Lewis Nethur

Open question: what would an Inquisitor who was fully under Ruin's control see when burning electrum? Many shadows, or one? If their actions are predetermined by their God, and they do not resist (as only Marsh seems to resist), do they have enough free-will to be capable of having more than one electrum shadow?

I think this exact situation depicts perfectly why Feruchemical electrum storing Determination is a poetically perfect counterpart to allomantic electrum revealing one's shadows into the future! Ahem. Expanding a bit: What would an electrum shadow with infinite Determination look like in an electrum compounder? I opine that it would look like a person who cannot be deterred from their set path and performs every action necessary to stay on that path possible. I would expect them operate with a single crystal-clear electrum shadow that follows a single path in accordance with their (magically mega-enhanced) ((personal)) Intent that only splits if something external that has not happened yet is going to make following or staying compliant with that Intent impossible OR introduces futuresight feedback loops (like a Seer or Inquisitor showing up looking for a fight). A person with weak Determination might always operate with many conflicting electrum shadows though...

Strongly agree, a person should only have a single electrum shadow while burning if they commit and steel themselves to following and copying its actions exactly. This...actually opens up crazy possibilities, because one can make changes to their behavior at the last second in response to very specific electrum shadow actions if they were disciplined enough. Like, one should theoretically be able to communicate backwards in time using sign language inside a bendalloy bubble if I'm understanding how these systems work.

@Quantus nailed it fastest once again, so I'll just expand a little. As was noted: no, the soul is passed and gone, so revival is not 'technically' possible. However...what is still (maybe) possible, albeit probably difficult, should include: 1) Awakening the stone with Breath into a Lifeless that, deep down, still possesses surprisingly abundant remnants of the former person's knowledge, skills, abilities, and perhaps even memories/allegiances if they are awakened with very gentle commands selected to maximize freewill as far as possible. 2) The awakened stone should be able to be Forged to think, believe, or possess knowledge, skills, abilities, and memories to some extent. It's reasonable to speculate that restoring features that were lost in death would be easier to Forge back in and should last longer or be more stable due to the presence of fossilized spiritual Connections left in the inherent makeup of the stone body. 3) the Awakened stone creature should be able to be taught and improved iteratively if it is well maintained. It could be communicated and interacted with, shutdown, reawakened, and experimented on with new custom developed commands repeatedly. Using commands that facilitate and encourage restoration of lost functions and reinforce its former identity as an ideal state of self for it to strive towards in its service to its Awakener might conceivably work. Lifeless =! Non-sensient

Well, his Skips seem to be pseudo-random in nature and weighted towards Investiture-rich planets so...he could definitely end up on a world we've seen before for a cameo if he keeps nomading long enough! I'm gonna break the rules of immersion for a second here though (Sorry!!) and just assert that, in accordance with the principles of good storytelling, there isn't a snowball's chance in hell that Sanderson will write a book that shows Nomad Ascend; there's just no way to make it fit into the overarching narrative given that he's Connected to virtually everyone everywhere now and actively worldhopping. It would be like if the United States elected a random homeless man for President instead of any specific candidate; is it possible? Yes, totally. Would it ever be accepted even if it happened and was legit? Absolutely zero chance. I wouldn't be shocked if we eventually see Nomad pass through future novels, if only briefly, with literal millions of BEUs though. He seems to be biologically immortal, able to access basically any Investiture system and speak any language, and, as long as he has at least 20K in BEUs in his pocket, able to avoid any immediate threat. Honestly, I was disappointed by how focused his book was on fighting; the man deserves peace, even if he is nigh unstoppable.

The important point here is that tin feruchemy functions normally during these otherwise exotic applications, IE: if one stores two sensory capabilities at 100% focus such as sight and smell into two separate tinminds, such that are totally blind and unable to smell, while burning duralumin and tin for 0.5 seconds, they should end up with 0.5 seconds worth of extreme hyper sight and smell stored feruchemically, which could be drawn back out slowly to extend the duration. Essentially, it's equivalent to just storing the senses granted by normal tin Allomancy (just faster). An even more exotic interaction might be possible for a twinborn with f:tin + a:iron/steel. Iron sight is technically a form of sensory awareness which is independent from the sight granted by human eyes (this is what allows inquisitors to perceive the world and why even a blind coinshot would be dangerous in a fight.) Basically, a tin feruchemist who had a tinmind loaded with steel-sight should be able to perceive steel-lines with variable intensity (they could see in total darkness even better than an Inquisitor and that's insane!) All while being virtually undetectable by seekers, even without a smoker present to shield them. Theoretically, they could just walk around and be able to see through walls with no one being able to tell that they were doing it, which is kind of funny. Could definitely lead to shenanigans and trouble though.

