Deus Ex Biotica

Exactly. The whole initial idea was to have a way of explaining "Feruchemical energy loss" (which seems to take some time for people to get their heads around, it being end-neutral and all) without resorting to the Brandonthology quotes, which use "compounding" and thus are nearly certain to confuse things more. Since it seems almost certain that Surge shall defeat my efforts, I hope that it shall not cause confusion of its own - but, at the very least, it is sure to cause less confusion, so it's still an improvement.

First things first: THIS POST WILL CONTAIN ALLOY OF LAW SPOILERS. Now that's out of the way, here are my castings for an Alloy Of Law movie: Wayne absolutely has to be Enver Gjokaj. Everyone else on this list will be somewhat negotiable, but he will not. He's a decent physical match, and more to the point, can shift from one persona to another completely, and in a matter of seconds. Wax is a lot more trouble. There's a part of me that wants to hold onto the Firefly trend and go with Nathan Fillion, who could certainly handle the mix of humor and brooding, but Wax isn't a big, broad-shouldered guy like Mr. Fillion, so it doesn't quite work for me. That said, Wax is a fairly tall character who demands some serious stunts from his actor - I had a strong idea here, but as I continued casting, found I had set that person up for a different part, sending me back to the drawing board. Eventually, for someone who just a touch of age, always maintains that "walking wounded" quality, and can alternate between intense and funny, I lean towards Edward Norton. Marasi is a bit of a puzzle. My instinct is to just say Ellen Page, since I cannot see her as Vin, but think Marasi is right up her alley. However, since I don't want to step into that argument, I must seek an alternative. Since I was quite impressed with Emilie de Ravin on LOST, and always felt bad that she had such a boring and pointless character, I think she's a solid pick. Some people might note that, at thirty, she's a little too old to really drive home the "she's too young for him" aspect of her relationship with Wax. These people have a valid points, and so might prefer Emma Watson. Miles calls for an actor with some really good nuance, the ability to be bombastic without becoming comedic, and ideally one who seems heroic, to drive home the jarringness of Miles' warped loyalties. My first pick was Viggo Mortensen, my second was Brad Pitt. Both men, however, are in their fifties, and though they look great for their ages, they will still come across as older than Wax, which alters the dynamic a little to me. And do either of those men have the right facial features for Miles? it's not a deal-breaker, but if possible, it would be nice to get a "hawklike face with short black hair and prominent eyebrows." That sounds like Christian Bale, and he's both heroic and capable of playing up rage and vision, so I think it is he I shall endorse. (Note that, in a perfect world, his role in the movie would be heavily downplayed in promotional material, much like Charlize Theron in Hancock and Nicholas Cage in Kick-chull.) Ranette has a short but absurdly awesome role. For such a one-scene wonder, you're probably best off imagining an personal favorite actress you wish to see more of - for my own part, I shall envision Uma Thurman. Tarson is probably a part best suited to a stuntman - his dialogue is minimal, and I really cannot think of a young, muscular actor under 5'6''. For Lord Edwarn, I'd like to avoid the cliches, but it's hard for me not to picture Malcolm McDowell. Steris I don't really have an idea for - as always, finding a Hollywood actress for the "plain" role, especially one not intended to have a "oh, look, she really is beautiful" moment. Hilary Swank could probably handle the other aspects of the role well, but I'm not totally sold on it. Having Michael Caine play Tillaume would be funny for subverting the audience's expectations, but I always pictured him as Sir Ian McKellen. In reality, getting either man to play such a bit villain might be tricky. -- Deus Ex Biotica

Hilariously, I started making my response before yours was even posted. But don't tell anyone. I prefer it to look like I was idle for a week, and showed back up within minutes of someone saying my name. And, of course, people should read this thread before voting. I stand by Flood as the superior word, but I am allowed to be stubborn, so long as I am also informed, which I am. -- Deus Ex Biotica

There were times (as with the train stopping, after it had been attacked by a masked gunman and had a wounded man aboard) when one would have expected reference to telegraphs, but none arose. Nonetheless, I was assuming that telegraphs (but not telephones or radios) exist, simply because it seems so hard to have electricity and no telegrams, while phones and radios seem more possible to avoid, as well as being bigger impacts on the flow of events. -- Deus Ex Biotica

So, is it safe to say that people have generated the ideas they're likely to, and we can move to a Poll?

Good point! And, if they came across something in a code, or a language they didn't know, the codebreakers would know they were getting it perfectly. I like it!

