Lord Bookwyrm

In the oathbringer epigraphs, as well as other parts of stormlight, a book called the Mythica is mentioned, which compiles facts and legends about the Unmade from all over Roshar. It's written by someone called Hessi. It seems to me that this seems quite similar to Hesiod and his Theogony, which compiles the different myths on the different greek gods (as well sd the various minor gods and river nymphs, etc.). What's more, this wouldn't be the first time Brandon referenced real life with his naming. For example, lister's oil, mentioned in the Way of Kings by Kaladin as an effective antiseptic, is likely a reference to Joseph Lister, who developed antiseptics in real life. Hessi and Hesiod also have similar sounding names, for what it's worth. So am I onto something, or am I just going on a tangent?

Might change the name

Unlike allomancy, feruchemy has no apparent upper limit on how much of an attribute you can tap. Wouldn't this mean that, theoretically, you could tap enough speed to move faster than light? Of course, this would take an insane amount of speed, and you would likely be torn apart by air molecules before you got anywhere near lightspeed. But, using the medallions from Mistborn Era 2, you could make a spaceship designed to bear those kinds of speeds, and get the ship to tap speed. Admittedly, the people on board would die due to the immense acceleration, but you could still move it faster than light. But, how long would it take to store enough speed to go at the speed of light for a second? Well, the average human jogging speed is ~8mph, which translates to ~3.6m/s. The speed of light is ~300,000,000,000m/s. Assuming you could store 90% of your speed, you would be storing 3.24m/s every second. Based on these figures... 300,000,000,000m/s (speed of light, or C) / 3.24m/s/s (speed stored/second) = 92,592,592,592.593 seconds = 1,071,673.525... days = 2,936.092... years So, as you can see, it would take a ridiculously long time to store up any amount of speed that you could realistically use to travel at light speed. But that was only for travelling for one second. 300 million km. In comparison, the nearest star outside of our solar system is 4.3 light-years away from us, or 41 million billion km away. That's 410 billion years of storing speed, just to get to the nearest star (not considering gravity and propulsion, this problem's already complicated enough as it is). 410 billion years is at least 20 times as long as the lifespan of the universe. So, not only would it take a ridiculously long time to store up enough speed to travel at the speed of light, the people on board would probably die from the immense G-forces long before they arrived. You could make the ascent to light-speed safer by accelerating slower, or use gold feruchemy to endlessly heal the passengers, but this doesn't solve the fundamental issue of not having enough speed. However, this problem of not having enough speed could be solved by compounding steel, which would exponentially reduce the time it would take to get enough speed. This alone wouldn't be enough, so you could also get multiple people to do it at once. So if you had 100 people all compounding at max capacity, how long would it take to store that much speed? Assuming that compounding gives 10x as much as you started with (https://coppermind.net/wiki/Compounding)... 410,000,000,000 / 100 = 4,100,000,000 Assuming you started with 4m/s of speed stored... 4,100,000,000 / 4 = 1,000,000,000 = 10^9 Because compounding is exponential, the time it would take is the exponent of 10. So, 100 people compounding speed would only take 9 years of compounding before they had enough speed to travel to Alpha Centauri A at light-speed! P.S. I probably went wrong somewhere in those calculations. 9 years seems way too short... Plus there's the whole issue about being able to jog through space. Seriously, this theory has more holes in it than Swiss cheese

