Bigmikey357

Wayne is great, don't get me wrong. And I enjoy the twisted ways of his mind. With that in mind I think that we get enough Wayne, that too much of him would backfire and make a lesser book. Serious matters need a serious protagonist and Wax is that in spades. Plus Wayne needs a straight man to play off of or he gets annoying. IMO.

To add to this, I don't think that we see much of Cultivation because our viewpoints are focused primarily on Alethkar, more focused on Honor and the Heralds. I believe that there is mention that Cultivation is worshipped more in the west, in places where the highstorms aren't as strong.

The difference between the potential conflict and the American Civil War is that in this conflict the side with the weaker infastructure are the aggressors instead of the defenders. It can be argued that as soon as the South turned to aggressive tactics in northern territory they began to lose the war. Hence they would not try to meet them in open battle. We have been given one crucial piece of information: Elendel cannot feed itself. Even a single dam breaking causes supply issues. That offers a clear strategy to the outer Basin: Blockade and starvation. If the Elendel armies advance, as they must, you use the advantage defence has and slowly give ground using scorched earth tactics That's an excellent point and would likely be the opening gambit in the conflict. That advantage flips however as soon as Elendel takes an outer settlement or 2 and secures it's supply lines. Plus it would be hard for the outer settlements to project a united front with only the telegraph for rapid communication. Subdue the settlements in piecemeal, either by direct martial dominance or offering favored status through diplomatic relations and the war is over within a year.

The problem with gaming out a war scenario on Era 2 Scadrial in the way the OP proposes is that the sides of the conflict aren't remotely even unless you include the Southerners. In a war strictly between the Basin and the outer settlements, the outer settlements are at a strict disadvantage. They don't have the population or the resources to win against the Basin. They would have to carry out a devastating surprise attack at the onset of the conflict to have any sort of chance to even the odds. That may have a chance of success considering that Elendel is centralized, but one of the leading figures in the city has been apprised of the threat and is surely taking that threat seriously. Makes it more difficult to cripple the infastructure of a prepared enemy if one does not have an edge in either numbers or technical superiority. The more scary, and frankly the more even matchup would be a united basin versus the Southerners, a war that pits magic vs. technology. The warfare comp is WWII, or just before. No instant come, no radio means not quite WWII but magic already makes trench warfare obsolete. In this scenario technical advancement happens rapidly as both sides of the conflict are under pressure to seek advantage. Unfortunately for the Basin, the war likely gets fought on their home turf. The South will have air superiority for the entire conflict. Unfortunately for the Southerners, there is nothing truly esoteric or complicated about their tech, it can be suborned and/or sabotaged rather easily for metalborn. And if the Basin gets ahold of primer cubes to project their allomancy outward the South could have a very bad day at the office.

The difference between a metalmind and a piece of Shardplate is that the metal in a metalmind is not changed by the addition of Investiture. Gold is still gold regardless if it's storing health or not. Meanwhile Shardplate, whatever it is made of, it won't be Shardplate anymore if one changes it to something else. Shardplate isn't holding Investiture, it is Investiture.

Frost sums it up nicely. "He bears the weight of God's own divine hatred, seperated from the virtues that gave it context. He is what we made him to be, old friend. And that is what he, unfortunately, wished to become."

My guess is that Shardplate is both Stormlight and lesser spren. The Nahel Bonded spren, say Syl for example, creates the framework, the bones of the suit. The lesser spren fill in that framework, thus coding their identities to that framework. Stormlight powers the machine. Why don't outside observers actually see the spren? I think that you would if you were looking into the Cognitive. In the Physical all you see is the spren adhering to the framework provided by the HSIC (head spren in charge). For me, I cannot see how dead plate wouldn't have disappeared after the Recreance if it were just condensed Stormlight. There's nothing inherent in Stormlight for it to naturally revert to nearly sentient armor.

