Yezrien

I can't help noticing a similarity among Sarene, Shallan, and Vivenna. All modest, devout young women of noble birth, who start the book by arriving in a strange city. All are motivated by obligations to the families they left behind, whom they love deeply -- including an affectionate patriarch who tries to keep in touch, but can't help much (Eventeo, Balat, Dedelin). And all three are bamboozled by a man who hides his true motives and identity -- Raoden, Kabsal, and Denth, respectively. Oh! And all three are partnered with a splinter -- Ashe, Pattern, and Nightblood (briefly). Like @Kaladinwillumarryme?, I'm not criticizing. Just observing a pattern.

Thanks! And yes, I'll post more in this thread. I just have to compile some ideas into paragraph form. Okay, the order-sphere is now outer shell of the Forge itself, so pretty much everything is outside it. (I'm afraid I may not have explained this as well as I could have. I should make a diagram.) But as to where the Meddaia live now, they're pretty much free to roam wherever they please. Their bodies are innately magical, so they don't have to stay close to the Forge. They prefer to, though, because the ambient magic of the Panstellation is very pleasant to them, but most choose not to. After their accidental genocide fiasco, they've embraced a non-interference philosophy regarding the younger races, and the easiest way for them to not interfere with the worlds of the Panstellation is to stay far, far away. A few of them live on Panstellation worlds, mostly disguised as humans, but most roam the far reaches of the universe, searching for any remaining sparks of life, and experimenting with world-creation. Wow. I am saving a screen cap of this comment for future inspiration. Thank you so much! Thanks and thanks! More to come soon!

Like many Sharders, I dream of writing a meta-series of interconnected fantasy epics -- a Cosmere all my own. (Brandon seems to have this effect on many of his readers.) Today, I’d like to share some fragmented concepts from my giant setting: the Panstellation. Here’s an artist’s rendition of the Panstellation (a rank, arrogant, amateur artist’s rendition). The Panstellation is solar system of solar systems. Nine stars, each orbited by several class-M planets. And all the stars orbit something called the Forge. See the big purple emission nebula? See the litte black nebula that obscures part of it? See the little glowy thing inside the black? That’s the Forge. Here’s a close-up: It’s bigger than the biggest stars, and it’s the source of all magic in the Panstellation. Its magical radiation pools in the souls of the planets, fueling the magic systems that their inhabitants enjoy. Planets closer to the Forge enjoy stronger ambient radiation. They are high-magic settings, where demigod-level characters are commonplace. On the outer rim, magic is scarcer, and people more likely to compensate with advanced technology. And there’s plenty of diversity in between. Most planets are inhabited by humans, but a few feature more alien peoples. And the humans have supernatural diversity: I imagine that different planetary conditions (climates, gravities, magics, etc.) have produced variations on the human body that don’t exist on Earth. The following is an in-universe letter. It’s basically my version of Sazed’s epigraphs from Hero of Ages. I’m imagining a pretty straightforward epic trilogy, set fairly early in the grand timeline of the Panstellation. It’s set on a world fairly close to the Forge. The bad guy, already a sorcerer, well-versed in the local magic systems, has managed to attain godlike power by drawing energy from within the Forge itself (rather than from his own planet, like he’s supposed to). At the trilogy’s end, this villain is defeated, and his Forge-power-extraction mechanism is destroyed. But we’re not out of the woods, yet. When he stole power from the Forge, he unwittingly created a critical imbalance, which will eventually kill the Forge, and probably destroy the universe. And so one of the Trilogy’s heroes must save the day again, this time by making the ultimate sacrifice. He must take hold of the stolen power, ascend to virtual godhood himself, and return said power to the Forge. Much like Sazed, he’s managed to write some things down in the process. Enjoy! And... that’s that. At the center of the universe lies the Forge, encircled by the Panstellation. I designed this whole backstory to explain why magic works the way it does. I know I haven't explained any magic systems, but when I do, you'll find they're all very consistent and rule-based, but still whimsical and mystical. The idea is that all Forge-derived magic, like the Forge itself, is composed of both Chaos and Order. Being Chaos, it can defy reality and do the impossible; being Order, it always operates within the bounds of its own rule-system. If people are interested in this, I can post some more of my half-baked plans and ideas for this setting. Other than that, I appreciate any thoughts and comments. Thanks for reading!

There's also a Sopranos episode about this. A Hasidic man refuses to grant his wife a Get, so the wife's father asks the local mob boss (Tony Soprano) to force the issue. This might have been based on those true events. Beating up Get-denyers is an interesting motive for a hero, but I think the idea needs to be expanded on before it's really a story. If she goes out every night and brutalizes a guy until he agrees to the divorce, the story will get pretty repetitive. Also, guys like that don't make super-compelling villains. To really challenge this hero, you could pit her against a husband who isn't so easily intimidated -- a mobster-rabbi, who rules the neighbourhood with an iron fist. A man she can't even get close to, let alone beat up. A man whose wife is too terrified to even ask for a Get, because even if she managed to get one, he'd have her hunted down and killed. (Drawing some inspiration from The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon. Great book.) Now the hero has to take on this whole criminal empire, and possibly some superpowered mooks. And she'll have to deal with creating a post-Get safe haven for the wife. But my favourite part of this idea, by far, is the opportunity for wordplay. You could put "Get" in every title. Part One: Get Gone. Part Two: Get Bent. Part Three: Get Even.