I've recently reread Warbreaker, and I've been wondering why the Returned can't have children. After all, some of their other physiological functions, like muscle movement and blood flow (eating and sleeping aren't necessary (which reminds me; do the Returned go to the toilet?), for some reason) still work. So why can't they have kids? Well, it could be to do with the fact that pregnancy requires sperm cells to ferment egg cells, and for the zygote to implant itself into the womb, which takes a while to occur. So, could it be that for a Returned can't have children because their reproductive cells die before the zygote can implant itself in the womb? If the sperm/egg cells run out of Breath before the zygote reaches the womb walls (I don't know the technical term), it would die, so the woman, Returned or otherwise, wouldn't get pregnant. This would still allow for Returned or their partners to become pregnant; it would either require the sperm cells to already have some amount of Breath (which would be why care whether or not Siri had sex with Susebron; she could still get pregnant since Susebron had a lot of Breath on top the one that allowed him to Return), or for the zygote to be given a Breath before it would consume the breath that allowed it to Return, which would give it time to impregnate the woman. But, for the first theory to work, there must clearly be some level of uncertainty in whether the woman would get pregnant. Otherwise, why would some of the Godkings before Susebron (the one that appears in Warbreaker, not the ones before him) not have had children? Of course, it could have been that he (the Susebrons before the one in Warbreaker) or his wife was infertile, but I find that unlikely; he could have just remarried. I think the amount of Breath the sperm or egg cell holds is proportional to its size compared to the rest of the body; tiny. Each sperm or egg cell would only hold a trillionth of what the total body holds, an extremely tiny amount. The cell could easily consume it, and then go on to consume the Breath that made it Return. However, that is the amount that the whole body consumes, not the amount that those cells consume. So, the amount that the cells would consume would also be extraordinarily small. However, only the Godking gets more than one Breath a week, so only he would be able to get his partner (in this case Siri) pregnant. So, that would explain why Susebron, but not other Returned, can have children; they simply don't have enough Breath. But, for fun, I still want to calculate just how much Breath Susebron currently holds. So, assuming he gets 3 Breaths a week, of which he consumes 1 (per week), he would receive a net total of +2 Breaths a week. 2 Breaths per week x 52 Breaths in a year x 52 years (Warbreaker says around 50, so I'm going 51/2) = 13,520. He also has the store of 50,000 Breaths that is passed down from Godking to Godking, which makes it 63,520 Breaths. Add that to the Breath that allowed him to Return, which is equivalent to about 2,000 ordinary Breaths, and he has a grand total of 65,520 Breaths! So, even without the 50,000 Breaths that was given to him when he was born, he has enough to reach the Eight Heightening, allowing him to Break Commands. This is far from the 50,000 he needs to reach the Tenth Heightening, but even this is far more Breath than most throughout Nalthis' history have ever held. I don't know that much about pregnancy, so I could well be extremely wrong. If you know more, please correct me!

Thinking about it, I think it's something more like a combination of 2, 3 and 4. 10) Also called Proximity, but for a different reason. In Elantris, we see that the Elantrians' power though the Dor weakens through distance. For example, Raoden can massacre a bunch of Dakhor monks near Elantris, but once he teleports to Fjorden, he can, what, bruise them? Anyway, back to the point, Raoden himself specifically states that Aons grow weaker when they are drawn further away from Elantris. This happens for two reasons. 1) dominion & devotion's power is locked in the Cognitive Realm, giving it a specific location/shape. 2) Investiture occurs in waves. This might take a while to explain. Investiture IS a wave, as demonstrated though Vin's description of bronze as waves (or was it Marsh? Does it even matter?). Even with our current understanding of the natural world, we know that waves disperse over distance since waves travel in all directions (I=P/A), so the further you get from the source of investiture, the less intense it is, so Invested become weaker. It's probably the same on a galactic scale for Investiture as a whole. Adonalsium Invested in the Cosmere, so the further you get away from it, the weaker a Shard gets until they become nothing different from ordinary beings. Shards are powerful because of their Connection to Investiture, so without Investiture they are literally just ordinary human beings. Think of it like the Well of Ascension. The further Vin gets from it, the less intense the Investiture pulses are. Continuing with the analogy of the Well of Ascension, people can get their souls bound there and they will not go to the Beyond. This could be similar on a galactic scale, where people go to the Beyond rather than dissipating after death. Another thought: perhaps Investiture only exists in the Cosmere. Once a shard leaves the Cosmere, they, again become ordinary beings. Rather than because of too little Investiture, it happens because there might not be any Investiture in the rest of the Universe. This line of reasoning actually comes from another series called the Desolate Era (this is not an endorsement, although it is a good book). So basically, magic from world to world is different, so an all-powerful being from one world could become weaker than an ordinary human in another (this explanation is wrong in so many ways). So when a Shard leaves the Cosmere, because the magic is different, the Shard is basically useless. But hey, that's just a theory. A BOOK THEORY! THE END Edit: I'm pretty sure I've heard somewhere that there was something that was powerful enough to destroy adonalsium. (both taken from the coppermind page on adonalsium) Something consciously opposed adonalsium: this probably wouldn't have happened if they weren't at least close to his level of power. Some of the 16 ... did so believing it was the final option: why would they, unless there was something even more powerful on the other side? So, number 5) codependent. The Shards are more powerful when closer to each other, coz resonance or something, idk. Point is, they can't leave because a) they don't want to die b ) they don't want people to die (preservation & ruin created consciousness from investiture, are shards invested into people?) and/or c) they need to stay together to protect each other from that 'thing', and some don't want to leave or can't leave, so they all have to remain in the cosmere. BOOK THEORY: will there be a galactic scale war at the end of the Cosmere Cycle?

