Alfa

Killing evil. Easy one. Syl.

The rules are pretty simple: Player 1 gives some character, place, leitmotiv about that Brandon will likely write in the future (In the best-case about somebody/something from an ongoing series). Player 2 describes in short a scene that will likely happen with them. Then he/she gives some character/place etc. for player three... Example: Player 1: Kaladin Player 2: Kaladin lashing a spear with a multiple simple lashing into something very big and hard to kill. Most likely it won't work, but it will give him all the neccessary edge later. So, I start: Waxillium Ladrian

Well, they are both badchull-fighting, charismatic leading figure with a dark traumatic past and a heavy psychical disorder, i would understand you.

Are you talking about Bluefinger or the Highpriest?

I'm about the specific usage with Koloss, since human strength seems to be available everywhere in the cosmere and so is Iron. I'm also almost sure that Koloss acquired the ability to create new Koloss only sometimes during WoA, when Ruin was almost free, but I need to check.

I slightly disagree. TLR and the Inquisitors couldn't watch over all the Kolloss-camps for hemalurgy, and it seems that there were some hundred thousand Kollosses, so I guess it's safe to assume that several loyal Obligators did this. And since Marsh infiltrated the Ministry without complications, I also assume that some motivated spy could have done this - not exactly easy, but possible. And since the Kolloss-camps existed for severeal hundred years - it seems likely for me, that somebody like Khriss could have acquired this information.

You pay them. It almost worked once.

I guess if somebody would try to get the "coloss-creating-recipe" would learn the security measures even before the exact stabbing points.

Why the bind-points for surges? Some people would think an army of Koloss as an asset, and this knowledge seems to be one which could be likely to leak.

We have WoB that Hemalurgy could be used on any planet in the cosmere. But, as far as we have seen, neither on Roshar, no on Nalthis, Sel, Threnody, First of the Sun there are any (native) hemalurgy users. But why is it so? Why doesn't anybody use this (incredibly powerfull) investiture source, moral left aside? I have two possible explanations. 1) INTENT To perform hemalurgy, you must stab someone with metal at the right point. The intetn can originate from you or from Ruin. I assume, that Ruin can't provide his Intent over the planets, since he was "trapped" by preservation for most of the time, and Sazed seems not to be the guy who likess people stabbing people. If Ruin would be free, than probably, any time a psycho-maniac would be stabbing two people in a row anywhere in the cosmere, the second one wouldn't die but stand up, spiked. This seems to be an explanation, but not a complete one. There are people all around the Cosmere, who would be pretty much willing to provide the necessary intent. (Dahkor, to give a simple example). Also, there seem to be quite a share of worldhoppers, so it seems to be pretty strange if in the thousand years of the final empire this information had not been "leaked" from scadrial to other planets, since hemalurgy was never a very closely guarded state secret (compared to the Atium-cache, but I digress) - Kelsier proved that it's relatively simple to bring somebody inside the Steel Ministry, and the Obligators seemed to be the one who watched over the Kolosses. Anyway, the "Koloss-creating-recipe" was acessible enought to be picked up. So thе lack of intent does not seem to be likely the only explanation. 2) FOCI The focus on Scadrial is metal, and hemalaurgy works via metal. On Scadrial. Where I am not so sure, if it's metal on other planets. The focus on Sel seems to be "signs", the focus on Nalthis the command and the color, on Roshar there are either the sprens or the ten gemstones, and on First of the Sun it seems to be the Symbiosis between Birds and the worms. Honestly, i have no idea, what it's on threnody... Rules, perhaps? IF (and that is a big assumption) you need to use the Focus of a planet to use hemalurgy there, there will come complications. To use a sign to stab someone is still possible (paint or carve a sign on a spike) - but which sign? Sel being Sel, this sign should be precise to the milimeter. Would it be Scadrian metal-signs? Or something derived from Scadrian geography? Local symbols for metal? I don't have any real idea. On the other planets everything seems to be even worse. How the colors do you stab someone with a command? Or with a color? Or do you have to stab someone with a colored spike and give a command, which attribute to steal (Your breath to mine, your [ATTRIBUTE] becomes mine) or somehting like this? Seems pretty difficult to find out, since colors aren't that clearly divided compared to metals and alloys. Roshar is not as bad, but also has it's problems. It's pretty difficult to stab someone with a gemstone, if this is the focus, but it's still possible. (Diamond works pretty well as a knife, so you could improvise a spike with it). But my guess is, that not the gemstones are the focus on Roshar, but the Spren Also, you normally can't stab someone with a spren. Exception - shardblades, which seem to be invented for the case of stabbing something. My guess is, that living shardblades wouldn't allow hemalurgy, since it seems quite "dishonorable". But why not use dead shardblades? I guess, it has something to do with the fact, that a shardblade is a big investitural asset, and is put to better use as a weapon than as a hemalurgic spike. Also, it would look quite odd or awkward, if somebody would be walking with a two-meter-shardblade looking out of their body, assuming the "hemalurgical-spike-shardblade" won't cut through them and nobody would use the chance to pull it out. First of the Sun? You can stab someone with a bird, if you try...but let's say that the level of magical awareness on F.o.t.S. is not that high and the birds to few. Also, the oddity problem would come up again - the bird is required to live to serve as a focus and...well, a inquisitor with living birds for eyes wouldn't look intimidating but hillarious. Threnody solves itself, not only couldn't you use a rule (if it's the focus there) to stab someone, also stabbing is pretty strictly prohibited. To sum it up: There are at least two reasons for the not-spreading of hemalurgy around the cosmere, the first of them the lack of intent, which doesn't seem to be enough but explains everything pretty canonical, the other - the difficulties with the foci, which seems to explain most of it, but works with a strong assumption

