Extesian

I see you out it in the edit Calderis but yeah the difference should be awakening vs lifeless no? A human lifeless takes one. A squirrel lifeless takes one. Awakening, because it is encoded to your identity, takes more. Lifeless ease relates to it having once been living. Awakening ease depends on how similar a shape is to the awakener (and any formerly living parts, like cloth or bones).

@StrikerEZ @Calderis it has been quoted in that thread but for convenience, here is the follow up that @Ironeyes did for Pagerunner at the Boskone signing. It's on the actual sub atomic structure.

@Krandacth looking at those WoBs again I see they don't necessarily mean the Old Magic affects the Cognitive Realm, it could actually be changing the physical realm to give someone a physical problem/ benefit that affects their cognitive abilities or perception. Thanks for pointing it out. And comparing the examples we know already strains that anyway. Lift metabolising food into investiture for example. Though that still could be a Cognitive Realm thing depending on the mechanics. And there was that dude who saw things upside down, which seems cognitive, but I think his boon was getting cloth? Of course others like Taravangian, and Dalinar's memory, seem cognitive. But I feel I should backpedal on my assertion that the Old Magic acts on the Cognitive Realm. Hopefully someone else will know something I don't..

I'm imagining Princess Peach riding a flying shell, singing "you can't take the sky from me". Either that or "Rysn up, back on the streets". Or "come on up for the Rysn tonight". Or "Baby I think I'm capsizin', the waves are Rysn, and Rysn". Fin

just to clarify, I wasn't mocking your topic. I'm a perpetual sucker for charming, talented people and always think of them as 'good'. Brandon makes superb characters like that but does a beautiful job of twisting that theme. My silly response is designed to focus on that theme and how he takes it in different directions.

Your gf is the Hero of Ages

Hmmmm. How about these Kelsier – Is a charming, talented person necessarily a good person? Hoid - Is a charming, talented person necessarily a good person? Lightsong - Is a charming, talented person necessarily a good person? Eric (White Sand) - Is a charming, talented person necessarily a good person? (Vin, about Zane) - Is a charming, talented person necessarily a good person? Kabsal - Is a charming, talented person necessarily a good person? Taravangian - Is a charming, talented person necessarily a good person? Denth - Is a charming, talented person necessarily a good person? And the ultimate decider Nightblood - Is a charming, talented person necessarily a good person?

You're obviously right good effort reading your own WoB, me. I think I'd conflated them in my own head and didn't think twice. Yeah if Dalinar went pre-assassination that makes the shshsh boon more likely. (Now I'm going over me own head canon trying to work out how long I thought that and how much head canon has been distorted because of it )

Firstly, the boons and curses are cognitive so that confines our choices So I like the idea @Ammanas but unless we're being misled it can't be that. We also kinda know he visited after Gavilar's death While I like the story element of forgetting Evie being the boon I feel like Dalinar had such a wake up call from being a drunk buffoon as his brother died that he wouldn't be selfish enough to ask that as the boon. I think the boon was something around being given the ability to protect the ones he loves and the curse is forgetting the one he loved the most. Either that or the grief of his wife was stopping him from being the man he needed to be to protect people, and PART of the boon, that he didn't ask for, was forgetting.

Good questions cc. My immediate reaction was your last option, that individuals' cognitive view matters. You're right that would be illuminating about cognitive realmatics generally.

A. Greed. On all counts. I love Rysn, I love her pet and your 15 year life cycle idea makes me excited.

One of the best things I ever did, after years of working in politics, was disengaging from politics. It sucks in every country. Sure, that may be shamefully avoiding my civic responsibilities, but I sure am more chill as a result. The greatest trick Extesian ever pulled was convincing himself politics doesn't exist.

I can't remember if I've quoted Book of the New Sun on here before, I almost definitely have as Wolfe is the single most quotable author I've ever read. I have a series of memes based on his quotes that I wish I could put on this site, but of course they're not Sanderson So I'll settle for two of the most powerful quotes (though there are more beautiful ones) By the use of the language of sorrow I had for the time being obliterated my sorrow—so powerful is the charm of words, which for us reduces to manageable entities all the passions that would otherwise madden and destroy us. and He waited for me to speak. I had the feeling, which I have often had when talking with old people, that the words he said and the words I heard were quite different, that there was in his speech a hoard of hints, clues, and implications as invisible to me as his breath, as though Time were a species of white spirit who stood between us and with his trailing sleeves wiped away before I had heard it the greater part of all that was said.

I'm all about experiences and understanding how and why things are as they are. So my life revolves around two questions (I know, totally cheating) I wonder what THAT would be like? and How does THAT work?

