Pechvarry

How about: choose a city on Earth. That city is the source of your power, with standard distance-weakening as seen with Elantris.

Make Brandon Sanderson Essence Marks. Use them on a small group of people and read everything they write.

A metalborn is someone born with any of Scadrial's metallic abilities. A mistborn and a misting are both Allomancers. A... feruchemist... is a... Feruchemist. And um. So is a Ferring. See the logical gaps?

I apologize for always being unable to find quotes on our phone, but we have a few references to a bit of innate investiture being required for sentience. This could be the "soul" and be what is shaped into a spirit web, as Darnam said.

Lightsong was acutely aware of his wound. Hard to say if it was any more shocking than a normal person's though.

@Darnam: I'm trying to stay out of WoR threads. Feel free to take the observation to that thread though.

Pretty sure immunity to poisons is listed under 5th heightening in ars arcanum. Not in the Returned section. Only a terrible scientist would make the assumption that anyone of the 5th heightening gets to basically be a returned without data to support. My conclusion: poison immunity isn't a Returned trait. I've noticed that Breath abilities tend to be more about adding dimension than straight improvements. Your hearing doesn't become super, really. But you become much more discerning in what sounds your ears could already pick up. This holds true with vision and probably health as well. Which is why I want to see a bronze misting with a lot of Breath.

I have a feeling luck will not play out in a Cauthon-esque manner, but let's say it does for the moment. A seer sees the light fixture about to fall on their face, but not themself (that's a word?). So how can they foresee that this is the time they will trip on their own feet? If you swing your glass dagger, can you also see that it shatters? I've mentioned before that luck in the cosmere may be something of a "fate priority". Maybe tapping/storing luck is dynamically changing your future. In which case, just storing a bit of luck may be enough to create a cloud of possibilities for the seer, with the downside that you're a bit unlucky during the fight.

I think it would be pretty easy to simply ask if cosmere questions are appropriate if/when he opens the channel to general q&a. But obviously, don't go caps locking about Hoid and the dragon when he asks if the setting would be better outdoors or something...

Did we get confirmation that the unknown god and god beyond are linked? I DON'T think we actually have anything that says either term refers at all to Adonalsium's opposition (I'm still pushing for Anti-nalsium).

Phantom_monstrosity used to hang around here and was notorious for always having the quote you were looking for. I've searched the site (which doesn't seem to go back to the beginning of time btw) and Theoryland to no avail.

Sigh. I miss Phantom

I find it fascinating that in Kurk's quote above, Brandon said twins COULD have different sDNA. Not always... In other news the magic of The Emperor's Soul would work really well with twins.

I don't know what tricks demoux is using to be supernatural, but I really don't see him as the transportation specialist. That's gonna be Galladon. I like the theory about atium/bronze (with a rigged up method of powering it in place of actual atium?) being used to detect worldhopping. Giving us the mover, the tracker, and the fighter (blunt).

Hey I just wanted to pop in on my phone and mention that we have WoB stating that destinies are set in stone in the Cosmere UNLESS you can see the future. Thus, showing a soul an aspect of the current future, then Returning them (and therefor giving said Returned the chance to interact with said future) creates a new future that they can no longer say. In essence, every Returned introduces a "second chance" for Nalthis' timeline. So I would guess an "unfulfilled" Returned dies like the rest of the mortals: unaware of what could have been.

This thread probably belongs in Cosmere Theories. Deus Ex Machina. -- Hotwiring magic systems isn't easy. If he says it's difficult, I'm gonna guess it's not what the 17th sharders are doing (they seem like children playing with dad's guns compared to Hoid).

I think, if nothing else, the increasing number of deliberately designed cities across the Cosmere is worthy of discussion. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to suggest these other cities were given functions based on their shape. Elantris' function is primarily the Elantrian effect, no doubt. Elendel creates fertility and uh... Soothing atmosphere. Perhaps Luthadel's similarly symmetrical design aided somehow in containing Ruin or the Well. But regardless, I like the idea of Elantrians being able to tap into those geometries like their own town.

