Aradel

Sorry, not wording this well. I've not been on the forums for a while and might be behind in terminology. I mean to say that our cognitive aspects are aggragates of all the aspects for each of our parts, and soulcasting treats a given aspect like a group of aspects instead of a whole. I think in WoK (asssuming my memory is correct) The goblet that Shallan soulcast into blood referred to itself in plural. This might explain why soulcasting one stone into smoke or a person into fire doesn't conserve mass exactly. It takes the number of little aspects and transforms them, leaving the same number of aspects but each with an adjusted mass or energy. As for forging, I always thought it was the cognitive aspect that was altered or supplanted because the cognitive realm deals with an object's image of itself.

My "theory" is less a theory and more a change in how we look at the spiritual realm, and it was inspired by Kurk anyway. I nod to him as a superior theorist. As to how bonds affect sDNA and/or forms, my gut says the cognitive aspect has something to do with it but I don't have an arguement worked out for it. I do have a few points to make though. Shards are giant masses of spiritual energy, but they are limited by an intent (cognitive maybe?), and a holder (spiritual node?). Koloss are humans who are radically changed by a hemalurgic spike (sDNA transplant) and we find out from brandon and more specifically the broadsheet for AoL that post-HoA they breed true. Could this be a permanent mutation passed down to children or a shardic hand wave from Sazed? I think that Forging manipulates spiritual bonds to trick an object into changing it overall cognitive aspect. And that Soulcasting makes a change in the cognitive aspect directly to convince all the little aspects that make it up to change.

I think I may have to disagree with the Shardic Radiation Theory. If the Spiritual Realm is a network, than mutations to sDNA would occur through the connections, not by 'radiation'. For example, Let's assume that mutations to complex sDNA (people) would most likely occur during a new individual's development. Let's also assume that the people who inhabit a world have a strong spiritual connection to it. A Shard comes to a world and develops a connection to it. Spiritual energy leaks from the shard (high concentration) to the world (low concentration) and seeks to bind to a node (complex sDNA structure). It attaches itself to living creatures (especially humans) and starts the process of mutating sDNA over a few generations until people start being able to make bonds with the Shard directly (use magic). In layman's terms energy moves from the shard to the world and then to living things until they can access and use magic. Worlds like Sel and Roshar which have broken shards would have a much more active process than worlds with whole shards, due to the spiritual energy having no node or person already bound to it, so it would more activly seek a host. This might explain how Elantrians come about, a person develops a suitably strong enough connection to the energy's intent, and the influx of spiritual energy forces an unnatural mutation in the sDNA outside of development.

*sigh* You can spike me later... speaking of spikes, what do you think about Hemalurgic bind points? Are they physical locations for strong spiritual bonds?

Thanks, I wasn't thinking. Sorry about that Kurk...

Okay, finished the OP. I'm also going to say that I think alterations to someone's cognitive aspect are a "trickle down" from the spiritual realm. The description of a cognitive aspect was: "how an obect is viewed and how it views itself." I think it would be normal for a cognitive aspect to slightly adapt to changes in how it is viewed by others because that kind of information would come from the spiritweb. Forging just adds a little "Kick" of shardic energy. Also: there may be a time when I need another hole poked in my hairbrained ideas, so you can keep the title. (Though you can change it to Aaradel, I plan on using this name long-term.

I only made it about halfway through the theory, so I'm not defenestrating it. But you got me thinking that maybe I/we missunderstood the term "spiritweb" that Brandon has made use of before. A Spiritweb is supposed to function like spiritual DNA, which led me to believe that it was some kind of internal network that works like regular DNA. But when you emphisised that the spiritual realm is about connections and bonds I got the impression that the "web" in "spiritweb" might. Be more literal. What if a person or object's spiritweb is an External web of connections that ties them to places they've been, things they've been affected by, etc. If this is true, the spiritual realm would look and function more like a giant network, in spite of the other two reams being at least geologically similar. Forging in particular would be a kind of "hack" that alters the connections of an object or person that is distinct in the cognitive sense. I.e. the window has connections to the fragments of the old window which can be exploited to create stronger or entirely new connections that tell the window it's currently stained glass. Forgings fail because the rest of the world remains unaffected and would try to reject the false connections. The more "false" a spiritweb is, the stronger the rejection. As the traditional shooter of my ego, what do you think?

Except that Ruin and Preservation oppose each other, which would make controlling both of them at the same time them difficult.

