ScarletSabre

Do we have any WOBs on that? We have them that Nathalians have more innate Investiture than other Shardworld races, but I don't think we have any WOBs on races having LESS innate Investiture outside of being Drabs.

It's because in Secret History... Kinda major spoilers ahead... For Realmatics, not so much for plot.

Good point, done that!

WARNING - MINOR WORDS OF RADIANCE SPOILERS AND MAJOR MISTBORN; SECRET HISTORY SPOILERS AHEAD ________________________________________ So, after rereading this - http://www.tor.com/2014/08/06/stormlight-archive-scene-after-words-of-radiance/ , I'm once again wondering just what's going on in the Cognitive Realm in Roshar... Jasnah sees the floating flames of life flicker out as the sailors are executed... but unlike in Mistborn; Secret History, we don't see any Cognitive Shadows appear in Shadesmar with her. What Ivory says to her about being unable to return to the Physical Realm because there's only a Junction "Only when a piece of you is there.", implies that she's Elsecalled herself bodily into the Cognitive Realm, and is reminiscent of Kelsier's problem in SH, where he can't return to the Physical Realm because his tether to the piece of himself there has been cut. I'm once again wondering about the way Shadesmar works compared to what we've seen of the Cognitive Realm in SH, and here are my thoughts at the moment. The solidity of the sea and the ground are flipped. That's always bothered me until now, as I just had a thought. I hadn't considered the cognitive aspects of both Spren and animals. Jasnah can see the glowing souls of marine life through the obsidian beneath her, and I think that since the Cognitive Realm is a reflection of how souls percieve the Physical Realm, the sea life all across Roshar is percieving the water around them as a solid mass, which reflects in Shadesmar. The beads making up the solid land and all that's on it are a reflection of human interaction with Spren, since they can see manifestations of emotion and rain, to name but a few, in the Physical Realm. Kaladin's mother even tells him as a child that some people believe that everything has a Spren, and a soul, even Tubers. This belief in every piece and aspect of their world having a soul and manifestation would reflect in the Cognitive realm as people wouldn't think of things as wholes as they would on Scadrial, but considering, if just subconsciously, the individual makeup of everything, the flames and sticks of a fire rather than the campfire ball of mist that we see Kelsier interact with. (I'm now even more curious to see Shadesmar in Shinovar, where there are no Spren...) And I'm once again drawn to the theory that the Vorin Tranquiline Halls are actually the Spiritual Realm, and Braize is Damnation, taking the souls and Cognitive Shadows when they should be appearing in Shadesmar. Thoughts?

You wish to be the best thief in the world, undetectable to all. Your curse is that nobody can remember you once they take their eyes off of you. After only a few seconds you slip from their memory, along with anything you may have said to them. A bartender would take your order for a drink, turn and pour it, and then forget why they did so. You would constantly be scaring people around you when they turn to you again, accusing you of sneaking up on them. I know this one might be outside the power of the Nightwatcher, unless she can rejigger how you interact with the cognition of others somehow, but I think it's an interesting curse to ponder.

I was a bit confused by this as well, until I realised it was as explained above. My own personal understanding was the ambient Investiture being sort of like background radiation for the Cosmere, and just interacting with the planets without Shards differently than those with them. So instead of a specific kind of magic that's almost completely limited to humans/humanoids with sentience, we get magic interacting with nature and ecologies, causing magical birds, or issues with the natural life cycle alá Shades.

This is one that has probably been asked before.... but can Spren (Higher ones like Syl at least) be affected by Emotional Allomancy? If so, could this be used to destabilise their form as a Shardblade?

If we consider them without any power advantages, pure skill and strength, Vin would win, because while Kaladin and his spear have the advantage in size, reach and strength, Vin is smaller, used to fighting against larger opponents, and is agile and quick as all Braize. Kaladin is trained as a soldier, used to facing a charge from opponents fighting with the same style of weapon as his own, spears, swords and hammers, weapons with a long reach to capitalise on the strength of those weilding them, more than the skill from what we've seen. While I have no doubt that Kaladin, a master of the spear, would have techniques to deal with someone close to him and behind the head of his weapon, it would take him a moment to adjust to the fighting style of Vin as an assassin, and we know that a moment is all Vin needs to pull things off in a fight. I could easily see her baiting out a strike from Kaladin, closing the distance when he thrusts with his spear and dodging the way she'd dodge a coin she knew was flying towards her, and bury her knives in his throat or heart. Assassin beats soldier in this type of rock paper scissors matchup... Of course, with their powers in the mix, sans Vin being at Mistpoint or becominh a Vessel, things would be a lot more even. Though I'd still give the edge to her for a few reasons, like Kaladin not having Shardplate yet, and not having consciously used a reverse Lashing yet as far as we've seen to draw things away and into something else the way he did with his sheild and the arrows. He's not practiced it, so he'd only have Syl as a shield to protect him from a barrage of coins, which would take away her as a weapon, limit his vision of Vin if she aims for his eyes and forces him to block, and only protect him from the front, all things Vin can and will ruthlessley exploit. He also has no experience/defence as far as we know against Emotional Allomancy, which could be used to bait him etc.