I understand and agree with your points, but I feel like you're still failing to appreciate that you're comparing Nomad to Endowment's personally selected and LITERALLY 'groomed-from-birth' Godking who can telekinetically awaken objects to kill souls and command the dead with his thoughts and 4th order Radiants...4th order radiants are very rare, essentially unkillable during storms and, as far as we know, not able to travel outside Roshar because of how it would dissociate their spren. That puts Nomad in at least the top 0.0001% of most powerful beings in the Cosmere by my figuring. And maybe better...

If he managed to find a shardpool or stood in a highstorm or breathed in the mists of Scadrial, then yeah, I would assume that he could make himself the most Invested mortal in the cosmere more or less instantaneously. There's risk in that though; drawing in too much investiture too quickly has been previously demonstrated to destroy a person's body. So...he might still have some serious challenges to sustainability if raw power is all he wants from the rest of his arc. I know of no reason that he couldn't return to Roshar or even Scadrial and be welcomed with open arms at this point though, considering what he has learned as a worldsinger.

The catacendre by a landslide. Why? Because: 1. it represents the successfully planned and implemented fusion of two full and intact shards 2. It rocketed human progress forward (by ALOT) rather than dragging it backwards. Backwards is very literally stupidly easy. 3. It initiated a forbidden interstellar conflict which could very well ultimately end in a recombination of Adonalsium, whereas the Rosharan incident is more like a prolonged civil war which was sparked by 3rd party bullying at this point...

Honestly...Drawing seems like the only natural way that Shallan could delve deep enough into her subconscious to be able to recall her oaths to be capable of reswearing them.

Yeah, I would expect that mechanized cadmium bubbles could serve as emergency life support deployment systems, but it would only be a bandaid while permanent fixes were prepared and launched if that makes sense. I don't know that they would literally alter air pressure, it would just be functionally like they did.

An interesting proposal. A cadmium bubble placed around a hull breach in space would slow the rate of flux through the opening certainly. Mathematically, that would be functionally equivalent to a partial balancing of the delta pressure on the two sides of the gap, yes. It's probably important to recall that manipulating time has very peculiar and unintuitive affects on momentum, so anyone inside said bubble could still be harmed by exposure to vacuum.

Being born of double aluminum would just hurt a lot...

War is a form of self-fulfilling justice between societies in some sense...it's important to remember that shards are not legitimately immortal, they're just cosmically unmeasurable and difficult to kill. War+Harmony would be like the spiritual marriage of a naval weapons expert of godlike genius and the universe's greatest composer. So...uh...maybe Catastrophe, Cataclysm, or Doom? I could also accept Nocturne or Requiem though since, strictly speaking, War would be dead for the new Shard to be present. Edit: for the love of God please! Autonomy is not an act of fascism!

Just sharing that dragonsteel is backing werewolf in the dark on backerkit apparently (the site where the latest leatherbounds are supported). I'm unsure about it; the kids I work with are very complicated though, so hopefully they enjoy it. I'm getting them one of the one-of-a-kind versions buuuuuut...I'll probably need to give it to someone else to give to them for them to really like it if past experience is a good indicator (it isn't always). Anyway...I don't typically share this sort of thing; come join the fun or ask around if the name sounds good though!

Haha. Fair enough, fair enough. There was definitely hyperbole in what i said about recluse for sure. All the fans that stuck around loved it though, and more and more independently joined who otherwise never would have and I believe that to be a self evident fact. It's sad that some people quit but...that's the nature of the beast.

I respect your opinion, and everyone's tastes for themselves is fundamentally valid, but I have to strongly disagree. Sanderson did a great job on the transition from HoA to AoL (in my opinion), but he did not break new ground. Non-cosmere reference for the saga of recluse: The book only got a sequel because people responded to it in real time. If they hadn't been talking about it on this website in real time, it likely would not have been endorsed because...why would it? Edit: okay, just to clarify, I'm being super lenient on the concept of "real time." They were under zero pressure with years of leeway to discuss and millions of samples of text shared upfront. Still though.

I like to think of it as an experiment on the fandom. Reading it when it first came out, I absolutely did not take it for granted that Wax would get a sequel. His story and access to power was totally over the top (the man crushes whole buildings on a whim and his alcoholic friend can heal instantaneously from gunshots!), the subject matter is so dark (kidnapping women for nazi breeding programs) that most the of Set's crimes are only vaguely hinted at and restricted to off-screen with few actual confrontations, and the romantic engagements are...so tropey and cliche that a couple characters had to have core personality traits rewritten post-hoc. But...fans really loved it. It piqued their interest about what was possible with the combination of twinborn so strongly that they couldn't stop talking and speculating about them. Could Sanderson have gotten away with just diving into the next age? Definitely, no question. But slowing down and fleshing out the world and finishing those experimental arcs demonstrably paid dividends and grew the popularity and prevalence of the greater anthology by showing that it could span between distinct genres and unite people of diverse tastes.