Let's say Vin dumps that Elend loser, only now she's a little lonely. So she fires up the Coppernet and builds herself a profile. Name: Vin the Ascendant Age: Forever 21 Sex: Female Height: Good things in a small package Likes: Metal, flying, mists, exercise, challenging kills, parties (surprisingly) Dislikes: Body piercings, megalomania, books, oppressive governments, caverns Note: must love dogs, Steel Inquisitors need not apply, please do not worship me.

Universal Shades

@RShara and I disagree on the formation of Shardplate. I happen to be in the camp that believes that it's formed from lesser, cousin spren. Unfortunately we're just going to have to RAFO because the texual evidence both for and against is vague at best, likely an intentional choice by Brandon. We could perhaps discuss the reason I feel the way I do and refute the points other detractors have brought up but I think we covered that in a previous thread.

Ok this game is a simple one. I'm a Cosmere character and I'm looking for love. Pick a character and write out their eHarmony profile.

It would be easier and more effective I think, if the progression user carried a bag of seeds with them. Face an enemy, tossa handful of seeds and either have them grow into something substantial to distract an enemy or have them grow into entangling Vines to immobilize them.

That depends on whether or not this park is in the Cosmere or on Earth. If on Earth: We should have normal carnival type foods, cotton candy hot dogs burgers and the like. Franchises should also be available. Starbucks should figure prominently I feel. If in Cosmere: I think each Shardworlds should get a park and FCoG should serve local fare. The thing with that is not many planets have easy access to travel yet. I mean a family in the Rose Empire isn't traveling to Elantris just for a play day for example. As of this posting the only two world's we know of that could pull this park off are Roshar and Scadrial. If Sel's magic were not geographically locked I would add them to the list since there is an instant travel aon. Hey, maybe it can be like Disneyland, where you get one when you become a full part of the global community. So when a planet becomes sufficiently advanced enough they will clamor for a Cosmere Theme Park franchise.

Have any of you guys seen the Hemalurgy chart yet? It is indeed true that, according to Brandon, a Lerasium spike steals everything (for a given value of everything) while atium spikes only steal one attribute with very little loss of charge. In a way it's like a universal spike which makes sense since it's like the foundation metal for the magic system.

Because of the sound one imagines it making. Zzzzzzz and so forth.

Yes. That and how he draws people to him even when they aren't initially into it like the awakened Singers or his Bridge 4 peeps.

Isn't that basically what Dalinar is doing as Bondsmith and what Kaladin does by being in an adjacent Order?

Chouta must be a staple product in the Food Court of the Gods, and for cultural appropriation purposes there could be a contest of themed chouta from different shardworlds. For non Food related thoughts, how about Lazer tag based loosely on Sel's Cognitive Realm. For map and monetary thoughts, I think that there should be a common area with a little bit of everything Cosmere and your base ticket covers only that area. It's going to have the rollercoaster stuff,some kid friendly stuff and of course the Food Court of the Gods. But if you pay a little more you can get activities exclusive to the shardworlds. That's where I'd put something like Rules of Threnody haunted house or Tarachin from Nalthis. The most expensive ticket, the VIP ticket gives you access to everything. Some of us are completists and will be compelled to grab the VIP tickets, some only really like Scadrial or Roshar or whatever and will buy the tickets to get into those areas only. Some will just have a good time with the family at the base park. Here's how I see it. Me and my friends go to the Cosmere theme park. Each of us bought a kicker ticket. One of us bought a metalborn ticket for access to the Scadrial exclusive area, one bought a surgebinder kicker, yet another bought a kicker ticket for Aviar Alley and so on. We all agree to meet back up at the Gods Court after an hour or so. One of my guys doesn't make the rondevous because he splurged on the Adonalasium ticket. We have to call him and drag him away from the Shades so we can stroll through the Ars Arcanum museum (in the base park) before heading home. A good time was had by all, although a couple of us wish we would have just bought the Adonalasium ticket and stop being cheapskates.

