FeatherWriter

Porting this reply over to this thread. I mean, my main problem with the visions being Cultivation's is that Vorinism has, time and time again, decried future sight as something evil. It is specifically stated on multiple occasions to be "a thing of the voidbringers" and Vorin society at large is extremely distrustful of anything that even seems close to knowing the future. Think of the bad rap stormwardens get for things like weather predictions. All that cultural fear of future sight came from somewhere. I mentioned somewhere that when I questioned Brandon about this theory, he gave me a counter-question, asking if I remembered what Vorins believed about seeing the future. The fact that Brandon went out of his way to make sure I was remembering that little tidbit gives me more than enough cause for concern. My poor dear son, Renarin... What is happening to you, bab?

Just to keep this one on topic, @kari-no-sugata, we should probably keep discussion of Renarin's visions in that thread. This one's for Ym and Edgedancer! I'll go respond over there.

Hello, hi friends. Pretty sure the theory you're talking about is mine, Renarin's Visions and Truthwatching. There's a lot going on in that theory but the crux of it is that Renarin's visions aren't a normal expression of Truthwatching, and that there's something possibly sinister going on with them. That said, I do believe that Renarin is probably actually a Truthwatcher. He has a spren, he healed his eyes with Stormlight, he hears screams when holding dead Shardblades. I just also thing there's more going on than just normal surgebinding when it comes to his visions. As for the rest of this thread, it's funny, I immediately pegged both Ym and Stump for Truthwatcher, and thought it was confirmed by the text alone. I'm now trying to figure out why I did that, considering I don't remember Ym using anything other than Progression. I think. It was probably the appearance of his spren, who looked like refracted light rather than the vines and crystals we got from Wyndle. Now, the fact that neither Stump nor Ym displayed or mentioned any kind of compulsive vision behavior during highstorms or any kind of hypergraphia just kind of feeds into my "there's more going on with Renarin than just Truthwatching" theory. I feel like Stump's orphans, at least, would have seen and mentioned something if she were succumbing to visions like Renarin was.

@Shadow Guardian and @ShadowGlass, the Edgedancer Splintercast will happen! However, my laptop is sadly broken right now so I'm waiting to get a new one before I can record. I do have Arcanum Unbounded, but I'm holding off on reading Edgedancer. It's so hard though... I want to reaaaaaddddd...

Cosmere characters doing song covers! Or rather, it's me, singing from the point of view of various Cosmere characters. I've definitely stolen the format "Broadway So-and-so" from the Homestuck fandom, who used to have a whole slew of singers rewriting lyrics and singing them in-character. No, they're not all Broadway songs. Actually... I don't think I've actually covered any actual Broadway songs, but that could be fun... Anyway, I realized I'd never really posted my covers here all in one place and thought I should probably try to fix that. The newer ones are more polished as I've gotten better recording software and equipment, as well as just figuring out how to edit songs better with practice, but I figured I'd post even the rougher ones. Relistening to some of these is making me want to redo some. The Cosmere lyrics for each song are in spoiler tags to keep this from cluttering. If there's no credit given for the cover track, then it's one that was either an official version provided by the artist themselves, or it's one that I pulled the vocal track out myself. From most recent to oldest: It's Over, Isn't It? Character: Paalm, Shadows of Self Original: "It's Over, Isn't It?" by Rebecca Sugar and Deedee Magno-Hall (Steven Universe) Piano Cover: ThePandaTooth Lyrics: Light Runs Out Character: Shallan, Words of Radiance Original: "Love Runs Out" by OneRepublic Karaoke Cover: Cyberwave Karaoke Lyrics: Let It Go Character: Vin, Well of Ascension Original: "Let It Go" by Idina Menzel (Frozen) Lyrics: (Inspired by those written by @Lightflame) Additionally, I've done a few songs that are Cosmere-focused but aren't actually from any specific characters. Those are always fun too. Fandom Monster's Beautiful Darkside Description: Written in honor of the annual "Cosmere Fandom is Still the Worst Fandom" writing challenge, which is always a good, fun time to make everyone you know distressed and crying. Also, I love sad fanfics. Fandom monster's gotta earn her title somehow. Though technically the lyrics could work for any fandom, it was specifically written for the Cosmere. Original: "The Beautiful Darkside" by The Classic Crime Lyrics: Cosmere's Happening Description: Meant as a "fandom anthem," this one cheers out references to events and places all over the cosmere, because heck yeah, why not? Original: "Something Big" by Shawn Mendes Karaoke Cover: YOU SING Lyrics: In the Final Empire Description: A Survivorist hymn, meant to be from a later era, looking back on the time of the Originators before. (Also the first song I ever covered like this!) Original: "In the Bleak Midwinter," Traditional Hymn Instrumental: Sarah Brightman Lyrics: (written by @EHyde) So, that's what I've got for now. My SoundCloud has a few other covers, but for other fandoms. I'm willing to take requests, though of course, it depends on how well I know the song, if I can adapt the lyrics, and if I can find or make an instrumental track to sing over. Someone on tumblr asked me if I'd do a cover of "Colors" by Halsey for Warbreaker, so I might end up doing a Vivenna and Siri duet for that one. Let me know what you think!

