ILuvHats

Yeah, that's something I can do a lot better with. The thing is, I basically just threw this map together. I didn't plan it at all. In fact, I only had 4 of the countries planned out in my head beforehand: the Hakanic Republic, Kanza, Illoria, and Rakar. The other nations just arose as I threw borders down willy nilly. Just seeing the map helped me to develop the nations more and see how they interacted, but most of that came after I made the map. So I guess it was basically just a visual aid I could use to actually figure out how many nations I had, their relative positions, and their attitudes towards each other. But yeah, you make some excellent points. There should definitely be more topography, and the topography, landscape, and natural resources should be what determine the borders of nations. So in future drafts, the aim is to use this map as a model of approximately where I want the nations to be. Topography should be added accordingly, then the borders should be added afterwards to mostly fit them.

Their navy is comparable to Tomaka, but they have less trading vessels. They’re more focused on localized trade and don’t travel as far, relying on neighboring nations to distribute their exports to more distant regions. Thanks for the advice! I’ll definitely take it into consideration when I update the map.

Thanks for the info. I used the attachment feature a long time ago, but I forgot it was there. The upload worked, so everything's good now.

So, this is a map I charted based on a world I’ve been cooking up, which I’ve made previous posts about. It probably makes no sense geographically, so feel free to point out how the map can be changed to be more realistic. If the borders don't look so great, that's because I was using free software and had to improvise. Also, I figured I’d include a "quick" summary of the world and the different nations. You should be fine reading it without reading my previous posts. All you need to know is that the Burnt are people who got turned magical. It’s been centuries since catastrophe struck the world, leading to the first Burnt, and Scolaris is divided in half. Political tensions have been rising for the last 50 years, and a global war seems inevitable. Industrialization is spreading, heralding both a golden age of innovation as well as an arms race of epic proportions. Amidst the rising tensions, civil strife rages through territories yet to choose a side, as the position of Burnt in society is hotly debated. All of Scolaris on edge, and a single spark could set the world on fire. The Southern Bloc The Kanzic Alliance (probably not the final name) Neutral Territories

Is there an easy way to post an image in a topic (not in the gallery)? I tried copy and pasting a jpeg file, but the image didn't appear after I submitted the topic. Just to clarify, the image isn't online, it's on my drive.

What? I only count 10 digits in your previous post. Must have missed a few zeros.

That's less than a third of the world's population. Easy. I'd be in too.

Ah, but everyone has forgotten about marketing. I can imagine an instance where 20 people get together and spend a decade extracting their belly button lint and putting it into a jar. Once they reach a certain threshold, they can get it into the Guinness Book of World Records. And even something as stupid as a ball of belly button lint could be auctioned off if it set a world record.

Thanks for the input! I think I'll steal 'The First Burning' as a name (it sounds pretty cool). I thought I'd let you know since I'll be making a post pretty soon where I use the term.

Interesting post, but it should probably be in the Stormlight forum instead of this one. Hopefully a mod will get around to moving it soon.

Most definitely. I can only remember one instance in the books when women wore fingerless gloves, and it was at a disreputable bar. Pretty sure it was during a Szeth interlude in WoK. So I imagine it's the equivalent of a showing a lot of cleavage. Probably not proper during concerts or what not.

Not well. Few percussion instruments can be played one handed. Timpani, snare, drumset, keyboard instruments (i.e. marimba, xylophone, vibraphone), crash cymbals, and many more all require two hands. Vorin women could still play most of them, though, as long as they used a glove. Which might be what you meant? I'm not sure.

Well, I play piano, and I would be interested, but I live 30 hours away. So that probably wouldn't work .

Welcome! Fanart is awesome, and I'm looking forward to what you draw/paint/etc. What's your favorite book by Brandon?

Let’s see... 1. I don’t want Shallan and Adolin’s relationship to be smooth sailing. I’m really hoping for some conflict there. 2. I really, really want Adolin’s/Renarin’s reaction to Dalinar’s book to be dived into. I don’t want it to happen like the repercussions of Adolin murdering Sadeas, which was quickly brushed aside. I’m not criticizing that arc, but I don’t want it to happen again in this particular case. 3. I don’t want to not see more Ghostbloods. Please Shallan, interact with them more, and tell Jasnah about them! I’m really hoping to see her relationship with Jasnah grow more than it did in OB.

It's still something that people debate. I knew there was something I was missing! Thanks for the info.