I've been thinking that the way that allomancers push on metals in mistborn doesn't actually seem like pushing. You can't really push on a specific area, you have to affect the object as a whole. What really got me thinking was that the lighter object will be pushed back farther. This doesn't seem like pushing to me, it seems more like magnetism or gravity. We've already seen that most investiture forms are actually quite similar in what they do, the ones in SA and Mistborn are pretty similar, or at least more so than the ones on Nalthis. Anyway, in SA, there is a surge called Gravitation. GRAVITATION. If that wasn't a huge clue I don't know what was. In the Ars Arcanum, Gravitation is described as the 'Surge of Gravity'. What this means is that Investiture can affect Gravity. What especially caught my attention was that Gravitation can make objects fall towards or away from you. This is surprisingly similar to the pushing and pulling of metals in Mistborn, and since the magic systems are similar, they most probably are the same thing, meaning that: Allomancers don't actually pull/push on metals. Instead, they gravitationally attract or repel the metals In case you weren't convinced, the blue lines in Mistborn stem from your CENTRE OF GRAVITY and gravity affects you at your CENTRE OF GRAVITY.

This is probably something more to do with the accessibility of metals rather than anything else e.g. chromium, nicrosil etc. all had quite useful allomantic effects, but it was hard to get access to them before the Catacendre. Remember, things there aren't like on Earth. Aluminium being worth more than gold, and they were far less technologically advanced, which made it hard to get metals above carbon in the reactivity series.

1) Basically what it says in the title. Would an allomancer be able to push on a piece of lerasium? Reason for inquiry: in Stormlight, it is mentioned that shardplate and shardblades cannot be affected by the Surges. Sp & Sb are basically concentrated Investiture. In Mistborn (the series), it is also mentioned that hemalurgically and feruchemically charged metal are harder to affect with allomancy than metals without a charge. Basically, what the question is actually saying is 'does how much Investiture something holds affect how much it can be affected by Investiture? Because if it does then you wouldn't be able to affect lerasium. Otherwise, you would be able to push on lerasium.

What would happen if you were to, hypothetically, burn duralumin and aluminium at the same time while also burning another metal?

Is there a reason behind why Adonalsium was split into 16 Shards? (other than there being 16 people - technically 17, but Hoid doesn't count since he didn't take a Shard). Also, does every Shard have a specific number? e.g. Odium = 9, Honor = 10, Preservation = 16

Theoretically, would a feruchemist be able to use any magic system by tapping nicrosil and duralumin at the same time? Coz both the investiture and the connection would be blank, so it would connect with the planet the feruchemist was on, say Roshar. So you are now connected to Roshar. The feruchemist then taps nicrosil. Due to the duralumin, the investiture is connected to Roshar, so you could use the main magic focus there. Could this, theoretically, happen?

