Jofwu

Closer Okay, I feel bad that the drawing has so little to go off of, so I added some detail that hopefully helps.

It seems that Sazed's words can (and should) be taken to mean two more metals and their alloys. This is supported by the opening quote in The Alloy of Law chapter 9: (not a spoiler if you've already looked ahead at the other metals) Perhaps the people at that time would have been confused... I'm not sure when the modern Scadrians determined that the God-metals weren't part of the 16.

Still no, but both warm. Hint: It's one of our three main characters.

Nope! Warmer though, in that it's a person on a thing.

Nope. Good to see my lack of detail made it at least a little tricky.

SEE POST BELOW < click here! I've rejected this original theory, but I'm leaving it here for reference! The original post is below the line. As an engineer, I've daydreamed about the physics of Iron Pulls and Steel Pushes a fair bit. There's some old threads, but they're pretty dead. And I don't think they provide very satisfying reads. There's a few problems I have and I'm curious what other people think. Yes, I realize that at some point we have to step back and say "it's magic, because obviously the world doesn't work this way". But humor me. Surely there's some other nerds out there like myself who think about these things. I guess I should note that this topic may contain spoilers for all Mistborn books so far. (I made a Stormlight comment at one point, but it's not a spoiler in my book.) The Basics So let's talk about Allomantic force. It's usually assumed to be a body force (like gravity), because there's never any indication (that I can remember) of a point force inside your body (which would be weird) or a surface pressure and because the accelerations involved would seemingly give severe whiplash otherwise. Most people assume that it follows the inverse square law (also like gravity) because effectiveness obviously decreases with distance and that's a logical assumption. Lastly, there's some level of Allomantic Strength involved to account for [1] your inherent abilities, [2] your current burn rate or something like that (to account for flaring, Duralumin, etc.?), [3] the desired strength of the force (though this may be subtlety accounted for in 2?), and [4] the difficulty of Pushing/Pulling some object (as it's hard to push on something Invested, like a metalmind, a spike, or metal inside a person). This gives you an equation something like: F = A / r² where A accounts for the Allomantic Strength and r is your distance from the metal. Alternatively it could be something exponential, along the lines of F = A e^-r, so that the max force is finite at r=0. Both of these allow for non-zero force at infinite r, though I think we can get around this by arguing that the force would be incredibly weak (enough to be very negligible) at great distances. And there is an argument that, while the equation is always true, there's some mental element to the magic- so that even if you are physically capable of Pushing something from many miles away, you can't do so if you don't have a mental and/or spiritual awareness of (or connection to) the metal you want to Push. The exponential equation actually makes a bit more sense to me, because I feel like the 1/r² version puts way too much weight in the distances involved. Doesn't feel right to me that Wax's strength increases by 4x if he moves from 4 meters away to 2 meters away (from some metal object). So I'm going to go with F = C1 A (e^-r)^C2, where the Cs captures whatever constants are needed to scale our equation appropriately. There also seems to be some debate on whether the Allomancer's own mass should be part of the equation as well, because there are a few instances where Keslier and Wax seem to suggest that heavier Allomancers are generally stronger. Those who disagree argue that they are only referring to how the extra mass makes you more resistant to the reaction forces and the pushes of others. I think it's debatable either way, due to unclear explanations. Problem: It can't be a simple applied force. I think there's a serious problem with assuming that Pushes and Pulls work like a simple force in the way I've described, and it's rooted in a simple example in The Final Empire (and pretty much every other book). When first learning her metals with Kelsier, Vin pushes a coin out of his hand and into a wall before she is suddenly thrown backwards. Newton's 3rd Law says that forces have to balance out, and people generally assume that this holds true for Allomancy. The text suggests it on many occasions. But if Vin is pushing this coin with a constant force it shouldn't matter that the coin stopped before she was thrown down. It's easy to assume this sounds right, but it's not. If Vin is pushing with a constant force then nothing changes when the coin hits the wall. She should be feeling a reaction force at all times, and it should be equivalent to the force she Pushes with. But what we see is a sudden increase in force after the coin is restricted. It's like standing with a garden hose, water flowing. You don't get pushed back less when you spray water into open air and more when you spray it against a wall. I assume this problem is rooted in a simple misunderstanding Brandon had when developing the magic, or maybe he just didn't care. But I've been trying to explain what we see in some other way. Solution? Violation of Newton's 3rd Law. The best solution I can see seems to require violation of conservation of momentum and energy. (Edit: Someone on Reddit has claimed that WoB says momentum is conserved, but I think the text suggests otherwise) But then, this really shouldn't come as a surprise considering Allomancy is "End-Positive" per the Ars Arcanum. So we're not really creating energy and momentum here, but taking it from Investiture. And this allows for an imbalanced force to exist. And this is where my solution comes in. I'm struggling to find the proper language to describe this, but what you basically have is more force going to the thing with less mass. Let's look at equations... So the force we calculate above, F = C1 A (e^-r)^C2, is actually the sum of two forces being applied when a Push or Pull happens. There are two elements involved: the Allomancer and the "Object". By Object I'm referring to the metal being pushed, plus any other mass it is attached to. Can't think of an example, but I'm pretty sure a coin tied to a bag of sand is harder to push than a free coin. The extreme case is where the piece of metal is pressed against some massive object (like Scadrial itself). So let the Allomancer be noted with subscript 1 and let the Object be noted with subscript 2. What we have is F = F1 + F2. F1 is the force on the Allomancer and F2 is the force on the Object. So how much force (F) gets directed to F1 and how much to F2? Let me introduce a new factor, X = m1 / (m1 + m2), which tells us how much force is directed into the Object. Then the amount of force directed into the Allomancer is 1-X. So F1 = (1-X) F = F - X F and F2 = X F. I'll illustrate the meaning with some examples below, so don't hurt your brain trying to interpret what