I was just skimming through Pawn of Prophecy, the first book of David Eddings's Belgariad. (I do this from time to time; these books are a guilty pleasure for me.) And I stumbled upon THIS: Yep, "it's the way of kings!" It's probably just a coincidence... but we do know that Brandon is an Eddings fan. He's read this book. So maybe, just maybe, this is a little Easter egg. (How topical!) After all, this quote seems relevant to a lot of Rosharan history -- especially modern Alethkar.

Sounds pretty cool. A murder mystery/horror story in a fantasy world. I'm curious about Roseline. The backstory's nice, but what's the story? How does she get involved in the hunt for the terrormancer?

This is all really interesting. But I have this recommendation: Remember Brandon's 2nd Law! The powers of a magic system are less interesting than its limits. The whole ghost-possession system would be a lot more interesting if it had more limits and constrictions. It seems a little absurd that people would just trust ghosts to obey the rules -- especially if ghosts once took over the world. That would probably make people a little jaded. So why not say that we DO have some leverage over the ghosts? And I think there are two good ways to do that. First, like Edgedancer said, there really should be a litmus test. Some simple test we can perform to identify a possessed person. Maybe it's a scanning device, like the Voight-Kampff machine. Maybe it's a substance that glows on contact with possessed people. Maybe it's a oijaa board. The point is that possessed people can be identified and dealt with. And, of course, important politicians and military leaders are given this test every day. That'll provide a sense of security for everyone involved -- and, more importantly, it sets up an epic twist: Someone's figured out a way to fool the test! Secutity? Gone. Stakes? Raised. All bets? Off. Second, there should probably be a way to either kill or imprison these ghosts. That way, the ghost characters will have something to lose -- stakes! -- which makes them more interesting. Also, if ghosts can't be killed or imprisoned, then the worldwide ghost population will only go up, and every ghost that ever lived will still be hanging around, complicating the story, including those ghosts that took over the world. (Which would also make a pretty cool twist: we thought the evil tyrant ghosts were all captured and executed, but one of them escaped, and he's been stalking the world ever since! And he's been every great villain of the last century!) (Also, on a more general note, there are certain questions you have to deal with whenever ghosts are involved. Aside from abstract values like morality and patriotism, what motivation does a ghost have? What do they want? What do they have to gain? Can they eventually move on to the afterlife like regular dead folk? Or is the life of a ghost basically just eternity in Limbo?)

The wording on those WoBs is deliberately vague. He confirms that Hoid has burned lerasium, but he never explicitly states that Hoid no longer has lerasium. Which seems to suggest (and I'm sure this has been theorized in another thread) that he ate some of the bead, but not all of it. Like, maybe he ate half of it, and became a regular-strength mistborn, and embedded the other half in his skin somewhere (as the letter suggests). Possibly as a metalmind.

Huh, just saw the WoB on that. Colour me shocked. I was positive that was foreshadowing his relationship with stormlight. I guess this is the cosmere version of "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

Well, different allomantic powers operate in different realms. Tin, pewter, iron, and steel seem to be primarily physical. Brass and zinc seem cognitive. Gold, electrum, atium, and lerasium seem primarily spiritual. But I suspect it's all a little more complicated than that. All allomancy draws power from Preservation, which is mainly in the spiritual.

Sounds pretty solid. Maybe it's not weak at all. Maybe this emotional draining is more insidious that it appears. It reminds me of the Lord Ruler and his soothing stations. Maybe Cusicesh is manipulating people's emotions to keep certain spren from appearing -- perhaps Radiant bonding spren. Also, Axies's 'drained' feeling reminds me of the way Kaladin feels during the Weeping, which we now know is the result of stormlight deprivation. Maybe Cusicesh/Dai-Gonarthis is like a giant Larkin. If I were Odium, I'd love to have something like that in my Void army -- a creature that can drain the stormlight from a whole battallion of Radiants.

The whole "Tranquiline Halls" myth is probably a hint that humans migrated to Roshar from somewhere else. Honor and Cultivation probably didn't create humanity on Roshar, but they might have brought it there.

There's a WoB on this: To me, this says the extra Preservation is just one piece of the puzzle. What really happened is a little more dramatic, like with Lerasium. And considering Hoid's implied involvement with the Terris Worldbringers, I expect he had something to do with it.

Well... Lord Ruler's metalminds were presumably crafted by the Lord Ruler. And the one that Wax and Wayne found was made by Kelsier. Was that not obvious in the audiobook? As for how, it looks like it's just a bunch of metalminds welded together. I don't think think there's a secret beyond that. The important one is nicrosil, which allows all the others to be tapped, and also makes you a temporary mistborn. (Also, pretty sure this is in the wrong forum. You should probably ask this in Mistborn or Cosmere Q&A.)