ItIt seems to me that the practitioners of the magic systems created by a Shard in the vicinity of a particular place in the Physical Realm would gain the most benefits from actions that are in accordance with the Shard. (Act with Honor and Honor will aid you). The benefits to the Shard in question seem minimal and do not relate to the power it can bring to bear. However it could be said that the benefits come from these practitioners depending on the goal of the Shard. From my observations Shards are generally stalemated by other Shards due to promises made between them that they cannot break or them holding an equal amount of power. Direct Shardic clashes result in injuries that cannot heal. Likely the only real way for a Shard to accomplish it's goals with little risk to their person is to work through sapient agents. Empower them and give them instructions to carry out their will. They can empower directly like Honor and the Heralds or govern the transfer through a set of predetermined rituals like the magics on Sel. The instructions can be specific or indirect. But on some level every magic user in the Cosmere goes through this process, and it's mostly a crapshoot as the Shards can't strip away what they've granted. It's what Sazed does with Wax, what Cultivation does and what Odium attempts to do with Dalinar. It's what Edgli does for Lightsong. Maybe the phrase 'Act with Honor and Honor will aid you' is an incomplete statement. The rest of it should read 'because it's in Honor's best interest to so'. One strange implecation of this is that Shards seem to have goals regardless of whether or not they have a vessel. A vessel less Shard has two goals as far as I can tell. To proliferate by granting power to those who align with the Intent of the Shard. Next, to acquire and possibly groom a new vessel. Once they get a Vessel then they get more complex goals like killing all other Shards or building a planet. Strangely, the first goal never seems to go away.

However it works initially, a way to make it work in a way as a shortcut to learning the language for real is using a recording device and reviewing the information. Put on the medallion and record yourself in a conversation. Take the medallion off and watch recording. Repeat as necessary.

I imagine the flesh Soulcasters develop tumors while those who specializes in liquids liquify from inside out until one becomes a puddle.

Another concern the NBC should be aware of is the accumulation of Breath by other functionally immortal entities from other Cosmere aware persons. Hoid, Frost, the Heralds of Roshar, the Kandra and Steel Inquisition of Scadrial, even various Shard Vessels of Adonalasium. The record keeping must be extensive to prevent other entities from disruptive actions to the system for any concievable purpose or no purpose at all. To this end, Ms. Edgli should be encouraged to involve herself in the management of her Investiture and to enforce policy in cases of emergency. Her involvement should not be day to day, yet she should be available on an on call basis.

I tend to look at Bondsmiths in terms of tiers. Tier 1 is the basic powers, nothing particularly special from any other type of Radiant. Their surges are Adhesion and Tension and even if one accounts for the spiritual application of the surges what they have is still pretty basic, nothing to single the order out as the greatest Radiants. Tier 2 are the connection powers, the ones that the SF mentions to Dalinar. We don't know exactly what they are capable of (Stormfather doesn't like specifics apparently) but it must be awesome. From what I can tell, the Tier 2 powers are the result of bonding with an Investiture source so large that it can contain the cognitive shadow of a Shard. The default setting in Tier 2 is deputy Vessel. Dalinar is of course not on the default setting but if Nightwatcher or Sibling (or other candidates if at all possible) gets a Bagel bond then we'll get a baseline on the typical power of a Bondsmith. I expect to be amazed. Then there's Tier 3, the extra bit, the basic tenant of my theory. I believe that there is at least one thing that only a bondmate to the Sibling has the ability to do. I believe that there is at least one thing that only a bondmate to the Nightwatcher has the ability to do. Same with the Stormfather before the death of Honor and definitely now. It won't be an extensive list of abilities, just something that ties into the duties the these guys perform when they aren't bound to anyone.

Personally I think Lightweavers are devastating enough with just light and sound waves. Percussive explosions and lasers are enough to level many battlefields without having to reach for higher/lower wavelengths like gamma on one end or x-ray on the other.