It's just a small theory of mine.

More like a filter than a keyhole, then.

Yeah, I thought it was a bit of a rip off. Maybe I should do something like being able to turn valuable stuff into energy, the more valuable it is, the more you get out of it. You need to speak specific words to do it. It was discovered a few hundred years ago, when the words for kinetic energy were found, with ones for heat and chemical being found a few years later. However, about two decades ago, someone found words for heat that were more efficient, turning value into a lot more energy. Also, you can only convert stuff to energy when touching it. The thing you convert to energy vaporizes after you convert it. Only one in two hundred people have this ability, and people are 'chosen' randomly. Also, it's how much a person values something, not monetary value, that makes it capable of being converted to energy. Some people have used this to their advantage by training their minds to value things that they are turning into energy. The way this works means that a rich person is actually less efficient than a poor person, since a poor person values things more. As they say, absence breeds affection.

Before that, I was like 'how is everybody not dead? They should be roasted alive!!!'* *or frozen into blocks of ice

Yeah

Arcanum Unbounded

I've been thinking about this magic system for a while now. You store an attribute (like weight, strength, memory, etc.) in something, then later you can draw it out again. The difference between this and feruchemy: The more valuable something is, the more you can store in it. For example, something like a diamond or gold could store more than something like a pen or a boot. Also, when tapping (I'm still going to be using feruchemical terms though. It's easier than thinking up my own), the thing holding the attribute blackens and crumbles (you can only store in solid objects). The more valuable something is, the slower it crumbles. Also, when the attribute is stored, it becomes blank. By this I mean that you could store something like a memory and tap something like strength. In other words, you don't have to tap what you stored. However, there is a problem of efficiency. If you store a physical attribute and tap a cognitive attribute, it is less efficient, you don't get as much out of it and the thing you stored in crumbles faster, so it's better to store physical attributes and tap physical attributes and store cognitive attributes and tap cognitive attributes.

So I'm thinking of making a monster/creature that can basically destroy cities and stuff, but it has to be something that could actually exist. For example, chasmfiends would be allowed, but a dragon wouldn't. Koloss wouldn't be allowed, but koloss-blooded might. It cannot use magic of any kind. So far, I've thought of a huge beast, omnivorous. It has scales made of organic iron and aluminium, as it swallows huge rocks to help grind the stuff it eats. The metals make their way into the scales and bones, making them extremely hard. When it sheds it's scales, it eats them to keep the metal in the system. Over decades, it eventually becomes like armour, making it hard to get through to the flesh. It has huge legs with very sharp claws (that comes as a given). It has heightened intelligence with an incredible memory. It has ten legs, each as thick as an old oak and twice as tall. It can spray acid from it's mouth and has four rows of teeth, which contain metal due to it's dietary habits. Please add anything on that you think would make it better, or make a beast of your own!

Ignore this post. I just did a bit more research that makes this irrelevant. Please IGNORE THIS POST!!!

So one of the first things we learn about in White Sand is that Taldain is tidally locked to it's star. This means that the Dayside should be (very) much too hot to live on, and the Nightside should be (very) much too cold to live on. The only reason I can think of that makes at least a little sense is that some of the energy that should be given out from the sun is actually converted into Investiture, which is why Sand always turns white again, if left in the sun. For this to work, lnvestiture would actually have to be a form of energy, as there has to be a lot of energy converted for Taldain not to be too hot, and for it to be converted in the first place, it would have to be a form of energy. However, this means that the Nightside would be even colder. Taldain does not look like a very nice place to live. The only other explanation that i can think of is that Autonomy fiddled with the anatomy of the humans who live there (TLR 2.0) or that he fiddled with the planet, e.g. made the planet with varying levels of thickness in the atmosphere so that the thermal energy reflected by the white sand (some kind of effect, where infrared radiation gets reflected by the colour white, can't remember what it's called), and it gets bounced all the way back to the Nightside. What do you think?