I read what you wrote, Administrator Formerly Known As Crow, but I still think that Surge is in elegant, due to the Roshar issue. Earlier, I briefly considered Storm, but disliked it for the same reason. If people do not like Flooding, what about dialing it down to Flowing? "He flowed his metalminds" sounds less like filling them, while still keeping the water theme. -- Deus Ex Biotica

Hurm. I will admit, that makes his comment about them being a different species puzzling.

Huh. I had just been assuming that was true, aranfan, but upon re-reading the Brandonthology, it's not mentioned specifically there. I still believe it, regardless.

He died when his Atium bracers were removed. It seems rather strange to me that one would assume the Atium was not the key to his immortality.

Can they? I draw my comment about them no longer being human not just from the fact that they are no longer surviving due to the actions of their organs (I wonder if they even need to eat), but also from the Hero Of Ages annotations for chapter forty In the annotation for 44, he also commends the subtlety in Rashek designing three new races before he began altering the biology of the world's plants and animals. So, it might or might not have anything to do with the exact number of spikes, but no matter what color their skin, Inquisitors are no longer human. -- Deus Ex Biotica

I think it reads as more clear when you don't say "metalmind," but instead focus on the attribute or the metal "Flooding gold," "Flooding stength," etc. But, yeah, I can see how Flooding sounds like it could be filling. This makes me think that "Sapped" is better, but it just sounds too similar to "Tapped" - they're only one letter different! I suspect that would cause more confusion than it solves. Flow? Pour? Dump? Torrent? Cascade? -- Deus Ex Biotica P.S. And thanks, Conforming Ookla - that list really helps put things in perspective.

And there's the issue where adding more spikes to either a Kandra or an Inquisitor does not make them into a new sort of being. Here's a notion: what if two spikes is a "threshold" for Feruchemy changing you into a different species. Vin and Spook each get one spike, and remain largely themselves. But Inquisitors are no longer human, even though they do not seem to get an Attribute Spikes. Maybe once you have two spikes, there starts to be as much "other" Spiritweb as there is "original" Spiritweb, so it's the cutoff point for staying the same being. -- Deus Ex Biotica

I often wonder about how senses other than the famous five (direction, equilibrium, time, etc.) interact with Tin, either Allomancy or Feruchemy. Sadly, in Mistborn as in real life, nobody ever seems to recognize that these senses exist. That might make it a really wicked advantage for a clever Twinborn, though. I always assumed that it does help with processing (my idea with Electrum doesn't work otherwise), so this all seems workable to me! And bonus points for a shout-out to Name Of The Wind. Miles took advantage of this as a side-effect of his Gold Compounding. I wonder if a flat-out Keeper could store Speed while tapping Breath and Health to make their heart stop completely while they aim. I actually suspect that storing your emotions is a near-absolute counter to Soothers and Rioters, at the cost that you're not that motivated to do things when you're using it. Cool thoughts, and welcome! -- Deus Ex Biotica

Touché. But they would accelerate 25% more slowly, and their terminal velocity would be 25% slower as well. And, yes, Skimming clearly changes your inertia and momentum (but not your velocity) when you use it. Otherwise, almost none of the tricks Wax uses as a Crasher would work, nor would Sazed's responses to Pushes and Pulls. Heck, when Wax fights Miles on the train, he taps weight while shouldering Miles in the stomach, and this hits harder than a normal blow. -- Deus Ex Biotica

A Pewterarm with a Pewter-granting Spike would have the same effects as it does on any kind of Misting: they would get more power for their metal burned, and they would be able to burn a larger amount at once. But the problem remains: assuming they do not Compound, or (sigh) tap power faster than they filled it, all Feruchemists use their abilities with a 100% yield - no more, and no less. So the answer here must be somewhat more subtle than it is for Allomancy. -- Deus Ex Biotica

