipulate them into doing whatever you want, or B.) causing them to make really bad decisions in the name of a presumed 'greater good.'

(Also I am a sucker for both plots that have mind control and plots that have good people being manipulated into doing very bad things, so I'll be happy if either of those happen. And by "happy" I mean, screaming in tearful anguish through every page while lamenting that I will never achieve such levels of pure evil, myself. Brandon is an inspiration to evil monsters everywhere.)

14 minutes ago, rjl said:

4. What does the future hold for Renarin

The next interesting question; Renarin now as an KR he hasn't suddenly become more confident nor is he skilled in combat, he's got a new role and new strength; how will he grow into this role? Will Zahel perhaps be a key part of this? Will Adolin help him? I note that Truthwatchers were noted in one of the epigraphs as somewhat reclusive but I assume he won't be able to be as reclusive as he has been. Maybe more Renarin training with Zahel scenes but not without a blade that makes him scream?

 

Hmm... lots of ideas nothing concrete.

On the subject of what might happen with Renarin in the future, I think the future sight is going to make a lot of Vorin people dislike/suspect/hate him, which he's already very insecure about. I mean, I think his fellow Radiants and family will support and try to protect, but having people as a whole turn against him would be a plausible source of conflict. I'd guess this is maybe why the Truthwatchers were reclusive, and if anything, Renarin will probably be even less comfortable being out in public than he was before, if his status as a Radiant is known.

Then again, if my suspicions regarding his future-sight are correct, and they aren't (or at least, aren't entirely) Surgebinding, he might find himself without support from the other Radiants. Brandon has been exceptionally cagey about confirming one way or another that Renarin's visions are Truthwatcher powers, and I'm pretty much convinced they're not.

I once wrote a fic where Renarin became Odium's Champion (because I'm a monster who enjoys suffering). I'm somewhat terrified that it seems to be less a "horrible AU idea" and more "actually plausible outcome" the more I think about it.

(I love my smol son and he goes through so much and he doesn't deserve this and just needs love and hugs and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)

Funnily enough, if Glys and Renarin are far enough in their bond that Glys could manifest as a blade, Renarin might be one of the only people on Roshar who has the opportunity to dual wield. Though, I assume the screams would keep him from wanting to attempt such a thing.

Alright, I'll throw my personal favorite into the ring: Connector Diplomat. Store some Feruchemical connection, travel to far off lands, tap and instantly become a fluent speaker who's great at meeting people. Honestly, the ability to speak a land's language as though you'd grown up there yourself is the most interesting ability to me. That's my dream, honestly. Gimme. 

Other cool misting jobs: I was once in a modern-day Scadrial RP where there was a Pulser who worked on a bomb squad. He went in, popped up a bubble and then set to work diffusing the bomb. Gave everyone on the outside time to evacuate or go get more help in case he couldn't do it himself. That's probably one of my favorite Pulser jobs I've seen.

It's hard to say definitively.

We only see one of his visions, during the Everstorm, but if the others were anything like what he went through in that room with Shallan, I would say he appeared to be aware of himself, but not in control of himself during these visions. 

Maybe the others were different, but if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say they were probably similar to the one during the Everstorm, so he'd know it was him.