IndigoAjah

Except Roshar don't have the capacity to do that yet and may never have the capacity to do it, whilst Scadrial could right now You massively overestimate the effectiveness of a Shardbearer against someone with Investiture-aided speed and reflexes: It would be like trying to kill a bunch of The-Whitespine-Uncaged-versions of Kaladins (but not holding back and knowing more about their powers). Szeth and Kaladin have demonstrated the ability to dodge multiple Shardblades aimed solely at them with the extra speed of Stormlight

I still think that Non-Radiant Shardbearers would really struggle against just a group of Pewterarms appropriately armed (hammers) and with light armour Add in other Mistings for support and Shardkiller squads would be really effective. But Full Shardbearing Radiants would be VERY hard to kill without Inquisitors/Mistborn

Yeah, you'd need whatever Wax is really, and he's pretty rare. Or you could give the Mistings their own armour, but then they lose their flying and manouvrebility. I think the suggestion was that the Shardblades were being targetted though? Constantly attack their grip on them with pushes and force them to waste 10 heartbeats resummoning? Only works for Deadblades

But if the only confirmation of Guilt is them being found guilty by the court, then by definition there is a bias that implies the Skybreakers are adept at sorting the innocent from the guilty. The Inquisition (Spanish, though Steel fits too probably) were "good" at this too. Because they decided who was guilty!

We have seen that boosted speed and reflexes, seen in Pewter arms and as far as I can tell, roughly equivalent in effect, allow Kaladin to kill one Shardbearer without active manifestation of his Surgebinding or knowledge of what he was doing (though he is naturally also very skilled), dodge against 2 for a prolonged period of time with a limited supply, and was a major factor in Szeth DESTROYING all Shardbearers. Shardbearers vs Speed, SUCK. Now Kal and Szeth are highly combat trained and with an apparent natural affinity, true, but so are most Pewterarms we have seen. They gravitate to those roles. Ham spars vs Vin FFS! Pewter does not just bring strength, it effectively gives you the generic powers of Stormlight infusion but with a longer supply, much much worse healing, no shiny give away and the ability to flare. I have no idea why you think a Shardbearer would cope well against several when all the evidence thus far is to the contrary. Shardblades against multiple foes are used in slow, deliberate, sweeping movements, the kinds that an expectant super-reflexed and super speed soldier can dodge and aren't targeted at one person. Then once they get inside the range of the Blade, it becomes a hindrance and their clubs more useful. I think you might be over estimating Shardbearers because they are awesome against depowered people, but Pewter is basically Stormlight! I think, let's say, 5 Pewterarms would easily wipe out Shardbearers if they targeted them and they weren't Adolin

Actually, if they underestimate the Pewterarm enough to let them get a blow in (and remember, Pewterarms are faster, just like a Shardbearer), one good hit could do a lot of damage to the plate. That's a huge club, and flaring Pewterarm big man could put in a huge amount of force - I'd say it would likely be the equivalent of being hit by another Shardbearer with a Shardhammer. A small unit of Pewterarms vs one full Shardbearer would likely favour the Pewterarms

1) but where is that actually confirmed by Brandon? I can't see it actually stated in interviews except that we assume the Allomantic Table is complete 2) where does that leave ? 3) assuming that is the case, what do we think the last 4 symbols refer to? Different Atium Alloys, as we know there are LOADS of them (more than one per every base metal)?

The setting rather than the specific story was what I was suggesting, I don't think games should retread ground we have already seen in the books (or films etc), they should give an extra sight of something parallel to the main story yet not essential to understand the main story, in a way that plays to the strength of the medium.

That would be great, thanks

Enjoyed the classic build up of rhythm, bring in the guitar and then vocals after a lead in. Almost has the musical setting of a grungy young adult band but a Smiths-like sad quality to the vocals and the overall mood is quite pensive despite the upbeat rhythm. I like the lyrics and the focus on the conception of inspiration for art, and generally quite enjoyed it. Very different, and picked to be different what what has been picked above, I offer some musical theatre - I love a variety of musical and though I know that it isn't seen as cool I have a special place in my heart for musicals (for the blend of story and character telling styles) and Disney, but I LOVE this song, both as a demonstration of tenor singing but also the look into despair and message of hope it moves into

Yeah to destroy microbial diseases permanently you'd basically have to freeze evolution too!