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!

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.

Well, I suppose I could do the Lift novella if anyone were interested in that? Otherwise, I believe Stormlight 3 is the next big project.

I mean, crackships can often give way into real ships, if there's a good seed there and you're not careful (Listen, it's not my fault, I never meant to fall into the Cullen/Meredith ship it's awful and I hate it this wasn't supposed to happen to meeeeee) But yeah, I just feel like there's not enough substance there. Alas, no magical brain overloads for me on the Sterrarin front.

Not... quite. While I'm sure the intent behind seems straightforward—take two things Feather loves and smush them together—relationships, to me as a fan, are far less about the individuals and more about the "sum of their parts" and all that nonsense. I adore both coffee and sushi, but you probably won't see me dipping my California rolls in shots of espresso rather than soy sauce anytime soon either. As wonderful as those flavors are alone, I don't think they match. I just have trouble picturing how a relationship between Steris and Renarin would work out. For one, if she's a love interest for Wax, who's in his forties, she feels a little too old to be romancing Renarin, who's just hit twenty. I don't really see that their personalities would make them attracted towards one another, much less ever reach the point at which they would fall in love. Steris has a bit of a wild, romantic heart, getting all caught up in having a love interest sweep her off her feet. Steris is extremely sure of herself, in terms of understanding the ways in which she works most efficiently and comfortably, and sticking with those. She'll enter dangerous situations with minimal training because there's something thrilling about it to her, and I think because she wants to understand Wax and the things he does. Conversely, Renarin is extremely reserved. He's cautious and unsure of himself, and dealing with a lot of fear about who he is and recently, what his powers mean. When he rushes into danger untrained, he seems to do so out of a terrified desperation, afraid that the people he loves are in danger and unable to stand aside while that happens. I just... don't see how they would be a good fit for one another. Not to say I wouldn't be opposed to hearing someone give it a go at convincing me, but for now, it's not a pairing that does much for me.

No, I am one of those fanfic writers who does horrible things to a character because I love suffering. The character's suffering, all my friends who like that character are suffering, (and if I'm doing it right, I'm suffering too, but don't tell anyone.) Anguish is the spice of life, my friend. I actually have another friend who really likes hurt/comfort fics for the comfort side, whereas I'm pretty much just here for the hurt side. We teamed up to make an AU once and it was probably one of the most gut-wrenchingly horrific things, segueing into complete recovery fluff cutes, that has ever been conceived.

Well, I mean, I don't like when Brandon does it to Renarin! But I in my days have written some pretty terrible and horrible things happening to even my darlingest of darlings. (Sorry Ren, I still love you. But I'm always meanest in fiction to the ones I love the most.)