Yeah my take is that a soulstamp is more comparable to allomancy, or the need for a Returned to consume investiture to keep their soul stapled to their body. Like with metal, where external investiture is ‘shaped’ into a certain wavelength, a soulstamp shapes external investiture into a wavelength that reprograms a spiritual aspect (by essentially rewriting past Connections) – but like metal burning away and needing to be replaced, the flow of investiture essentially overwhelms that refocusing-shape to the point it burns it out, at which point the stamp needs to be applied again. But I think the Returned analogy may be better. A Returned first needs a large amount of investiture (a Divine Breath) to infuse the soul into a Cognitive Shadow and attach it to the body (like when an object is first stamped) but then the Returned must consume investiture to stay intact. I think this is really how soulstamping works. You design the stamp (which filters investiture), the initial stamping causes a flood of investiture to change the spiritweb, but then there is a constant trickle of investiture needed to maintain that change, a change which would otherwise stop and the spiritweb would revert to its ‘default’ state. The difference of course is that a Returned needs one packet of investiture a week , whereas I think soulstamping requires a constant trickle. Anyway that’s my tentative head canon on how soulstamps work. I’m curious to hear any disagreement J

Oh rad I'm in.

That was honestly one of my favorite WoBs in a while, nice work

What is an ookla name anyway? I know the insurmountable Peter Ahlstrom used to have one but I wasn't sure if it's a general in-joke or if it's based on Peter?

Agreed, @Spoolofwhool was one of my first choices, so this seems the week. I'll save Argent and Yata for later:)

I've gotten lazy with sourcing, my bad http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1158

I agree with much of this but I don't believe it's just about getting him to invest more, I think Tanavast's words indicate it's about binding himself realmatically. It may not be a single designated battle but I believe it's about Odium feeling impotent and being offered the chance to be released in exchange for agreeing to be bounded by the Champion rules, and that he can be bound to that promise (either because of the nature is Shards generally, or of Honor, or of Roshar).

Firstly, I should say that WoB makes very little sense to me its strangely worded. But I think what he's saying is that Szeth's screams are not from a 'dead' Shardblade, that he has an Honorblade therefore the screams are unrelated to the sword. Saying the spren was not for one of the orders seems to be saying Szeth's sword is not a Nahel spren trapped in sword form. Secondly, I think Szeth's screams are from damage to his spirit web and the way his cognitive self is interpreting that damage. It sounds like if it were Unmade it would be 'magical' but this is more realmatic cause and effect. Thirdly, I'll post this because I think nan balat instead may be the victim of what you're proposing. I think nan balat is either feeling an Unmade (a force "moving in on Roshar) or something greater, like Odium breaking down whatever barriers keep him trapped.

I shall give my thoughts I agree with much of what you've said. I agree that the magic system comes from the planet itself. The first WoB below indicates that strongly, even though it's old, and there's been more I've seen I'm sure. It refers to the metallic powers being what the genetics and realmatic interactions of Scadrial allow for. I don't know whether the system or perpendicularities/godmetals come first, but by the sound of it the godmetals are a result of the system; though I suspect perpendicularities would come first as they're a result of the initial investing in the planet. I pretty strongly believe Trell (or whoever) has not invested in Scadrial, but has its godmetal being imported, because of the other WoB indicating that complete investment in the world would be necessary, and even then Scadrial is unique. I also think based on both of those WoBs that if Trell completely invested in Scadrial, there would be not just godmetal but a new metal-based magic system, though how new or effective it is depends on the effect of it being a planet truly of Ruin and Preservation. But no way that's happening with Harmony knowing. (Unless that's the red haze ). So I think Harmony doesn't know Trellium because it's imported, it has no connection to the planet and, well, it's metal. But yes, it seems clear that there will be some difference for any Shard investing, or bringing in their godmetal, because the planet is of Preservation and Ruin. @Calderis I agree with all the things you've said, except that a new Shard investing will only make new metals, not a new system. I don't disagree, I'm just in two minds. I feel the WoB in support of your theory is mine and the WoB against it is the one you found I think this WoB says that a new Shard investing DOES create a new magic system, as that's exactly what happened with Odium - voidbinding, a new system to add to the two that existed before he came, a new system even though the planet already had systems in place. Yeah it was confined to work within the type of magic systems there, so I expect it will be related to surgebinding and possibly fabrials, but it was a new system. I feel the comparable example for Scadrial would be that something new is added to Allomancy, Feruchemy and Hemalurgy. That should happen, rather than just new metals in the existing system - but what qualifies that is the WoB above that says there is a different effect from the fact that Scadrial is of Ruin and Preservation. But yeah, I pretty much agree entirely, with the qualification of how we're viewing new magic systems, and what that means on a planet created by the existing Shards.

This one? It's a little inconclusive but that was always the strongest one I could find.