Ooof. Yeah, that's what I intended to do in the first place - thanks. Not so! Alloy of Law and The Final Empire both talk about people "flaring" their metals as opposed to having them "at a low burn" to refer to using a lot of a metal very quickly (for example, most Tineyes and Thugs always have low level burning - only the ones who Flare a lot become Savants), and they're clearly not talking about Duralumin. Allomancy and Feruchemy both allow you to use anywhere from a tiny amount to a much larger one of their power (Allomancy has a hard upper threshold, which Feruchemy does not, but there is still a gradient in both cases). "Tapped a massive amount X" (or "drew heavily on his Xmind," as is also used sometimes) are descriptive, just as one could say that "Wax reacted immediately, burning a larger amount of the steel that burned inside his stomach," but I think that sentence (Alloy Of Law, p.16, all the way at the bottom) parses much better as "flaring the steel". The list of words: Channel, Condense, Drain, Flood, Funnel, Over-Tap, Sap, Squeeze, Synthesize Of these, I think that Over-Tap sounds just as awkward as the wordings I am trying to move away from. Sap and Funnel I both think of first in terms of their meanings as nouns, so they parse oddly to me, though others clearly feel differently. Drain is already in use with regards to Metalminds (when you remove everything from them completely). Condense seems like it should be something regarding the act of filling the Metalminds differently - with syrup or water, "condensing" something is not tapping it but moreso, it's a totally unrelated act. That leaves Channel, Squeeze, and Flood as the ones I have no specific objection to. Unsurprisingly, I most prefer the one I submitted in the first place, Flood. Here's why: * Flood always means "a really large amount of something," which is exactly what we want to convey here. * Flood, like Fill and Tap, is a word that refers to moving a quantity of fluid. * Flood has a nice symmetry with "Flare," and thus keeps up an overall aesthetic of Allomancy getting fire words, and Feruchemy getting water words. * I just think Flood sounds cool. -- Deus Ex Biotica P.S. I would say "scarf" if I wanted a word for eating absurdly fast, but I must admit that it does not pass my "more famous for a noun with a different meaning" test.

The Thread on Feruchemy and Hemalurgy was recently overwhelmed by a tangential issue, which now gets its own thread: when you draw an attribute from a Metalmind at a rate greater than you put it in, the result is measurably different: the normally End-Neutral Art must consume some of its energy in the transfer. This really seems like it should have a specific term to describe it, but when Brandon Sanderson described it in Q&A, he used the word "compounding," which has come to mean something else entirely to us when discussing Feruchemy. So, the search is on - a word which is to a Feruchemist "tapping" and Flare is to an Allomancer "Burning". The current two frontrunners are Flood and Funnel. I submitted one of these, but since the first post in a top like this really ought to be neutral, I will recount my reasoning in a separate post tomorrow (or you can go to the other thread and read it there). At some point, this thread will evolve into a Poll*, to determine what will serve as the "convention" until Brandon Sanderson provides us with a term. This will probably happen after 2-4 days of people getting to think of new words, and discuss the merits of words already mentioned. -- Deus Ex Biotica * Learning Geo-Slam in the process.

I suppose it might also help with precise control over how much they are storing/tapping at one time.

... maybe a little.

As I mentioned, though, Wax (who is very experienced with speed bubbles) never tries to shoot even nearby enemies out of Wayne's bubbles (and if he could he certainly would have done so against Push, since catching that man off guard was a major goal of his through out the fight). Therefore, I think that even at close range, the deflection must be too severe.

I think we should wait a couple of days and see if anyone has any other really good ideas that should be considered before we have a poll. Although, really, my hope here is that we spend a week or so talk about this, finally find something that we can all agree on... and, the very next day, someone asks Brandon Sanderson, who provides a new word entirely.

To be fair, you can flood, say, a room, without draining all of the sea. Though I guess it might be in poor taste for me to argue my case towards someone who is supporting the idea already...

Do they? Once the bullet is in the bubble, you'll notice it in short order, and drop the bubble. They might get one or two more shots, but Wax could take quite afew shots at people outside the bubble, too, and never bothers - with the defraction, it seems that even firing a dozen shots is no assurance of accuracy, and nobody mentions trying this even when the enemy is at close range (like Push, who would have been unlikely to be Allomatically prepared for the man he just shot in the head to magically empty a revolver into him), so I do not think that the defraction setting in at close range is the issue, either. -- Deus Ex Biotica P.S. Hitting someone in the bubble they do not wish to would be a factor, as well, though obviously that doesn't matter when the bubble has two targets, and Miles Hundredlives.

I wondered that, too. It's hard to say whether Alendi's logbook contained anything which Ruin would feel the need to tweak - certainly, if it described more exactly what prophecies exactly made him the Hero Of Ages, those would have to go, since Ruin wants to be able to make anyone it chooses be the "Hero". It might have made the Deepness more vague, or given more clues about Rashek's identity, too. The book did have a metal cover - I am unsure whether Ruin could alter it while it was closed, though once Kelsier and Sazed start going through it, this is no longer a factor. -- Deus Ex Biotica