One of the requirements for becoming an allomantic savant is a constant flaring of the metals. Flaring metals taxes an allomaners power a great deal more than regular burning. Keeping a metal at a constant regular burn will likely yeild a small increase in allomantic power but will not grant savant-like abilities. (So Wax's 3/4 weight storage wouldn't have much of a total effect because he's not pushing the limit of his abilities.) A feruchemical savant would likely be created in a similar fashion, though gaining a savant level increase in power by constant excessive drawing is logistically impossible without compounding. And we don't know if twinborn are even capable of becoming savants. Mixing two systems in one spiritweb can have odd results as evidenced by hemalurgy. It's more likely that if a feruchemic savant is possible, they would gain that status through excessive storing of their attributes. Constantly pushing the limits of what they can store safely may cause their physical or cognitive aspect to adjust to the loss. It may even get to the point where they appear unimpared while storing, enhanced while neither storing nor drawing, and super-enhanced while drawing. That I think is what a feruchemical savant would be if it is at all possible.

Don't zinc ferrings store mental speed? How would that help an allomantic bronze (seeker)? You may have your metals a little mixed up.

So Szeth has two choices; disobey and have his soul vanish, or obey and be condemned to eternal torture. Does the "eternal torture" ring a bell with anyone else? Could the Shin know or have known in the past what happened to the heralds in between desolations?

On the whole brain issue - isn't a Returned essentially a Lifeless with a working biology? I have a suspicion that the breath of a Returned can heal others because it was designed by Endowment to heal the corpse of a Returned. Also, if there are undiscovered commands that make an uber-breath capable of regenerating a corpse (spiritual repair of a physical body), there should be a way to repair a non-fatal shardblade wound with breath (spiritual repair for a spiritual wound). The real question is how much breath it would take.

I wonder if it might also be possible to "reconnect" the arm with breath, if you got to it soon enough.

Did Roshar have highstorms before Adonalsium shattered? Was Adonalsium tied to all or some of the Shardworlds before the shattering?

That's pretty close to Sel magic, But the hardest part is makin it plausible enough that it would go with it. If you push too hard you might break it.

I can't help but still think it has something to do with the nations, or maybe the races. Maybe having Devotion's shardpool in Elantris gave that nation some additional perks. Maybe a nation has to have a large splinter of one or both of the shards to develop magic. Maybe the land itself chooses who can or cannot use their magic.

I think we can agree that these three substances can be tied to the shards, and the only shards we know of that were around Sel were Devotion, Dominion, and Odium. Rakalest doesn't seem like it would be devotion so it's either Dominion or Odium. And Devotion is my bet for Soulstone. The MaiPon symbol that Shai uses seems to indicate that like Elantris, Forging is tied to the Land it originated from. The MaiPon symbol, Shai's discourse on how things in the physical realm "consider" themselves seperate from other things, (like with windows and walls for example. Shai had to stamp them seperately) and Brandon's comment on Sel being "hard to get to" from shadesmar makes me think that we may find a slightly different system of symbols and applications for magic in each and every major nation on Sel. Populations are Devoted to their nation which has Dominion over them, the nations consider themselves seperate from each other in the spiritual realm, magic developes for at least every major civilization. I'm not sure how this would play out with MaiPon and other nations being absorbed into greater empires. Thoughts?

The plotting and pacing of this one was perfect for the shorter format. I read Legion earlier this year and the pacing wasn't this good. I have high hopes for Brandon's shorter works in the future. And thanks for generating a spoiler forum! I didn't want to dicuss stuff before the official release date. Btw - My brother just read the first line of chapter 1 and... Brother: "She counted forty-three kinds of stone? That's insane!" Me: "It could be worse." Bro: "How?" Me: "She hasn't named them all yet."

I cant help but feel there's more to Dahkor than we've seen. Elantrian and forging magics are both very versitile.

Captain America - Kaladin, born leader whose past failures match up with the grief Cap feels for having lost everyone he knew. Thor - Susebron, God-like power with a bit of innocent confusion. Iron Man - Kelsier, self made man whose awesome powers were gained during his darkest moment. Plus he's dashing. I am jealous of his dashing-ness. Hulk - Vasher, tormented genius with monstrous power. Black Widow - Shai from TES... And I can't say more without spoiling things. Hawkeye - Wax, professional ranged specialist.

Only in authorship unfortunatly. There is an over-arching story to many of his books (Mistborn, Warbreaker, Elantris, and Stormlight novels are all connected) but Infinity Blade is not one of them.

Sel has a lot more power available than Scadrial does due to splintering. Remember Kelsier's fight with the inquizitor more powerful than he was? Fighting a Dahkor would be much harder. It would be possible, but only through cleverness and/or duralumin. Vin could do it, but she's as skilled a mistborn as we're ever going to see.

Begs the question: Could the Knights radiant make shardblades? And if so did they make some of them... different?

Thank you for bringing up the memories I've tried so very hard to repress. NOTHING deserves to end up like like that silhouette-with-glowing-eyes-and-pink-blood-Orc-fight. ...maybe Twilight.

Murderspren - often found in proximity to Dan. Sodiumspren - only appear when a great book is being written. Hiccupspren - appear and vanish repeatedly. Thinkingspren - appear most often in bathrooms.