I've started and about 300 pages through Magician by Raymond Feist. Think it would seem less derivative if I read it when it were written and/or after reading the Death Gate Cycle, but it has some good ideas and Riftwar lasted 30 books so I'll see what I think at the end of the book. Then I'll finally read Warbreaker, I think

I'd be interested to learn some more about Mormonism, just for my own curiosity having been educated at school in Hindu/Islam/Judaism/Christianity/Buddhism to a degree, having a Catholic girlfriend and some family and an Anglican upbringing and quite a few friends who are Hindu/Muslim/Jewish but relatively little exposure to Mormons and what they believe (beyond the basic premise of the Book of Mormon and the Saints of America) here in the UK

I think the entire concept of 16 metals (plus God Metals) is misleading and there are more. The only reason 16 is of significance on Scadrial is because Leras needed to make it seem so to let people solve how to defeat Ruin and this has effected their entire culture. The Lord Ruler pretended 10 was the magic number. Leras more convincingly made it 16, but I think depending how you look at it, it could actually be 20 or 23 or 24

Lots of supposition, warning: So, we all know that the Steel Alphabet, brilliantly broken down by Valkynphyre, has symbols for the 16 know Allomatic metals, plus Malatium plus Lerasium. Despite Cadmium etc not being known or easily makable or even referenced by TLR in his messages, they have symbols in the alphabet that fit the pull/push spot-inside/outside pattern. This may be because Leras wanted to stick to 16 metals including Atium and Malatium specifically to try to give clues for battling Ruin and thus there well may be more metals suppressed by Leras and not just TLR. We also know that appears to mess up the rule of 16, which appears to mostly be deliberate aping of Adonalsium's 16 Shards but not necessarily the natural magic number of Scadrial itself. It's also confusing that Harmony tells Spook that there are a "couple" of extra metals that haven't been discovered yet and dares him to find them, but actually there are 4 metals found between HoA and AoL. Now, it could be that the Steel Alphabet, started by the Terris people, had as many letters as they needed to cover for sounds in their language (though what is "needed" is obviously very flexible, as you can in theory combine letters or not have certain sounds) and the metals were retrospectively attributed and the not fully understood patterns we see are coincidental in some way. Without knowing how the spoken and written languages evolved and whether there was direct or indirect input from Shards or other figures, we can't really know. But the other implication would be that there are 23 (likely not including Harmonium as it would not have existed unless as a perfect alloy between Atium and Lerasium, and with the last letter looking to me like a Spike seen universally in hemalurgy which existed before Scadrial) "main" metals fitting the letters influenced by Leras. Now, there are some other snippets that work pro and con this theory. We know there are, including all alloys, far more than 23/24 metals. Lerasium and Atium have a LOT of alloys according to Word of Brandon. However, the Allomantic system only works with one real alloy for each metal, and Malatium both fits the alphabet but also as a pretty perfect opposite to Atium. The other alloys may do all kinds of things, but the one that fits the system is Malatium and it's hard to see how another alloy could fit as well unless it did the same thing! If Leras was involved in setting up the alphabet, as he had both Atium and Malatium (or maybe Ati/Ruin did the latter) involved in his long term plan, he could have deliberately incorporated both of these in the alphabet. Lerasium does not have a second linked letter signifying a specific alloy in the alphabet, which might fit that as well - there doesn't appear, from the little we know of its use, to be an opposite action that the alloy can emulate such is the uniqueness of Lerasium. The God Metals are also hacks in a way explaining why they can have alloys that don't fit the system. Given how language, and logic and the ability to think all interlink and are influenced by needs and experience, it also makes sense for there to be a genuine and not coincidental link with something as influential as magic. The fact that this is originally (we think - there could be civilisation before Terris) from the Terris people, who did not use Allomancy but rather Feruchemy (despite the patterns seemingly matching to Allomantic use instead -maybe because we know them better from living in Vin, Elend and Kelsier plus other Mistings' heads?), where there is no pull/push and the links between Alloys are slightly more abstract(health linked to determination? Memories to wakefulness? There could be some link here but it is not a clear relationship yet), could either mean that we don't understand something fundamental about how the pairings and grouping work in Feruchemy (an interesting topic of conversation in itself) or that someone who DID know about Allomancy, as of yet less widespread, I assume, influenced the alphabet. Lastly, we already know that technology has reverted and things been forgotten after at least one Ascension, with TLR suppressing technological and magical knowledge. IT could easily have happened again the past. We know Leras manipulated the use and knowledge of metals to man (even if just TLR) to shape the future. There could easily be more official ( ) metals out there. Currently, we have 19 out of 24 letters/numbers attributed to metals, which include Atium, Malatium and Lerasium, all of which Leras had a reason to include in the knowledge of man vaguely and thus the alphabet. Other alloys of Atium wouldn't appear to fit the patterns. The 0 figure appears to clearly be a Spike and possibly doesn't refer to a Metal at all. Spikes being involved in this cosmic clue make sense, as they are clearly important to the HoA plot and also going forward. A logical extension of this could be that a symbol also represents Allomancy or Feruchemy (or Metalminds) I suppose, though unless they are treated as opposites that doesn't fit the pattern. The numbers 256 and 4096 fitting as numbers attributed to unknown symbols could be due to trying to fit the rule of 16 that Leras wanted to be clear to his humans and held in significance. It could imply something about the metals in question, maybe that one needed every metal in one alloy, I suppose, but that still wouldn't quite fit the pattern of push/pull, in/out. It's all supposition really. If the remaining symbols do represent pairs of metals, it implies we have 2 more pairs of metals (one "set" as it were) to discover. may be one of these. Without further knowledge of what aspects of each symbol may represent, we can't tell anything about these new metals, except two push and two pull, and the assumption that they come in alloy pairs. But that's it for now. I may be proved wrong. But I don't think 16 is naturally special on Scadrial, only as part of Leras' ploy, and that there is one more full set of metals waiting to be discovered, whatever they may do. If this does follow real life progression of technology, what do we think the odds are that some may be radioactive?

