Alfa

By the way, why not just coat conventional cyanide (or another poison) in a bit of steel? Less flashy, but cheaper and effective enough, don't you think?

I'd like to point out, that in earth years that would be approximately 4950 years.

But wasn't Vax supposed to have an initiation not unlike Elantris? I mean, Aether bonds are created in a fundamentally different way than Elantrians, aren't they?

OK, so as of today, AG first draft is on full 9% (again proving that Sanderson is very fast). I had not checked in the last days, but it seems Brandon started less than a week ago. Judging by that I expect books about the length the Reckoners or slightly shorter.

You know, brandon seemingly stole your idea about this very thread...

Why am I feeling reminded of the Epilogue to the Way of Kings, where Wit muses about coming up with the right Idea at the right Time?

Well, they are and just as much they are not. Like in most cases a spell is a very, very specific aplication ("Saruman, your staff is broken!"; "Avada Kedavra!"), in the above mentioned it is not necessary the case. Such things are very specific, "uncreative" programms with simple input and output limited in scope. To make it clear - that are not necessarily bad programms, because they work fast and don't need much understanding. On the other hand, it would be difficult to raise a castle (brick by brick) with one spell ("Apparturum Castellum!")- actually, I saw that a castle was raised from nothing (or something similar) several times in fantasy, and never, ever was it done by "spell" - most times the caster was mysteriously silent, in other cases the process was done step by step. A reason for that might that it seems to strange that there is a specific spell for the creation of one specific castle. So to say, a sufficiently flexible programm does not give you one "spell", but millions. What you do depends more on your creativity than on the programm. There might be no specific application for a specific task (like killing people) in a programm (eg a programm to make water levitate) - but it still can be used for it (just put it around their heads). Most tasks can be accomplished not by one, but by dozens of different programms, differently used Last, and also important, I think that you are generally right; I thought about the term "spells" before, but threw it away because it had a far too specific connotation. Thanks for the link. Some things are relatively similat to what I thought, though I see a lot of differences.

So, dear Shard, I am developing a magic system for something that I try to write. I wish to improve it, and invite anybody to criticize it as much as they want. Advice is also sought. WARNING: A lot of text First and foremost, the world for which I am creating the system is a world not unlike the Earth (with several notable exceptions) and is inhabited by humans. There are no other "races" (E.G. Dwarves, Elves, Parshendi) , nor are there confirmed gods (like Odium or Illuvatar). The raw types of magic a person can use are genetically encoded, together with their strength. It would go too much into detail, but with this a lot of fun things might be possible. I plan to keep track of the magical DNA of the characters as I write, therefore knowing their abilities, as well as the abilities of potential children/parents. Because what I write is centered on a country where clan and family matter a lot, it is also relevant in medium-term, not just worldbuilding-long-term. The raw types of magic include (spoilered): There might be others, the system is not finished here. Some may be mutually exclusice, some may be more common than others. So far, so good. Now, all magic users face a certain problem: it's incredibly difficult to make magics work. You need to watch for every single aspect while "magicking", for example if you want a fireball thrown, you need to focus on creating the necessary heat (fast enough!), containing the heat in the right place, applying the necessary force to throw it, and watch for it to stay in its state till it reaches its destination. Its not impossible, just difficult and potentially life-threatening. Luckily, some clever people developed a way around it. it doesn't have a fancy name yet, as of now I am just calling it what it basically is - Programms. Programms are...well, they make it easier to use certain magics, because they take care of some factors, In the fireball-example above, you'll just have to give the programm the command "fireball casted on that bad guy there" and Whoosh...! one bad guy less. Or something. The programm took care of all the factors, you just had to give a precise command where you want the fireball headed. Of course, there is a magnitude of different programms. Some are more flexible (EG allowing you a lot of fireballs of different magnitude, heat level, shape and color, if you like it), some are very specified (you just have to think "Fireball", and there it comes, right of your left hand, in a straight line). It depends on the task at hand what kind of programm you want to use - do you want speed, precision, flexibility, reliability...? A programm does not make you an expert. Just having a programm that allows you to throw fireballs does not make you into a battle-mage. No more than a rifle makes you a marksmen. Training is necessary. How the programms are made I don't know yet. Neither I do know how one "installs" a programm he or she obtained in any way. Obtaining, on the other hand, is relatively easy. Most programms are sold by programming individuals or companies - some of which amassed incredible wealth with this business. Some programms are given from organisations to members or from governments to agents or other people working for it. Some are a kind of "freeware". Costs: Like everything, magic comes at a cost. It does not matter if you use programms, or do it yourself, everything you have to do is processed ion your brain. And while the brain is incredibly good at subconciously calculating stuff, it still has limits. This limits take many appearances - usually it starts with a headache, proceeds over involuntary movements of your limbs, ends with cramps. OK, it's the point at which any sane person would stop. Heavier cases include insults, epilepsy, brain death, shizophrenia, apathy and any number of other psychic conditions. In some cases you don't even have to be magicking a lot. A careless error in a programm, a contradicting command, not enough failsafes - and you'll find yourself in a mental clinic faster than you had thought possible. Hopefully you'll recover soon enough to sue the company you obtained the programm from. /longnovel; YOU are invited to criticize it.

