Alfa

Yes, but I never heard of ettmetal mistings, and you can't really hemlurgically transfer non-existent attributes.

Or you will stomp down with your boot leg?

Actually, worse. Unfortunally grains would have more surface and therefore would react even stronger than flakes.

I'm not only getting out, I'm running out.

Likely it had been invested with significantly less breath. Enough for a cognitive kill, but not enough for a three-realm annihilation.

In one of the gemstones in urithiru the Radiants mentioned that the Kingdoms will take in the Radiants after abandoning Urithiru. It's implied, that the orders will go to "their" Kingdoms (and no one knows what to do with the "normals") Now, there are ten orders and ten Kingdoms (duh!) and we can make guesses which land was which order's homeland. Alethela (nowadays approximately Alethkar) is easy: Windrunners are almost upright stated to come from there in one of Dalinars visions. Also, modern Alethi culture is focused on soldiering, hierarchy (+advancement in hierarchy) and (personal) duty, which is close to the Windrunner way of thinking. Natanatan (now mostly abandoned) seems to be the Stonewardens Kingdom. Not only is it "the Kingdom of Stone", it's also the most stormward Kingdom, where people need to be tough as stone to survive. Also, Dalinar's midnight essence vision took place in Natanatan and featured Windrunners and Stonewardens. From here on it grows complicated. Makabakam (today mostly Azir and sattelites) appears to be Skybreaker-ish. Law, formality, consistency and egalitarianism are quite to their taste. Also, being the opposite of Alethkar in almost everything fits the usual misunderstanding between Windrunners and Skybreakers. Thalath, nowadays Thaylenah, Kharabanth and others might (just might) be the basis of Willshapers. A merchant / pirate culture somewhat fits the theories of Willshapers as explorers. Aimia could have been the basis of one of the soulcasting orders, evidenced by rhe fact that soulcasters were produced there. My insrinct says more Elsecallers than Lightweavers, but there is no further evidence. Further ideas on who might have gone where?

Obviously, boots are well suited for running jokes.

Notably, there might be a third sphere in circulation: one of Szeth's masters (a merchant who got murdered soon after) claimed to have stolen one from the nightwatcher. While the part with the nightwatcher is possibly crem, the description is remarkably specific. The guy might have sold it to Gavilar or one of his people, so it could be one of those two.

Not impossible, however it seems not too complicated to come from Roshar itself

The whole Safehands-thing presumably originated from "arts and majesty", which made the difference between male and female jobs. We do not know how old this book is (nothing says its not written by nohadon's advisor) but it seems to be at oldest hierocratical, because it is very Vorin in nature. On the other hand it may have been written post-factual to constate given traditions and give some type of 'canon'.

Safehands indicate otherwise.

Noteworthy: while this are in-universe pictures, the artist somehow knew that the heralds were dark-eyed (at least Jezrien and Vedeledev appear to be dark-eyed, and Ash seems too. Don't know about ishar) which strikes me as somehow odd. Almost nobody had seen the heralds (and knew it) in 4000 years, and Hierocracy/Vorin/Alethi propaganda (as well as common belief) would have likely 'promoted' them all to lighteyes. Another interesting thing is that Vedeledev is depicted as 'a herald of the common people': she has a glove, is unafraid to use her safehand to hold stuff overhead and equally unafraid to show some ellbow. The effect is slightly reduced by the fact that the dress looks not exactly practical, but one can't have everything. EDIT: Also, they look quite different from their miniatures on the surgebinding chart, although Jezrien has a similar crown. Although... hadn't Kalak said that Jezrien had not worn a crown in centuries?

Actually, Forging is more about the spiritual component than the cognitive, though I don't understand why exactly. However, an important thing is that there still needs to be a spiritual aspect of something to be forged, and this aspect needs to remember. As I understand it, if somebody is dead, their spiritual aspect (soul) is reduced to comparatively little, while the main part departs to the beyond. And this little can't really remember it's former total self. Therefore, the emperor needed to be alive to be forged (it would not have worked on his deas body)

Inspired by Sixthface from Sanderson's "I hate Dragons" I thought about creating a world set on a cubic planet. I don't know what to use it for, tabletop might be a good idea. Anyway, I started to think about the problems with such a world. The first that jumps to my mind is "gravity does not work that way, and this planet can't possibly exist", which can be handwaved by "gods","aliens" ,"wizards" and the like. Still, even if such a planet would exist, the oceans would automatically accumulate in the centers of the faces (because this places are technically "down") while the corners would be mountains so high they would breach the atmosphere. Again, I'm handwaving this, and decide that gravity is always oriented "down". Therefore oceans might be everywhere, including edges and corners. This, of course creates interesting interplays at the corners and edges, with very odd falling patterns for thrown objects. One of the interesting features of this cube will be that there would be no different climate zones based on the the distance from the equator; in fact there won't be even an equator in the sense as we know it. If the planets poles will be in two corners, then all faces will face on average 45° to the sun, therefore making the planet approximately the same temperature everywhere (and that would create quite a lot of problems, i guess). Seasons, luckily, are still possible. Also, each face will have exactly the same time zone (because of the flat form, sunrise, noon and sunset are at exactly the same time). This will render navigation by the stars almost impossible (you can only see which way is north/south, but neither longitude not latitude). TIdes, if a moon (be it round, cuboid or any other form) might also become quite problematic: water would rush very fast from one face to the next each time the planet turns a new face to the moon. Question to all the other worldbuilders here: what will be other factors which will play in? PS: There would be one problem less in this world in comparison to earth regarding the following thing: large-scale maps would be easier to draw.