I mean here. Examples: Let's consider the case where Vin pushes a coin in the open air. The coin's mass (m2) is much much less than Vin's mass (m1), so we essentially have X=m1/m1=1. The coin receives (almost) the full Allomantic force with F2 = XF = F while Vin receives almost no reaction force. Suddenly the coin hits the wall and Vin is no longer just pushing against a small coin, but also against the building the coin is pressed against and the ground the building is attached to. So now we have m2 >> m1, which means we essentially have X = 0. Now Vin receives (almost) the full Allomantic force while the coin receives almost none. This explains why suddenly she is knocked back with a higher force. The reaction force she feels dropped from almost F1=0 to F1=F in an instant. This also explains the "middle of the road" case where the Allomancer and the Object have a similar mass. If m1=m2 then X=0.5. Half of the Allomantic force goes into the Object while half goes into the Allomancer. As you can see, this does a reasonably good job explaining how pushing a small, free object produces little to no reaction force while pushing against a great mass throws the Allomancer with their own full strength. But it also accounts for the cases, in between, where Newton's 3rd law seems to apply normally. It also might provide a bit of an answer for why an Allomancer's own weight/mass plays into his strength. It doesn't actually boost the forces they are capable of, but it doesn't just provide resistance to a reaction force either. It actually tips the scales of how the force is distributed, in non-extreme cases. Other Problems... This isn't quite perfect however... It's pretty obvious in the case above, where the coin is pressed against the building. If the coin no longer experiences any force then it would drop to the ground. But we don't (apparently) observe this. You can imagine that the coin slipping a little means it isn't quite in full contact with the building, perhaps... And so then it's rapidly getting pushed back again every time slips. But this feels a little weird, and doesn't work great. My best solution is that maybe my X factor above isn't quite perfect. Perhaps there's some minimum amount of force that the Object will receive no matter what, for example. This also makes me consider the case where Vin and Kelsier have their little Push battle, with the coin between them. There's a few weird things there as well... First, we have the "center of mass problem" that I'll get to in a moment. Second is what does this mean for the mass in my equation above? For Vin pushing a coin that Kelsier is also pushing... what is the m2 in that equation? The mass of coin plus the mass of Kelsier? Plus the mass of Scadrial if Kelsier is anchored? What if he's standing free and relying on friction with the ground? Perhaps the calculation of m1 and m2 is a bit more complicated and involves some Cosmere concepts? Maybe there's some kind of "effective mass" that we have to determine? Third is explaining why the coin doesn't just fall down. If two equal and opposite forces are at work, why doesn't gravity take over? My best guess is that this plays into the "center of mass problem"... Kelsier and Vin are obviously keeping the coin balanced between them rather than letting it slip to one side. This configuration is unstable, so there has to be some means for them to balance the coin. And it's not a big leap from there to say that they're giving the coin some upward force as well, to balance gravity. The explanation deserves an eye roll maybe, but the scene is so awesome that letting it slide is easy. Then again, maybe gravity just does weird things when magic is at work. There's precedent... In Stormlight we see a bit of an oddity that's similar (perhaps) with the Surge of Gravitation... But I won't get into that. And maybe this also plays into why the coin against the wall doesn't fall, in my framework above. Fourth, we have to explain why the coin flattened. It's tempting to just give up on this one and say it's a mistake. If Allomantic force is a body force, then this is hard to explain. Gravity can squish an object, but only because it presses you against the ground. Two body forces just cancel out and don't causes any stresses inside the body. Technically the outsides of the coin experience a bit more force because they are closer to the Allomancers than the center... But that's definitely not enough of an explanation. Perhaps Allomantic force is more of a pressure applied along a body's surface? Not sure if there's much support for this elsewhere in the text, but I'll have to keep an eye out on my next read. The Center of Mass Problem I have a strong opinion on this one... The characters are convinced that you can't really control the vector of an Allomantic force. It's just a two way force pointing directly through the centers of mass. I am of the opinion that they are wrong about this. Wax proves that this isn't the case for the object itself, unless I'm mistaken. I seem to recall that he is able to break down a metal object into "smaller pieces" mentally and push on a single element out of a large piece of metal. (Edit: Someone on Reddit corrected my memory of this example and I no longer think it applies) Seems like Kelsier might also have done something like this by spinning spears (Edit: metal bars) midair? And of course there's evidence to suggest that Allomancy can be performed on trace metals. Logically, we know that any metal thing is ultimately made up of a bunch of smaller metal things. So it makes sense why it would work this way. It's likely that understanding how to manipulate metal this way is just not well understood. Might involve someone's power level. Definitely involves skill and understanding. Maybe a few more years down the road we'll see Allomancers who have a better understanding of this. The same seems to be true for the point in your own body that you Push and Pull from. I don't have as much hard evidence that this is possible, though the ability to balance on a single small piece of metal is a great start. Again, I'm betting that an Allomancer has some level of control over where they Push and Pull from. I would expect that this "point" must be located within your own body somewhere, but that you can shift it with the right understanding/skill/practice/etc. In fact, it seems likely to me that my simple "point force" equation above is a simplification. More than likely what we're dealing with is a field, which emanates from the Allomancer. He has some kind of mental control over which bits of metal he is effecting (down to the molecular scale?) with his field, which is dependent on skill (etc.) and which is largely performed subconsciously/intuitively. (atium gives you understanding of how to process the data you receive, so it makes sense that other elements do something similar) And he also has some kind of control over that field, by shifting around Investiture (or whatever) within his body. Thoughts? What do you guys think? Got any passages that support this theory? Or any that disprove some part of it? Maybe some idea on how to refine this? I'm curious what other people think!