The real question is: would you like to kill some evil today?

I only would worry if the stick answered you... with something else than "I am a stick".

I guess Matt's personality fits Hoid more than of any other person in TWoT, but since Matt is not exactly immortal and does not like dirty clothes...

Min saw a vision about Rand holding a beggar's staff. Coincidence? Hoid is said to be on of the most powerfull beings in the Cosmere. Rand was the most powerfull mage of the World. Coincidence?

It was argued, that the Stick is a splinter of Odium (see the "favorite sanderson villain" topic).

Or try to make a picture of you?

Earth=Cosmere??!!

Pretty much my look, add a poorly raised eyebrow to it. As for Pagerunner's Idea - it could work, but you need to watch VERY carefully (tin-compounder-carefully) that there does not happen something illogical or not WoT-conform. For example, if the battle of Dumai's Well happens before the tower splits (or even shortly after) that would ruin a lot of plot.

There was a WOB about it (I can't cite because for some reason I can't acess the Database), but a Returned can "hide" his or her Breath by neglecting all of his or her divine, and thinking about themself as a regular person. That changes some of their apperance and their Aura, but it does not make them absolutely "normal" - they still don't need to eat, and need one breath per week.

Also, Vasher's Divine Breath was "hidden", so it couldn't been given away without first "revealing" it.

Difficult to imagine a TV show could handle all 14(?) books, even if they'll cut out most of the so-called "boring" parts.

I, in a way, like Sadeas, because he is sort of a "honest villain".

There is also the point, that (at least the Scadrian) shards can only "speak" through "cracks" in the mind, usually to people that are slightly not right in their head (probably the reason why some prophets were kinda off, but that's another topic), or, in Ruin's case, spiked (which seems to be a rather big "crack"). But the shards differed on one level: Ruin could deepen that cracks, preservation smooth them, so Ruin could more-or-less choose with whom to talk, while Preservation seemed to heal the "cracks" and so making it more difficult to "speak". It lead to the fact, that Kelsier could speak more or less with the single one "very, very cracked", not spiked man he had a strong Connection with.

That would be probably better in the "sanderson insults" topic. Anyway... Some courses for the minor shardworlds: Threnody: Triple-broken-rules! Shadows forgotten! First of the sun: Patji's hundred deaths! Eyeless horrors!

Probably the sacrifices "tear" a hole in the "veil" between the Physical Realm (Sel) and the Cognitive Realm (Dor), as aons do. The bone-symbols are necessary to channel this energy and can probably store it. I suppose, that the Initiation in Dahkor comes from two parts - first, Dahkor is built in a "focal point" of Fjordell, second, the high amount of sacrifices in Dahkor leads to a permanent "Dor-storm", which fills the monastery and leads to mutation. Probably the "solemn chanting, that had a strange power to it" (Chapter 36) has also some part in it.