Well, the second one would definitely work -- assuming the bloodmaker also had KR stormlight healing powers. If he used stormlight to heal while filling his metalminds, he'd just have extra health to store. (Though I doubt he could store stormlight itself. Maybe with Nicrosil?) The Allomancer question, I'm not quite sure about. The investiture in the Breath might interfere with burning the metal. Or... it might not. Guess what Brandon said when asked this very question? http://www.theoryland.com/intvsresults.php?kw=awakened+metal

I don't think Brandon's a secret Sharder. He's too busy with his writing. My theory: GRRM and Pat Rothfuss are secret Sharders. They're always hanging out here, making bad puns and theorizing about Trell. Which, we can all agree, is the best possible use of their time. Bad puns are certainly more important than finishing my novel.

You're probably right about this. I just like the irony of honorspren bonding with people capable of extreme hatred (odium). It's a little corny, but... Odium will be defeated by those who've battled the odium within themselves.

1) The connection medallions don't store connection to a specific place, but just general connectedness. When you tap it, it connects you to whatever land you happen to be in. If it's the land that you're from, this makes no difference because it's a connection you already have. But if you're in a foreign land, you "become from" there, and spontaneously understand the language. And for all we know, identity could work the same way. You don't store your own specific identity, but a generic identity resource -- the strength of your identity. You'd lose your ability to encode metalminds (and Breaths, and other identity-interactions), but you wouldn't necessarily stop being you. It's like... identity is a rubber stamp. You can lose your ink, making the stamp powerless, but you can't lose the stamp. (Just a theory, but I think it's supported by the way Brandon answers identity-related questions.) 2) There a couple different answers to this question. First of all, feruchemy doesn't rely on any external power source -- just on the investiture within a feruchemist's own body. So as long as you have the feruchemy sDNA, you should be able to use feruchemy anywhere in the cosmere. Hemalurgy's not as clear, but in AU, Khriss speculates that hemalurgy can be performed by anyone, anywhere. It might not require connection to scadrial, or scadrian identity. Considering the cosmere-wide importance of metal, hemalurgy might just be universal. The concept of interchangeable power sources is perfectly sound, since apparently Vasher is using stormlight in place of Breath. But in terms of using allomancy on worlds other than Scadrial... I think you have it backwards. You'd have to convince the local investiture that you're not from Scadrial. Allomancers draw from Preservation because they're connected to it. For an allomancer to use stormlight, they might need a connection to Roshar instead. But that probably won't be necessary: Which, to me, suggests that allomancers can draw power from Preservation even across interstellar distances. Probably because the power transfer occurs in the spiritual realm, where distance doesn't really matter.

I like this theory. To expand... if voidbinding does parallel the ten surges in some way, then these monsters might arise from the void-version of soulcasting. From the essence chart, topaz gets you "rock and stone" (thunderclast) and smokestone gets you "opaque gas, smoke, fog" (midnight essence). Soulcasting makes resources, but void-soulcasting makes demon-constructs.

Well, it's definitely all within the realm of fantasy. Even when we have space ships, they'll be running on magic. But there are different kinds of genres. Some, like sci-fi and fantasy, are on the surface; they just tell you what to expect from the setting. Then you've got genres like romance or mystery -- genres that tell you how the plot will shape up. And in the cosmere, I think we've seen stories of romance, mystery, horror, suspense, action, adventure... there's something for everyone! So in that sense, I'd say "no set genre or type" is a pretty accurate description. But "to reflect life" is not. Life has variety, but no structure -- it is composed without dramatic savvy, or an inclination to be awesome. It's like a Linklater movie. I'll take Brandon over Linklater any day.

I'd like to think this refers a future in worldhopping, or plot-derailing villainy. But of all the characters we know so far, I think Moash would make a great Windrunner. Why? Because of the the third Ideal: I will protect even those I hate! To truly understand that oath (and to deliver a satisfying dramatic moment when you swear it), you've got to have some serious hatred, like Kaladin did. Who do we know who's more hateful than Moash? Seriously. I'm asking. Who on Roshar seems genuinely, passionately hateful? Find the hate, and you'll find your Windrunner.

Sazed chose "harmonium." Here's the WoB. https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/csuq5u3/?context=3 Maybe naming your own god-metal is one of his unique double-shard powers.

Have you guys been to Darbucks? It's a great new coffee shop in Sesemalex Dar. The Makabakappuccino is great. But the Sesemalexpresso's a little weak, so I wouldn't recommend an Alethicano. And whatever you do, do not order... the crem caramel. (And on Roshar, it actually is spelled with an X.)

That's very interesting, because I'm seeing a lot possibilities in there, including some verification on this Truthwatcher-Roshar glyph. So the ring around the compass rose says "Roshar," and the rose itself says "Urithiru." So all the way back in WoK, the compass was telling us to look for Urithiru in the geographic center of Roshar. Pretty in-depth foreshadowing.

Holy crap is right! Where has that key been? Why haven't I found that? And... orientation indicates the preceding vowel? That's huge. I never even imagined...