Trying to keep the drawing quality low here. This is an easy one with as little detail as possible.

I assumed it would be a few pages from the graphic novel, but maybe that's not the case. Haven't heard any official news on what the White Sand excerpt entails.

I'm not sure if those were published in a book or released online or what... I feel like they're official, but I can't even remember if that's necessarily true. :-) I don't know of anything else.

I definitely think this is a Soulcasting chart. Or maybe something to do with fabrials? The design is similar to the Shadesmar map. Exact same border, similar colors and tone. So the in-world creator (if there is one?) knows a thing or two about Shadesmar. And in any case, we know that soulcasting and the cognitive realm are very closely tied together. The circles all seem reminiscent of the beads in Shadesmar as well. Just seems like there's an intentional connection to Shadesmar. You've got an enormous cut gemstone in the middle. The woman in the border seems to be a lighteyed Vorin woman. The imagery has lots of lightning and smoke- symbols of power and mystery. To me these all suggest soulcasting and/or fabrial science more than they suggest voidbinding. The different symbols in place of the orders are odd, and symbols for the surges have been twisted about... But they are all still symmetrical (the latter being rotationally symmetrical) which suggests human origin to me rather than voidbringer origin. And you wouldn't expect them to be identical anyways. I'm having a hard time guessing what the connections might mean.

Dalinar, Adolin, and Kaladin fighting off Szeth in the king's palace? Kaladin on the right with a spear? Can't remember which side he was supposed to be on, but that sounds right.

I also agree that it seems they don't mean light and dark eyes in the same way that we do. I don't think it's clear what level of "lightness" qualifies you as a lighteyes... Though since there's never any sense of ambiguity to it, I assume it's a pretty sharp contrast between the two. I don't get the sense that there's a middle ground in lightness. Gavilar's eyes are "pale green". Teleb's eyes are "light green". Roshone's are "brilliant green" and seem to glow in the dark. But Mosh has "dark green" eyes. We don't see any one with "dark blue eyes" as far as I can remember, but I don't see how it would be any different. And the existence of tan eyes (light brown), tells me that the same thing is true in the opposite direction. I don't think they're using it to mean the same thing we would.

Granted. All of the Wheel of Time girls worldhop to the Cosmere and teach everyone to tug their braids, smooth their skirts, and sniff incessantly. I wish my allergies would leave me alone.