Well, that is perhaps part of the problem. It is... very much not something I ever would have done. Her reaction in that situation, regardless of how well she knew or understand Renarin, is so opposite to what mine probably would have been that it was shocking. Honestly, for all my fandom monstering, the idea of someone in legitimate distress of any kind pulls at me extremely strongly, in a 'drop everything and try to make sure they're okay' kind of way. Admittedly, if I'd been in Shallan's situation, the Oathgate might not have gotten opened, because I might not have been able to stay focused on the task. Perhaps by dismissing Renarin and not checking on him, she managed to save them all. I don't know, but it's possible. But even if she was under a lot of pressure and very stressed, the idea that Shallan is a person who, in the heat of the moment will not only see someone breaking down in a state of distress a distracting obstacle rather than someone in need of help, but would then treat that extremely vulnerable person with a frustrated hostility until they get out of her way... Well. It's a reaction from her that is just so diametrically opposite from my values and worldview that I have trouble excusing it, regardless of extenuating stressful circumstances. I feel like a lot of the heart of the problem is that I (within the context of my shipping theories) had originally headcanoned that Shallan would be a very compassionate and understanding character, and I was shocked to find that when push came to shove, this was not at all the case. When a high-pressure crux point in the plot reared its head and "true" Shallan got revealed by it, it seemed to me that this was not a moment of triumph where she rose to the task (at least not entirely) but rather a moment that reveals a pretty deep-set character flaw for her. When the chips fall and the heat is on, Shallan showed pretty clearly that compassion and concern for the people around her was not a priority for her. And for someone like me, for whom those values are tantamount, it's hard to forgive. Doubly, triply hard when the person she was so clearly demonstrating this lack of concern for is probably my favorite character of all time from any work of fiction I've ever read, one for whom I am deeply compassionate and concerned. So yeah, they're actions that I disagree with strong enough that even if it wasn't Renarin, I'd take issue. The fact that it was him just made it that much worse. (As you can see, I have no thoughts on this issue whatsoever...)

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.

I feel like we might have a disagreement in that I'm pretty sure Kelsier is the kind of person who spends an above average amount of time staring at himself in reflective surfaces. The tattoo would work! "Is it Thursday yet?" Also Spook, bless his heart, he tries. (Oh my god does he try) Also I'm just... so incredulous that hemalurgy could recreate a body like that. Even from just the bones that is some extremely extensive regeneration. I could see hemalurgy letting you like possess someone else or maybe reanimate a corpse, but fully reconstructing one? How do you spike a skeleton anyway? Sure I guess you could Bloodmaker yourself up some new flesh with enough gold power, but what are you gonna do to get started? Just slip the spike between the ribs and hope that counts? Also anyone have any questions or topics they'd like me to discuss in a follow up recording at all?

Ah, new listener! I personally haven't done podcasts with multiple people before on Splintercast, though I know the other admins will occasionally do Shardcast, which usually has multiple people! With the nature of Splintercast being me reading things for the first time, it's kind of an individual experience, but I wouldn't be opposed to doing some other kind of other podcast with other people in the future...

I am not, mostly because I finished it a few days ago and didn't even think to record while I did! Ha. It was good. Makes me want to read that very old prose version that I've had forever and just never got around to reading, though. Oops. Bad Cosmere fan. Khriss is so fabulous, though!

Aaaaaaaaah! This was such a wonderful surprise! I opened the website only to see one of my proudest theories and you did a great job explaining it, Windy! I'm so committed to this one too... I'm gonna be so pumped if it turns out to be right. Very fair on the detractions, though I'd argue that I think MSH was a taste of things to come. It's more of a fun little bonus story tacked on to the Mistborn series. There's plenty of fascinating innovation to be had in watching Brandon weave these plot threads and possibilities into the scope of a main story. GIVE ME AFTERLIFE POV OR... Well I guess that would technically already be giving me "death." I didn't think this ultimatum through...

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!