We don't know a lot about most places yet, right now I'd guess Shinovar but with a certain someone on their way that may rapidly change

I'm going to go with "to make the story more different to Mistborn"

But if a Spren, a conscious splinter of Honor or Cultivation some suspect, made a deliberate decision to bond you, surely that is a connection with Roshar and its Shards?

Basically the only diseases he doesn't seem to have included then are microbial ones

Everyone is guilty of something according to Sam Vimes, maybe that's Nalan's approach

I sense an inconsistency here, because Miles says how by burning F Gold all the time he now never has to suffer a cold, which makes no sense at all if Harmony has removed all diseases

Pewter is cheap as though

300 years is so much time to increase a population size

It's more that Brandon DOES show the aftermath of Elend and Vin's first time in WoA and it glossed over as perfect despite both characters having really clear reasons to not be that comfortable with sex that bothers me! I thought their relationship in WoA was highly believable and demonstrated thought into their personas, the situation and their personal crises as well as their histories and the background culture that I'm amazed people seemed to have missed out on. The criticism I read that made me think was the one that talked about how it was all magically alright as soon as they have marital sex. The issue not being with the having or not having of intercourse but rather suspension of disbelief that these quite realistic psychological issues (Elend was FORCED to sleep with a Skaa girl at a young age and then she was murdered because of it! That's worse than what happened (A song of Ice and Fire Spoiler) ) and I thought, though understanding why Brandon wouldn't address it (though then the post-coital implication is a bit odd in itself) it was worthy of addressing. Plus I also quite wanted to let my favourite fantasy couple have romantic, love-driven sex, with Allomancy utilised. Just as a secondary matter Thank you very much for your reply, though, and I agree that the tone doesn't quite fit with sex, never read his books and said "this is unrealistic because there's no sexual subtext"