Or something African. Like, old Aethiopia, or Great Zimbabwe. The continent is so old, you basically stumble over ancient cultures there. To bad few of them had writing. While we're at it, there are quite a lot of ancient cultures in the north-african-and-middle-east-area that are rarely used in fantasy (or even historical fiction, for that matter) who had scripture... If someone can pull this off, it's Sanderson. Ans since Sel is likely the most multicultural shardworld known at the moment (though Roshar and Nalthis are close, and ancient Scadrial might have been even more - 100+ active or semi-active religions tell quite a lot) with cultures that are very distinctive from each other, such things are pretty much possible. Of course, the third empire might be something "boring" like a standard medieval fantasy setting, something like "lord of the rings minus the dragons". It still can be pulled off amazing with Sanderson's skill.

Interesting that none of the heralds wears their respective color.

Wasn't there also something about counterweights on the bridges? Maybe there is a WoB about it, i don't know. I think he talked somewhere about it, but I don't know anymore and I don't have access to theoryland.

But this attitude borders on the logic of religious fanatics, and even those sometimes have the excuse of being brainwashed. Amaram doesn't.

But in this case there is a notable gender difference between dullform and slaveform

Was there any confirmation that dullform is able to have children? Because it appears to me that only slaveform and mateform (of those which are known) are capable of reproduction.

Note that there are some books where the protagonists are somewhere between "not a good person" and "complete cremhole" and still (somewhat) sympathetic. You see their reasons (and even agree to some degree), but you still think that they are definitely not good. For example Glenn Cook's "Black Company" has those people in wagonloads, where being pragmatic is the "best" alignment anyone has, to a lesser degree there are also quite a lot of these in Brent Weeks' "Lightbringer Series", where there is not one character who is not manipulating several others and, crowning example, "A Song of Ice and Fire", where a good part of the cast is morally undecided at best and are still liked (in general).

Maybe that is symbolic for the "jump over the blade" method? On the other side one fighter is catching the other's blade, another rarely used skill (however, this one is depicted somewhat more realistic). Maybe the woman who wrote it was significantly worse in drawing than Shallan. Or the style at the time was less developed. The book does not look new, late Sunmaker era, probably. I mean, look at the average medieval battle scene as depicted in medieval miniature. You'll see some very weird moves. Alternatively its symbolical for "stay calm and nobody can hurt you". Or, whoever painted this (in-cosmere or out-cosmere) had some odd sense of humor.

In my opinion "good" and "evil" are pretty easy to describe. For an action to be either good or evil, the action must be done consciously. Also, it needs to have the intention to cause either benefit or harm to others. Actions done purely for self-interest are neither good nor evil - they are rational. Actions, that cause harm are obviously evil. If an evil action is benefiting the actor, it is ruthless. If an evil action also harms the one who does it, it is...i don't have a good word for it. Actions that bring benefits to others are good. Rationally good, if they also benefit the actor (I suppose most people do it this way). If the action is good while also harming the one who does it, it is heroic. The topic grows muddier when actions bring harm to one group but benefits to another group. This is the topic the Stormlight Archive discusses. Kaladin kills to protect. Dalinar fights a war against an enemy who - apparently - wanted this war. Shallan killed twice in self-defense, once to protect another. Sadeas sacrifices bridgemen to protect his soldiers to kill Parshendi more efficiently. Taravangian sacrifices one part of mankind to help the remaining to survive, apparently without any self-interest. Szeth kills people to uphold the honor of the stone shamans - reluctantly, but he does it. Amaram killed men for personal gain, in the opinion he would need the shardplate to protect others. Is anybody of them completely good or completely evil? No. Can one say that some of them are obviously better than others? Yes. The main distinction is probably, if they are willing to kill innocents, but there are others. Honor is one of the concepts how to evaluate the goodness/evillness of one action: it follows Kant's (among others) line of thought, that said that the goal does not justify the means. The contrary view is the Utilitarism, that (basically) says that only the aggregatet result is important. Is one of the views right, or at least more correct than the other? Difficult to say. Maybe the struggle to find out this is one of the things that make humanity human.

Today I saw a Falafel restaraunt called "Leras". I stared at it for 15 seconds at least, and then my girlfriend had to listen to a long monologue regarding Adonalsium and the Shards.

That's me, a picture where I look less goofy than usual.