There's an extra layer of oddity here: "allomantically inert" aluminum isn't... allomantically inert. It's anti-allomantic. Presumably, any aluminum pure enough to not give off a metal line (for iron/steel), could be burnt by an Aluminum Gnat. And so once it's impure enough that it couldn't be burnt, it would actually appear less "inert" to a Steelpusher like Wax, as he'd find he could interact with it. A non-scadrian magic system could very easily make use of aluminum, but I wouldn't count on it. And it seems pretty clearly set up that "shades" of metals don't result in all new powers, so I wouldn't count on anything crazy.

I really don't buy any justification based on physical qualities of the planet (i.e. Broken Sky on Scadrial). From the standpoint of someone in the Cognitive Realm, what would they see looking towards other planets? If every rock has a cognitive existence, it's going to be messy either way. But here's a question: If I'm in Shadesmar and looking at some sort of ball that represents Vin, what happens to the ball when Vin burns a metal? For every use of Investiture, is it visible from Shadesmar? If so, that's what would separate the different expanses. Especially when it's a glow on the horizon.

I have a feeling the reason a gold compounder can live through a shot to the head while a normal bloodmaker cannot is one of 2 things: the simple answer is that they're already tapping such massive amounts of health that the body takes care of injuries as they occur. The alternative is probably savantism. IF it's the first, a bloodmaker could probably live through similar gruesome experiences by simply seeing it coming and having a massive store to dump inefficiently (all the healing used while waiting for the trigger pull is mostly wasted, but is necessary since the body needs a heal process already in effect). If this is the case, frangible/incendiary/etc would be pretty nice to have. Especially BEFORE you get a chance at that headshot. Sidenote: I hope it's that and not savantism, because it would play very well with Allomantic electrum.

I think shotguns, in general, are fantastic for dealing with metal born. Easier to build than Ranette's iron/steel killers: small rocks in your shell, along with normal metal pellets. Best fired from the protection of your own steelbubble though. Anything with a dodge advantage: shotgun once again increases your success chances. And if you're aiming to steal some bloodmaking, get your hemalurgic intent on, and fire pewter pellets out of your shotty. I find your chances of hitting the precisely correct part of the heart increase when you simply hit every part of the heart.

I understand the Internet is a harsh place, but you'll find we really prize kindness and acceptance around here. We won't hold a grudge once you're out of this thread and into a new one. Just try not to go around accusing people of having no reading comprehension. As for Taln's Scar... I apparently can't copy straight out of amazon's desktop reader, so I'll say: page 504/505, Shallan mentions people claiming to be able to read her personality based on the position of Taln's Scar on her seventh birthday. I was going to use this talk of Taln's Scar's location to claim they're not stars at all, that it's much more local. But seasons bring changes of constellations all the time, and there's nothing saying it's in a different place relative to the rest of the stars in Roshar's skies. I can still copy out of a pdf! This is the only mention of stars (or even star, singular, searched for by placing a whitespace before and after star) in all of Warbreaker. Other than the title of an unpublished Cosmere novel, I see nothing interesting in the quote. These are the only Cosmere ebooks I have.

I'm not sure where to put this since it has little to do with 17thshard.com, so feel free to move wherever it's most appropriate. I'm wondering if anyone else is having this problem. My phone still shows AFB signing as Brandon's latest post, my work computer shows Worldbuilders, neither show me the post about his class deadline. Deleting stored data (I assume this is cookies and cache, but my phone won't actually tell me) isn't helping. No other websites are giving me problems. Am I alone in this?

No. You claimed the sun itself was red before The Lord Ruler. DocHoliday is pointing out that it is actually a yellow sun that appears red because you're looking through burning ash. That wouldn't affect the star's color from Roshar's stars. Seriously, try being tactful and polite.

Assuming Aona is a first-generation shard (no one held it before her), I find it likely that Aons are the closest thing to pre-shattering language. But if she built the language along with her system, it actually would make sense to name hope after Ati. Giving Ruin to him seems very much like a last-hope kind of effort. ...which makes me wish Brandon would just run with it. After all, he has also said there are a lot of lingual/cultural links between planets. But I don't remember how firmly worded his "no connection" WoB is, and wishing doesn't make it so.