Whenever somebody brings up fighting a Fullborn, one of the most popular answers is using a team of Elsecallers to transition to the cognitive realm and then soulcast the Fullborn from there. However, how do we know Elsecallers are even capable of soulcasting physical objects while in Shadesmar? I can’t think of any examples of this being done in the books, or any WoBs confirming this. Chances are I’m just being thick, so please let me know what I’m missing.

Or, you know, the Fullborn could just steelrun the hell out of there. We’ve no reason to believe shades can move that much faster than people, so they’ll soon move beyond the range of the shades enraged by blood. And we don’t know how shades would react to steel running, or whether they’d even be able to register it as running simply due to how fast it is. If it doesn’t register as running, all the fullborn has to do is stop a dozen or so miles from the bloodshed. If the shades react to it like normal running, the worst case scenario is that the fullborn has to get to a safe zone like Silence’s inn.

Whoops. Idk what I was thinking. Sorry about that.

I think Karger assumed you’ve read some cosmere before Mistborn since you’ve already made over a hundred posts on the forums.

Huh, I read 5 of the 10 books/series you listed this year as well. Plus, the Burning White is the next book I'm planning on reading, though I doubt I'll both start and finish it in the two days left until the end of the year. Pretty good list I'd say.

N. K. Jemisin is an excellent choice if you’re looking for more serious SFF. She definitely straddles the line between literary and genre fiction. I’ve read her most recent series, the Broken Earth Trilogy, and it was absolutely brilliant. She did some crazy stuff narratively, and somehow made it work. In fact, every single book in the series won the Hugo award for best novel that year, making Jemisin the first author to do so three years consecutively. Brandon’s also recommended an earlier series of hers, the Inheritance Trilogy (not to be confused with Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle). So she’s definitely one to consider if your friend wants something a little more highbrow than a lot of fantasy.

It's time someone posted a topic about it. The show came out a week ago, and we've had time to go through it. Personally, I really enjoyed it. For me, the highlight was definitely the cast. Henry Cavill did an awesome job as Geralt. From past movies, I think he's a good actor, but not fantastic. He doesn't have the versatility or range of a lot of the topic actors and actresses. However, considering he's a fan of the video games as well as the books, it looks like he really committed to the role, and my reaction coming out of the show is "that's Geralt." There were maybe a few times when his acting felt a little exaggerated, but he constantly bled Geralt, and I feel confident saying he nailed the role. Anya Chalotra though, she was brilliant as Yennifer. Honestly, I think she's the best actor/actress out of the main three characters. She has a lot of versatility and acting chops, and I loved seeing her change in personality as she became a sorceress. Hopefully this will prove to be a breakout role for her. Moving on to Ciri, I think Freya Allan did a good job. There were a few scenes that she killed, though her inexperience due to her age was rather apparent. Not the best performance, but I'm looking forward to watching both her character and her acting skills grow throughout the series. Last, I just want to say that I loved Joey Batey as Jaskier. His introductory scene was hilarious, and his chemistry with Geralt was spot on. Something else the show did really well was the fight scenes. No, they weren't realistic sword fights, but they were cinematic and much better than what we've seen in a lot of other fantasy adaptations. The fight in episode 1 was one of the best, and I'm glad it was there because that episode wasn't my favorite. My interest didn't spike until episode 2. And that brings me to one of my complaints. Out of the scenes that I recognized from the books, the show often failed to bring the complexity of the situation shown in the books, and this was most apparent to me in episode 1. Geralt's part of the episode felt rushed, and though it touched on the themes of the original story, it didn't feel meaty enough. I understand that in this medium the original stories need to be abbreviated, but it should still have been possible to bring more nuance to a lot of the stories. Hopefully, now that the character origins are out of the way and the timelines are all aligned, more time can be given to portraying the complexity of such situations and stories. Another complaint I've heard is that the non-chronological order of the episodes was confusing. I didn't have a problem with that. True, I've read the 1st book, but honestly, I don't think it helped too much with figuring out when stuff happened. Ciri isn't even mentioned in the 1st book, and we only see Yennifer towards the end. It helped a bit, but I feel like people who were completely unfamiliar with the source familiar should still have been able to figure out what was going on. In fact, I'm pleased that the producers trusted the audience enough to not post time stamps everywhere. Overall, I found it very enjoyable, and the show has a lot of potential to grow. I'd rate it somewhere between a 7 and a 7.5 out of 10. Since I've only read the 1st book, and that was in preparation for the series, I'm not the best equipped to compare the show to the books, so I'm looking forward to hearing the opinions of people who've read more of the books or played the games. Hopefully I'll be caught up with the books by the time season 2 comes out.