That sounds like a pretty reasonable assessment honestly. For those who earned the powers the hard way, the powers are subject to interpretation, intent, and will and can lead to peculiar or inconsistent results on screen because they're operating based on intuition and trial and error. For those who earn the powers via regiment and close instruction, or derive them from a machine (machines of course have to be precisely tuned and regulated to be reliably reproducible to begin with) the powers should behave more consistently and uniformly with less opportunity for novel results. It's interesting to consider that mechanizing the powers of the Radiants will likely restrict said powers relative to the Radiants even more greatly than the Oaths placed on the Radiants did relative to the same powers as used by the Heralds. Luckily, Roshar does not suffer from the same superstitions regarding blood-purity as Scadrial, so...as long as their basic governing institutions keep functioning, they should always have a steady supply of fresh human Radiants, whereas parts of Scadrial are nearly incapable of producing metalborn because of how they treat natural power at this point...

This is an infuriating response, I know, but...it seems to depend on context. For example, Jasnah turns a human man to crystal and loses no volume in that transformation. Clearly, mass was increased that time. If she had turned him to wood, mass would have been lost. She also turns a boulder to smoke (which is technically a combination of soot, air, and water vapor not a pure substance...) with explosive results; it's not conclusive, but it's implied that mass is preserved, otherwise she should have ended up with a simple puff and cloud of soot, not an explosive transition. It stands to reason that a massive cloud of air could be turned to stone of a much smaller volume, creating a vacuum, though this hasn't been confirmed yet I think. Best guess? The proportion of mass/volume that gets preserved during a transformation is variable and depends on the phases of matter being dealt with and possibly also the intent and perception of the operator. For example, Wax can perceive multiple steel lines for complex metal assemblies where most coinshots would see only one because he thinks about the objects differently. If Jasnah schooled herself in believing in her soul that volume should always be the property that is conservative, then she might be able to evaporate boulders from existence with much less violent results (totally speculative).

Whoa. I was not expecting optimism on this front, that's a pretty cool proposal. I would dearly like to believe that the Heralds can still be saved and forgiven. Touche.

It occurred to me that, with the return of the Radiants, the eventual public disclosure of why they were first disbanded and the true history behind the religions which revere them are inevitable. So...my question is, what becomes of Vorinism after the close of book 5 when it's followers are confronted with the reality that their religion is based on a misunderstanding of where their ancestors come from? Will they...simply not care and keep practicing anyway? Massive portions of Eastern Roshar's economy, social networks, and administrative systems are grounded in lies. Are we thinking civil war, or just widespread depression? Will they all convert to following the passions and the nightwatcher instead of holding fast to their outdated beliefs? Sorry if this is insensitively worded; I'm genuinely curious what people think on this subject though.

It would be...poetically consistent with the skybreakers given and stated purpose, is what I shall say. There is power in that. It would represent an interesting philosophical juxtaposition and dichotomy with how kaladin earned his first blade by killing a son of honor, then rejected it (subconsciously) in favor of a living honor spren at the start of his journey, and how Szeth earned an honor blade by being labeled truthless for telling the truth, then rejected and disconnected himself from it by accepting death in favor of a life of continued lies when he finally recognized that kaladin was a true radiant and he (szeth) had demonstrably been correct from the beginning and, subsequently, earned revival and a bond from a highspren from the patron of the skybreakers himself... I'm rooting for the skybreakers to come barreling in with 300 partially revived deadeyes in the final contest now, thank you.

This is actually a really good point. One could win a few in duels before people started refusing to contest them. If they gave the excess freely to expert duelists, they could repeat the process a couple times before they were identified as a global threat. Once they hit critical mass of a dozen or so suits and blades, they could hunt and steal the remaining shards with near impunity. I wouldn't discount the possibility that either the Shin or the Skybreakers have been doing this for decades and just keeping their mouths closed about it. everyone keeps saying that there are many hundreds of missing blades after all... Edit: okay, they would have to also ensure the loyalty of the people they gifted free god weapons too ideologically somehow, or they would simply end up with a bunch of rogue duelists. I'm leaning skybreakers on being the secret keepers of many undocumented dead blades.

Yeah...that would probably work...fair enough.