Eagle of the Forest Path

It's an interesting idea and I think it has potential. Just some random thoughts: I'm not sure about the idea of it working entirely through the fortune/luck attribute, it feels a bit un-Selish (the other known Selish magic systems let users program pretty much whatever they want). If you change it to "mainly fortune, but supported by other attributes" I could see that working in the setting. I'm looking at Feruchemy for a list of usable attributes Such as a knot for luck in sports increasing the target's Fortune, and also a little (Physical) Strength and/or Speed Your "Persuasive" knot could work (in part) by increasing the Connection attribute between two people If you want the system to be usable in combat (I don't think it needs to be) while still avoiding the "magic backpack" thing where a character just pulls out the perfect knot for every occasion, you could do something to limit the amount of knots a Knotbinder can or wants to carry around with them. For example, if you add a rule that a tied knot grows more powerful the longer the Knotbinder carries it with them by absorbing their investiture over time, it allows for rapid deployment of a knot (i.e. in a fight) but it also prevents them from going around all the time with any knot you can imagine, because that would suck out too much investiture (leading to something like a Nightblood-sucking-out-your-soul-scenario). Increasing the knot's power by weaving in a person's hair. I assume it's the hair of the intended target? How does a knot without hair know who it's supposed to affect? Is it purely the intent of the Knotbinder when cutting the knot? Is the name of the target included in the knot's design? Are both possible, but the way without a name limits how powerful the knot is? Does a knot become more or less powerful with more specific instructions? More specific would imply more complicated and thus more likely to fail. For a group that tries to influence the future, their magic system appears to lack a means to know the future. Unless they use a knot to increase their fortune/luck and then do some type of fortunetelling (Tarot cards, I Ching sticks, etc.) The two groups of Knotbinders feels a bit limiting. In your place, I would make it three. The majority of "Guards of Fate" you describe, who work together according to a grand plan. (Which offers the plot option of internal factional struggles about what the plan should be.) The minority of "destructive rebels" you describe, who want to overturn the weave by causing chaos. And another minority group who don't act according to the "Guards'" massive master plan, but just try to improve the lives of the people around them in small ways. As JustQuestin2004 said, it could do with some more workshopping, but overall it's a very good start. PS, hope I didn't overstep by offering suggestions that are maybe a bit too specific.

Alien radio signals detected repeating with a regular 16-day cycle 16 days! Proof of Adonalsium (or at least of Preservation) ! (And the relevance to this thread: It takes a Sanderfan to make that connection.)

Thanks, @KandraAllomancer, those two have been bugging me for a while now. I updated my list. Guess I'll be researching some Lovecraft now. I just hope it doesn't get too squamous.

Well, if you wanna be posh about it...

@Silk, I did not receive any mails on sunday 17th.

This suggestion depends on to which level these islands of yours are man-made, but if their flight depends on some sort of rare mineral or some such, rather than technology (or applied magic), you could have new islands occasionally pop up out of the smog, when the "random, natural magic background energy" reaches a threshold in an area (or when topsoil erosion exposes a new lode of levistone). With a source of new sky-islands, you could have the inhabitants of the older islands either mining the new ones into oblivion, or just migrating to a fresh island when the old one wears out.

Ok, how about the opposite of Pagliacci's question: What's keeping her in the town? She wants to leave, so why is she still there? Now you can have a problem to overcome, instead of an action to justify.

Since there are two of them, washer and dryer?

Break a leg, @Robinski (I suggest chair).

First things first: I liked it. Next, a little issue with the title: The Red and the Black already exists, which you might already know (in which case it could be intentional). If you weren't already familiar with the title (and if it matters to you that it's already been used), you could just switch it to "The Black and the Red", since the coffee comes first in your story and the ... other thing (spoilers) comes later. Possible plot-hole: if M.'s compatriots avoid caffeine, why is he/are they (and his/their employees/prey) regulars at a coffee shop? Why did he accept C.'s offer? Why did M. introduce himself? If he was the one that fired C., I'd expect she'd at least know his name. M.'s true nature took me completely by surprise, which I consider a good thing in a short story. C.'s personality change in the penultimate paragraph sent shivers down my spine. You manage to have a bad ending with a happy protagonist, though it takes the last paragraph to really drive that home. I like the word play you did with J.'s text message and C.'s reaction to it. Whatever you do, don't edit that out, please. It could maybe use some polish here and there, but as a whole it holds up quite well, I think.

"Environment shapes culture" A society's industry, economics, politics, and customs are all dependent on one another, and most of it is in some way related to the environment in which the society lives (or was first formed). In a desert agriculture is never going to be the main industry, so a desert society might be pastoralists (cattle-raisers) or miners (or something else), and they will be dependent on trade with other cultures for resources. It's also likely that there will be some amount of raiding to get resources, which raises the value of military might, so the leaders of the society will probably come from the military. So military success equals political authority. And so on and so on. If land is fertile, however, growing your own food should be more efficient than raiding or trading for it. In this case military might might not be as important as wealth, so the political elites might be merchants (but more likely landowners). The good part about sci-fi or secondary world fantasy is that it doesn't matter in which direction you go: You can build the culture from the ground up, so to speak, starting from the environment, and then deciding how it shaped the people, brick by brick. Or you can decide on an aspect of the culture you want in your story (Oh, that's so cool, I wanna write about that!), and then reason your way back to how that aspect was formed.

In Cosmere terminology, I'd say Dalinar was a Sliver, or something close to it. But it might be more like Vin with the Well of Ascenscion, and Brandon's confirmed that she didn't hold the power long enough to be a Sliver. "God" is a pretty complex definition: on the bottom end of the spectrum, "anything that is worshipped as a god, is a god", but at the top end, a god needs to be the creator of the universe and everything in it. Monotheism really screwed up the curve with that one.

Brandon tends to persistently re-use a number of themes/motifs/tropes. He himself has mentioned his fascination with the concept of 'The City of the Gods': Elantris is the home of the "god-like" Elantrians. T'Telir literally has a Court of the Gods. Luthadel is home to the Lord Ruler, the Sliver of Infinity. I'll also mention Urithiru, even though it technically doesn't have gods. There's one I call "The Idealist Despot": Elend Venture is an idealist, giving up his throne because of his ideals of democracy, but then switches to ruling by force because the others wouldn't uphold his ideals of equality for the Skaa. Dalinar Kholin spends most of The Way of Kings trying to "inspire by example" the other Highprinces into following the Codes, because it wouldn't mean anything unless they chose to act honorably, but then he grasps power and forces them to follow the Codes anyway because the Highprinces "are like children". But the big one, to me, is "Atheist Becomes God": Sazed spends most of The Hero of Ages disproving religions, then at the end he becomes Harmony. Lightsong keeps insisting throughout Warbreaker that the Returned aren't gods, but then in the tunnels in chapter 57: You could even count Galladon, he states several times that the Elantrians weren't gods, yet becomes an Elantrian himself. This one is doubtful, because even as a restored Elantrian, I don't know if Galladon ever actually accepts this means he's a god. (I can't wait to see what kind of god Jasnah turns into, maybe one of a new set of Heralds?)