Actually, feruchemy isn't instinctive, it has to be taught. This is why Tindwyl could only use copperminds when she was used as a breeding machine, as she hadn't been taught to use anything else. I might not be remembering correctly though.

Prologue in the paperback version. It's not really a typo, just something that is contradicted in WoR. page 12 and 21 szeth summons his Blade, taking him 10 heartbeats, yet honourblades only take 5 to summon. page 17 szeth says that he can't heal from a cut made by a shardblade, yet both he and kaladin does so in WoR.

Ok, I'm going to start this off by warning you, there are going to be a LOT of spoilers. If you haven't read at least to the end of BoM, please go away lest I spoil Mistborn for you. Still with me? Ok, so I'm going to start off by stating a few simple facts. Allomancy is of Preservation (I don't really like how that sounds, but it'll do for now). Lerasium is also of Preservation. Lerasium makes you able to burn any allomantic metal. Hemalurgy is of Ruin. Atium is of Ruin. Atium can steal anything through hemalurgy. Feruchemy is of Ruin and Preservation, a.k.a. Harmony. Ettmetal is of Harmony. You see where I'm going with this? Were the shard in question not Harmony, I would go about this in a different way, but it is, so this is going to be a whole lot simpler and less guesswork involved. Lerasium and Atium are two God metals, and the magic systems made by the same shard as the shard who made the god metals. This allowed anyone who used them in that magic system could then do anything in that magic system. Since both feruchemy and ettmetal are from the same shard (Harmony), then this should mean that ettmetal should be able to do anything in that magic system, in this case, feruchemy (I'll get onto what that means in a second). You could argue that this is only true for Ruin and Preservation, but Harmony is Ruin and Preservation, so yeah. If Ettmetal were to be able to let you do anything in feruchemy, what would that mean? Well, let's look at what it could mean, explain why, then rule out the ones that seem unlikely. Anyone can tap/store in ettmetalmids Anyone can access whatever is stored in an ettmetalmind Only full feruchemists can use ettmetalminds Any attribute can be stored in an ettmetalmind There may be more that I missed out, but that's it for now. Please tell me of other things it could mean. So, no. 1. I think this might be possible because of the similarities between allomancy and feruchemy. Simply put, lerasium allows anyone to use allomancy. The power is given, which correlates to how allomancy works, the power must be given because Preservation cannot destroy or take. Atium can steal and attribute or power in hemalurgy. This correlates to how hemalurgy works, something must be taken, since Ruin can only destroy. Feruchemy works by both giving and taking. Thus, nothing can be given to the person using the ettmetalmind, so they couldn't magically become a feruchemist. However, if anyone could use the ettmetalmind, that would be a property of the metal, and wouldn't be giving or taking anything to or from the person using the ettmetalmind. Overall, this seems fairly likely. no. 2. This seems pretty unlikely as you can already do that by storing in an aluminiummind (or aluminummind, if you're American), so I'm going to rule it out (for now). 2. Anyone can access whatever is stored in an ettmetalmind no.3 Since I based this off of how only mistborns can use god metals except for lerasium, which is part of Preservation, this is pretty unlikely, as ettmetal is part of harmony. However, the heory may work if it was changed to fit any god metal other than ettmetal in feruchemy. 3. Only full feruchemists can use ettmetalminds no. 4. This may be possible in the same way anyone can become a mistborn if they burn lerasium, so I'm going to leave it on the list for now. So now, we have a theory that Anyone can use an ettmetalmind Any attribute can be stored in an ettmetalmind If anyone has some thoughts on how to improve and refine this theory, or a WoB to back this up or knock it down, or if you just want to say something about it, please reply and say whatever you're going to say.

Thanks! Not sure if that fully clears it up though.