True, I knew about the Ashen Scadrial people's differences, and the bone density for Rosharians, I was just curious about any we haven't seen that might be more noticable than microscopic changes like that. Would a Scadrian coronor performing an autopsy on a Selish person find their organs different, or a Kandra find the muscles/bones of a Rosharan difficult to mimic, for example? True, and I wasn't sure to include Aimians or not, since there's something interesting there... I meant my question to encompass all base humans, so no Kandra, Koloss, Parshendi, Parshmen, Aimians, Radiants, Savants, or Elantrians, at least, since we know of Investiture based changes in physiology for most of them.

Since all humans in the Cosmere are based off of a pre-Shattering template, but are all technically aliens and have had evolution occur on their planets... Do any humans in the Cosmere have any physical differences such as extra organs/arrangement of organs etc? Excluding anyone changed by Hemalurgy or becoming an Elantrian/Returned, or otherwise changed by Investiture.

I'm personally more curious abouabout if Syl can transform into multiple weapons at the same time.... would she be able to create a pair of gauntlets for Kaladin to be able to catch/deflect Shardblades if that was his fighting style? Or rather than one long blade/spear, would she be able to become a pair of knives which would total the same size as the spear? And what, if any, is her limit on size? There must be one, otherwise Kaladin could just summon her, have her turn into a near weightless sword with a blade 100 foot long, swing, and decapatate buildings and anyone inside them.

Don't forget we have WOB that Surgebinding, like many powers in he Cosmere, can be addictive, and we do see hints of that with Kaladin. The desperation and fear when he suddenly can't breathe in Stormlight without Syl being near and reminded of his oaths to bring her back to sentience is very reminiscent of suddenly going cold turkey from something addictive.... Perhaps the bond isn't inherently insidious, but depends on the individual Spren, and on the dependence he Radiant feels towards them and their powers. The Recreance Radiants may have given up their oaths in part to escape the seduction of their surges once and for all.

Random question that just popped into my head.... Does the colour changing/growth control of the Idrian Royal locks only apply to the hair on the scalp? Or could, with training, someone with them learn to control their body hair, grow a beard at will, or grow their eyebrows to blend in in Thaylenah?

Huh.... I somehow did not think of that. o3o Well, this is why I'm not Brandon Sanderson (and probably shouldn't post ideas like that while fluish at work xD) Well if we go with hitting him from the front, it would slice his neck open and have him bleed out before we have to worry about hitting the spine and our Steelrunners losing their hands/arms to their own weapon... Huh, did not know we had a WOB about that.... (we really need a new WOB compilation thread somewhere) That being said, I would imagine Steelrunning is also so hard because some of the Speed stored has to be lost while being used to protect them from friction, and from their bones liquefying as soon as they come to a sudden stop, kinda like the Flash has the aura the Speed Force provides him with for those effects. Perhaps some of the potential energy stored as Speed/Investiture is converted to heat and kinetic energy to offset the friction and conservation of momentum? I think I need a sword made of handwavium....

So, I thought I'd make a place for people to discuss things (characters, settings, plot points etc) that many people like, but for one reason or another, they find themselves in the opposite, or less enthusiastic camp. Not exactly a hate thread, more a place to discuss our points of view and dissect some elements of Brandon's writing. So, come one, come all! Did you find Adolin annoying but enjoy Renarin's earnestness? Did you find Vasher too much of a grump or think Raoden shouldn't have survived his time in Elantris for one reason or another? Did you hate Dockson for his old resentments, or.... somehow.... FAIL to be charmed by Kelsier? There'll be no judgement here! Well, unless you somehow didn't find Kelsier charming. C'mon, the man's as charming as Tony Stark. I'll start things off by saying that I personally prefer the ending to Words of Radience where Kaladin killed Szeth himself with his spear, rather than letting the storm take him. I understand that Kaladin's arc is all about discovering that not all Lighteyes are without Honour and learning to trust again, and take the best of the reality of being a soldier and the optimism, the desire to help, of being a surgeon..... But I personally believe that Lirin was wrong when he told Kaladin that you can't kill to protect. You absolutely can; if someone puts a knife to the neck of someone I love or attempts to kill them in any way... I will kill them without a second thought. (Of course, I do have the mindset of over a decade of training in martial arts, and kill or be killed is an easy choice when it's the only one) Regrets, perhaps, but it's a brutal truth, if a lion is attacking your child, your mother, your boyfriend, your best friend, and you have a spear or a gun, and only a moment to react, to stop it, are you killing to protect? (And would you treat it any differently if it happens to be a female? Of course that's a whole 'nother topic for a whole 'nother thread...) Anyway, I felt disappointed with the revision, because it seems to me kind of like Kaladin is leaving a threat alive with his choice, one that's actively broken, but insane and still dangerous. If Szeth somehow survived and went on to kill someone, and Kaladin found out (And let's face it, with everyone's favourite talking, evil destroyin' sword in his hand, SOMEONE'S gonna die soon...), he's going to blame himself for the death, even moreso than he already would for taking too much responsibility and blame upon himself. I don't have the book in front of me at the moment, so I don't remember the exact wording of what happened, but if Kaladin had tried to bring Szeth to Alethi justice by crippling him and then bringing him before the king, trying to pull him out of the storm, that would have been one thing... but it kind of felt like the Batman Begins ending, of Kaladin no longer wanting to kill, but "not having to save him", which is fair enough, but it didn't feel like an organic or foreshadowed moment for his character development at that point for me. So, thoughts? Hopefully people don't mind my little rant and want to discuss these things. ^^;