Or wood. Just soulcast it into wood. BTW, I first typed "soulcat", and thought about this - why is your profile picture Soulcatcher, if your username is Ammanas? Wouldn't Shadowthrone fit somehow better?

Let's talk about the ethnicity of the name "Asyldin". Immediately two things come to my mind. 1) Names on Threnody often include concepts. In this case we have "Asyl" in the name, which is synonymous with Asylum, what might be a pretty common name on Threnody. At least it fits to names like Silence. 2) "-din" (or probably just "-in") is the Alethi particle in names that indicates something like "born from", "born through". There are a couple of names ending with -din, notably Kaladin, Bordin (Dalinars agent), Redin (the heterochromatic Bastard of the jahkehvedan highprince, plus a historical figure named Dandos Heraldin, which is a cameo of Dan Dos Santos. [my Spanish/Portuguese is close to zero, but Dos Santos means something like "of the saints", so Heraldin "of the heralds" is reasonable]. Combining these two, Asyldin might be an Alethi-Threnodite offspring, with "Asyldin" meaning "Asylum's daughter". Or, she is an Alethi-Terrismen offspring who was born on Scadrial, which her parents considered an Asylum (eg from possible highprince-wars in eastern Roshar), meaning something like "born in an Asylum". Note: names ending with -din are not uncommon elsewhere in the Cosmere, notably Bavadin and sone characters on Scadrial. No Terrismen, though.

Might be, if you explain good enough what the Aons (especially Rao) mean. Else the turning point will be...well, difficult to understand.

And I fear he dies before finishing his work.

That becomes increasingly difficult. To quote Boromir, one does not simply worldhop to Ashyn.

Or like my solution with an outer layer of oil in an underground cell. Make them summon their shardblade an thrust it in the ground. Any re-summoning will lead to oil intrusion in the cell and a very hot bath.

Do we know if there are Volcanoes on Roshar? We have volcanic heated pools in the Horneater mountains, but Roshar is a single continent with little to none tectonic activity, so volcanoes seem very unlikely.

I don't really know. It's not that I dislike the ideas, it's more like this visualizations take a lot out of the subtile parts of allomancy (especially emotional allomancy), and make it appear more blunt. It's just some kind of a flavor, but it is a good part of the fun to see the Mistborns play their little subtle games with each other (Vin and Shan, for example). Also, regarding the breaking of soothing on a coppercloud - copper shields only the smoker from emotional allomancy, not the ones around him.

What did Brightlord Meridas say to explain how he killed the shardbearer? I AmARam-bo. What kind of music are bridgemen usually listening to? Rock.

In old English there even was a letter for the "th" sound, which died out with the rise of book-printing. In the beginning it was substituted by "Y" (therefore "Ye olde good Times"), and later by the "th"-combination. Equally some languages (EG Russian) possess a single letter for the sound "sh". At least Alethi has almost all sounds put in letters; th and sh inclusive.

I'm pretty sure that "Dark Alley" is not a viable option

...and here comes a variation of the second half.

More or less the first part of my solution, the one with soulcasted crem-balls.

Shardblades can cut aluminum. WoB.

That part has a certain finality to it. Kind of bad if you imprison somebody for trial.

I guess we will see what the allomancer sees - blue lines for metal, sounds for burning. Emotional allomancy may be difficult.

Dalinar once said to Kaladin that it is almost impossible to imprison a Shardbearer. However, in my opinion, that is possible, even if technically difficult to achieve. The most difficult moment would be arresting the Shardbearer in question. However, we saw how Dalinar managed to defeat a guy in a Shardplate vs. Shardplate batte without killing him (Elhokar) and another one in a Shardblade vs. Shardblade standoff (Amaram). With surprise and enough skilled Shardbearers an arrest is achievable. Now the Shardbearer is arrested, his shardplate is shattered, somebody is holding a Shardblade to his throat (two are better), and two people hold his arms to the sides and watch very carefully that no mists start to form there. Let's just assume the guy does not want to die fighting and as a rational man sees there is no way to survive this. Now, we need a way to stop the arrested from summoning his shardplate when nobody is watching. The solution I have in mind is fixating his hands in a way he is unable to hold a summoned shardblade. I thought about taking enough crem to form balls around his hands and then soulcast it to metal or wood. Even if he summons a shardblade, it will fall down. Also, it is possible to achieve this by building some kind of wooden gloves with finger-rings or so, though I don't know how the exact design may look like. Now, we need a special cell. A typical cell has the problem that the shardbearer still might escape, by summoning the shardblade in the right spot and dropping it. It might take its time, but in the end there might still be a hole in the door, or wall, or floor. Therefore, the cell should be a hole in the ground (alike to the forger-containment cells in The Emperor's Soul). Summon all the blades you want - it's still a long way to the other side of Roshar. Especially fun would be a cell soulcasted out of transparent crystal on the inside, after which follows a thick layer of oil. And a part of the cell that you cannot reach (very narrow passage between those) contains a brazier. Any summoning of the shardblade leads to a hole in the wall, and an intrusion of oil, which inevitably will catch fire, therefore discouraging any attempt. It is difficult, it is expensive, it is possible.