I've actually always assumed that Dalinar's memory loss was his boon and that we don't know the curse. Just recently discovered that this apparently isn't the usual interpretation. When Dalinar explains his memory loss he never sounds very bitter about it. There's no sense of, "I can't believe that darn Nightwatcher stole precious memories of my beloved wife!" Yeah, he obviously can't be super attached to her without the memories, but he IS aware of what was taken from him. Maybe that's just because it's been a number of years and he's gotten over it, but I don't think so. I don't feel like the lack of memories suddenly makes you apathetic to the fact that you were happily married for many years. You don't have to know what you're missing in order to be mad at someone who stole from you. No, I think he was so heartbroken after her death that he sought out the Nightwatcher to numb his pain. The Nightwatcher's method of erasing all memories and the ability to hear the name is likely a bit more extreme than Dalinar expected (and maybe wanted)... This explains when he says things like, "Was not losing all memory of his wife enough?" But I do feel like his memory loss was the boon. I don't have any guesses as to what the curse would be. For a while I wondered if perhaps Renarin's condition was related, because Dalinar seems to give Renarin a hard look (and laments to himself) when he first talks about his visit (with Renarin and Navani present). But I don't think the timing works out right for that theory.

Ah! Sorry! Well, in that case I'd argue that they probably weren't exactly thriving during the Lord Ruler's reign. The fact that they had to naturally adapt to Rashek's world suggests that they were probably barely getting by for most of that time. They very well could have been worse off than the others by the end of HoA, technologically speaking. Unless I'm missing something.

Sazed explains (in one of the HoA epigraphs) that the Lord Ruler intentionally stunted technological development during his rule. And by stunted I mean halted. It was one of the means by which he exerted control. Yes, they are behind on technology... But not THAT far behind. You can only really fault them for their slowness over the last 340 years. And for at least some of that time they were working on rebuilding society from scratch.

As someone who hasn't read Secret History yet, isn't it pretty obvious that it's Kelsier? To me the scars on his arms are a dead giveaway. If it's somebody else then it's intentionally misleading. The fact that Kelsier died is obviously pretty easy to get around, given Wax's experience at the end of BoM. And there's no reason why he couldn't have been spiked in one eye.

Those first lines suggest that the author is very old. It could be a regular man longing for his idea of what those ancient times were like. But it sounds to me like the author actually remembers those times. And it's somebody who knows the truth about the Heralds- something very few people are aware of. These lines (paired with the conclusions above) suggest to me that it's a spren speaking. We know that the spren are watching mankind, that they know about Surgebinding and [true] Shardweilding, and that they know the truth of everything. Seems to me that it's either one of the great spren (probably not Stormfather, judging from the content and tone) or one of the Truthwatcher spren (perhaps Glys) since these sort of observations seem to be their expertise. As for prophecy, I don't think that's really what we're reading. The speaker notes that these four characters are important and that one of them "will destroy us", but that's the most definite fact spoken about the future. The comments about each character are not prophecy- they're just facts. The speaker isn't predicting their futures- just revealing knowledge about them as they currently are. "One might save us" is just speaking about what might be and not what will be. The Diagram seems to claim more about the future than the backs of the books do. Regardless, I wouldn't worry too much. From what I've read, Sanderson usually does a pretty good job handling prophecy (or expectations in general) in a way that still leaves room for twists. See Mistborn.

Obviously everyone has different taste in games, so this is just my two cents... But I actually disagree with your concept for the game. Some of my reasoning: 1. The Shattered Plains aren't a very... varied setting. I don't see how every "mission" won't be practically the same thing over again and again. You can't change much more than the shape of the plateaus, and the Parshendi all look pretty similar (for the most part, without getting into spoilers). I don't see how it would be interesting without changing what's in the books, which fans don't normally approve of. 2. Games that follow too closely with a book/movie that has already been produced rarely work well. It constrains the story and makes the game feel hollow. 3. I don't see a way to incorporate all kinds of surgebinding. Many of them are yet undefined, and even among those we know... there's just so much variety. They all have such different uses. And even if you constrain things to those good for combat... I don't see how you can create something that works. The ability to fly across Roshar is... incredibly overpowered compared to the ability to slide across the ground on your legs, for example. And how would it be possible to control the surge of gravitation in a natural way with a video game controller? You'd have to dumb down the power, which I don't think I like the idea of. 4. Stormlight Archives is so much bigger than the War of Reckoning. And fighting in general. Yeah, fighting happens. But something like Shadows of Mordor just takes things too far in that direction for my tastes. Some of my thoughts in random order: 1. Setting the game in ALL of Roshar is way too grand. Even for a major game producer. You would need to stick to a smaller area. Something the size of Alethkar at MOST. 2. It shouldn't be a game "where you fight through hordes of enemies." At least, not if you also want it to have the scope your suggesting. If it's just a hack-and-slash game like Dynasty Warriors then that works. But it needs to be handled more carefully otherwise. 3. There's no good way to let the player use ALL surges. Think about which surges make sense in a video game (how would they be used? balance issues? etc.) and how the mechanics would work (how does a player actually do it). Only use the ones that work. 4. Stay away from the main characters and main events from the book. There's a whole world out there. Plenty of room for great stories, characters, and action that runs parallel with the books. Maybe a cameo here or there.