The solution, if we're using Steelrunners, would be to have two of them, and have them carry a chain between them at head/chest height, and clothesline Kelsier into the Cognitive Realm, or just take his head off At that speed, piano wire or harp wire, something sharp and malleable enough to be carried without the awkwardness of two guys carrying a plank of wood on their shoulders, would at the very least cause a deadly injury to Kelsier before he could notice, and he wouldn't have a Steel Bubble up like Wax would to deflect it/warn him of it. Also, my own mention of guys carrying wood on their shoulders suddenly made me think of Bridge Four.... I wonder what Sadeas would have done with some Steelrunner Bridgemen, or how Steelrunner Bridgemen would be able to carry the chain/plank for an attack like this.... with a few of them we'd have a battering ram hitting with the power of a train.

Ah, fair enough then, I wasn't aware it was more complex than simply having to invest in Scadrial itself.... so to pose another question, which I'm sure has already been asked; Did the 17th Shard exist before the events of The Final Empire? If not, was Kelsier their founder? I LOVE the idea of him going around the Cosmere recruiting people in his Kelsier-esque way. I picture a montage of Kel going around planet to planet, just appearing with a grin in front of Demoux and Galladon, and conning or convincing them to join a Cosmere wide crew ^-^

Oh no, I wasn't concluding Trellium isn't a Godmetal, just that it IS an alien metal with unknown effects for Allomancers, that as far as we know isn't a metal we've seen on any planet like steel, iron, bendalloy etc. As for whether it's a Godmetal or not... would Trell be able to invest in Scadrial to create it with Harmony's red haze shield/interference? Because if Trell couldn't, then couldn't it be a Godmetal?

New Godmetals would need to be invested in Scadrial (Aside from Trellium...) , but what I mean is, is there a planet in the Cosmere with a metal completely alien to anything in the periodic and Allomantic table, which would then have an Allomantic effect? We have WOB that base metals like steel or brass from Roshar or Sel can be used by Allomancers so being invested in Scadrial doesn't matter aside from Godmetals... ...... I just realised that Trellium is technically already an answer to my question xD

Is there a planet in the Cosmere that would have a new metal for Allomancers to burn? For example, if we were on Yolen and Dragonsteel was a separate metal with unique properties, would it be Allomantically Inert or have a new effect outside of those already planned for the Godmetal alloys of the normal 16 metals?

You may be onto something there, since Darkness is separated from the Skybreaker Honorblade, and we know he's become somewhat twisted... And the blades having a cognitive aspect is likely, considering they'll at the very least show up as a glass bead in Shadesmar. I wonder if that cognitive aspect has anything to do with the addition of gemstones to dead Shardblades...

When a Feruchemist stores age/youth, how does it work if he doesn't use it? For example, if a Feruchemist, aged 50, stored youth to the point he then appeared/was 90, and then stopped, and reverted to 50 again, could he then live to 90 and then use the stored youth? Or would his lifespan be shortened by the youth/age stored in the metalmind?

I personally think Dalinar would give it over to Navani, since she's the foremost Artifabrian in the world, and now has something that's not only a Shardblade, but that gives Surgebinding to the bonder, to learn from and try to recreate. Add that with the fact that Shallan is a female KR, destroying conventions of women not being Shardbearers, and that nobody would suspect her of having it, I can imagine Dalinar giving it to her to protect herself with, and to hide. And her to bully him into letting her study it ^-^

True.... but that's not nearly as fun, lifethreatening or ridiculous though

But then how would they observe the deflection? If it gets deflected downwards and into the floor within the Speedbubble, unless the safe was made of plexiglass nobody inside the bubble would be able to record it