Commander Spoonface

There can be a magic system fueled by the overlap of two shards, right? Why not a magic system created by the overlap of two Splinters? What if this is a splinter of Endowment and a splinter of Dominion working together? What if (crazy idea incoming) the Chinese Emperor dude that inspired the idea is a character on this world? Say, a person that managed to get a hold of a Splinter of both Endowment and Dominion, and is using them to create a magic system? Perhaps he's building an army of Engravers so he can battle Odium, or maybe join him.

My idea is that someone with the magic can write down a word, but it takes the meaning and knowledge of the that word with it when they do. Someone else is (Without the magic) can then use the object with the word written on it. The actual effect depends on the intent of the writer, the user, the word itself, and the material the word is written on.

I think that a splinter of Endowment or Dominion are the most likely options, as I said earlier. Though, why does only affecting stone make it weaker than a magic system powered by a full shard? Allomancy can only affect metal, after all.

So, Windrunner posted about this in "Other Stuff" in a post called "New Cosmere Novella", and we also got talking about it on the thread "Unknown Shards". Appearantly, this is a new Shardbased magic system known as Engraving. There's already a thread for speculation about the novella that could be based on this. This thread is a place to speculate about the system itself. I already posted my primary speculation in "Unknown Shards" so I'll just copy-paste it here: This is, of course, operating on the assumption that Engraving is powered by a splinter, something brought up earlier in that thread. It was also suggested by ReaderAt2046 that it was a splinter of a new shard, known as Deception. So I ask, what do ya'll think of this? What does Engraving do, exactly? Does it only work on art, and if so, what makes something art?

A hat made of words, my friend, forged from their very essence. Does one "forge" a wordhat? It seems appropriate. That sounds like some Shard's magic system. Perhaps Literacy. Creating objects out of the meanings of words... It would be called "Wordsmithing."

If there is a Splinter powering Engraving, is it possible that it's a splinter of a shard we've already seen? If you consider it, it could work with a number of Shards: Endowment- Perhaps when you Engrave something, you make it your own somehow. You are, in a sense, Endowing it with some part of yourself. If it is possible for this process to occur on the same object multiple times, it might also fall under the domain of Cultivation. Dominion- It is also possible that, when you Engrave something, you are gaining control over some power it possess, a control you lose when another person Engraves it. Think Picture of Dorian Gray. This makes sense, seeing as we already know that Dominion was splintered by Odium at some point. Ruin- Another possibility is that act of Engraving permanently transfers some power to the Engraver from the object, with loss occurring. This appeals to me because by carving your own signature into a piece of artwork, you are essentially Ruining it. You could probably make a half-decent case for Odium, too, or maybe even Preservation. These are the ones I think most likely.

"I know what an analogy is! It's like a word with another word's hat on." --Community I want a word hat...

I think that Odium is the most likely Shard to travel to other Shardworlds. He couldn't cooperate to create something like Ruin and Preservation did, and he couldn't look after anything already around like other Shards might have. Basically, his only purpose is to kill other Shards, and eventually destroy everything. The only reason he wouldn't be going around killing other shards constantly is if he didn't have the power to- so he might spend some time building strength. As I mentioned previously, I find it unlikely Odium could create something with its own mind. More likely, his forces are simply an extension of his power. That could explain why the Parshmen act mindless when not under the direct control of Odium.

I seem to remember the first post said it was a Shardworld. But then again, the post could be wrong or my insane memory could be defective.

They're both words. The fact that people use them and understand them makes it so, in English at least. They may have dubious lexicographical origins, but they are proud of their wordage and won't let it be taken from them!

Adjectives have feelings too, you know. "Irregardless" is already sensitive, and you know how he can be when he really gets going.

The forum topic regarding it seems to have dissipated, but it was mentioned that Brandon had an idea for a possible Shardworld where there was a magic system based on forgery. It seemed to have some connection an emperor who put his mark on famous pieces of art and gained some kind of power for them. I believe it was mentioned at Life, the Universe, and Everything.

However, Larceny probably isn't on the same planet as Endowment. I agree, though, that the fuel would probably be somewhat similar to Breaths, though having more would affect the owner differently.

Fellow Sharders? But what if there's a non Sharder lurking? Fellow People? BUT WHAT IF CRABS READ THIS THREAD?!! Fellow Animals? What about sentient trees? Fellow Organisms? We can't discriminate against rocks! Obviously "Fellow Objects" is the only correct, non-discriminatory, designation.

What, the ability to steal someone else's figure and make it your own? That sounds like it could create a whole mess of problems.

So your affinity to Endowment is proportional to your specific Endowments? Well, that at least gives an excuse to bust out the chainmail bikini trope.

That sounds like Chaos, just applied on a mental level.

The names could suggest something more poetic than what the shard's powers actually entail. Perhaps, on a hypothetical shardworld where there are both, they have a duel system of worship, where they believe in two sibling gods. One rewards those who serve them with a permanent happy "buzz", and the other punishes those who fight them with mild to unbearable pain. I doubt the magic systems would have anything to do with ingesting anything, though. The intent of Ecstasy would probably be to spread positive emotion, and the intent of Agony to spread negative feelings, so maybe the system would have to do with manipulating the emotions of others. I think that the "blend" magic system would be more popular- the ability to inflict agony and ecstasy on people to varying degrees might allow someone to perfectly replicate the whole range of emotions.

I think a good name for endowment's opposite would be "Larceny". Maybe "Ecstasy" and "Agony" as pairs. "Corruption" might be Honor's pair. Perhaps "Identity" and "Unity" as pairs as well. "Discord" and "Order", I guess? Those seem a bit too close to "Ruin" and "Preservation" too me. After all, Ruin is just moving things into a less ordered state, which is the same as Chaos.

For me, it was reading about Sel in the Ars Arcanium of AoL, and remembering seeing it in one of the chapter headings in WoK. I did some reasearch, ended up here, and voila. So how did you find out that the books are interconnected? Did you find it on 17th Shard or discover it all on your own?

That, in of itself, is an ability. Though there is an interesting concept there: What if there were metals that could grant the powers of a misting to your target when burned, or something of the like. Could be some blend of Lerasium and Atium, maybe.

Though it might be possible, my gut says we probably won't see Hydrogen based allomantic metals. Back on topic, I think that a cool effect for an alloy of Atium would be the ability to see exactly how much of a metal other allomancers have left- probably Atium+Bronze.

I stand corrected. I doubt, however, that it will have allomantic properties, if it does exhibit some metallic ones under high pressure. Not to mention it only stays metallic under extremely high pressure, and therefore would be extremely difficult to swallow. @Aethling: About half of the current Allomantic metals are highly poisonous, albeit not radioactive. I mentioned already that "heavy" was being used in a non-literal sense, much in the same way Marty McFly uses the word.

You could make solid hydrogen, but it wouldn't me a metal. Wrong part of the Periodic table.

It looks like the 16 non-god metals are divided into four categories of four- and also two categories of eight. There could be two more categories of eight, divided into two larger categories of 16. My point is that the Law of 16 can apply also to groups of four, eight, thirty-two, forty-eight, and sixty-four as well as sixteen. Additionally, while the alloys of Lerasium likely create Mistings and maybe Ferrings, we have no idea was the alloys of Atium could do.