I have been thinking about Bondsmiths and the spren they bond with for a while now, specifically about the power these spren grant their bondmates. It takes no great leap in logic to wonder why. Look at how the Stormfather describes the power he grants to Dalinar: "Yours is the power Ishar once held. Before he was Herald of Luck, they called him Binder of Gods. He was the founder of the Oathpact. No Radiant is capable of more than you. Yours is the power of Connection, of joining men and worlds, minds and souls. Your Surges are the greatest of all, though they will be impotent if you seek to wield them for mere battle." Amazing right? But in this post I'd like to highlight a possible feature to the Bondsmiths and the power they wield that may be an added bonus, implied rather than explicit. Pure speculation, emphasis mine: “But as for the Bondsmiths, they had members only three, which number was not uncommon for them; nor did they seek to increase this by great bounds, for during the times of Madasa, only one of their order was in continual accompaniment of Urithiru and its thrones. Their spren was understood to be specific, and to persuade them to grow to the magnitude of the other orders was seen as seditious. ” I highlight this particular passage because the bondsmith spren defy classification. In every other order one can pinpoint a general shape of what the spren of that order will look like, including characteristics, tendencies, and abilities. Honorspren are blue, playful, and can hide their presence in the Physical Realm from all but a few people. Cryptics have the distinctive symbol heads, can change size and shape but not go invisible in the Physical Realm, and hum when they hear lies. Inkspren can hide in the Physical, but when showing cannot change form, only size, and they are ultimately logical. I could do this for almost every order, spit out facts that differentiate them from other spren, other orders, based on what we find in the text. The point is that there are commonalities among them. Those spren who grant Bondsmith powers are different in that they defy typical classification. The only commonalities they share are that they hold more Investiture than any being on the planet who isn't a Shard and they grant Bondsmith powers to those they bond. After that the similarities end abruptly. We have met 2 of the Bondsmith spren in the text, Stormfather and Nightwatcher, and they could not be more different, either in appearance, temperament, and what would likely attract them. We haven't met the Sibling yet but it seems like it has a different function than the others as well. Take a look at another quote, emphasis mine: "So Melishi retired to his tent, and resolved to destroy the Voidbringers upon the next day, but that night did present a different stratagem, related to the unique abilities of the Bondsmiths; and being hurried, he could make no specific account of his process; it was related to the very nature of the Heralds and their divine duties, an attribute the Bondsmiths alone could address." Unique Abilities. That may not be evidence, but it is a slight indication that Bondsmiths are a bit different. In my mind they cannot just be talking about their regular surges, Adhesion and Tension in that quote. Even the combination of the two amounts to what Stormfather once referred to as a 'party trick'. Well enough preamble, Maybe-Not-So-Crazy Theory time. I have come to believe that Bondsmiths get abilities outside the traditional powers of their order based on which Mega-Spren they bond. I do not know what these abilities are so the speculation must come from what the Spren can do. For the Stormfather he grants his Bondsmith the ability to far see, i.e. he can get a real time video feed of any region the Highstorm touches. For the Nightwatcher it's uncertain, but she has been delegated the task of granting the boons and curses of the Old Magic. Any special ability she would grant to her Bondsmith, I would imagine it would be related to that. We know that the Sibling powered Urithiru and that in the past a Bondsmith was in permanent residence there. Would it grant its Bondsmith the ability to monitor anything going on in that city? All of these abilities fall outside any conceivable application of Adhesion or Tension, even if we attempt to factor in Spiritual Realm shenanigans. It sounds far fetched but we've seen Dalinar display some unique abilities that fall outside what his surges could account for already. Now I'm sure that there are functions that both fall outside what a Bondsmith's surges account and are possible for any Bondsmith to perform. Super Charging spheres according to one WOB is one such ability that all bondsmiths have. For the Stormfather to call Bondsmiths the most capable of Radiants has to mean something, right? I'm just thinking that unique spren with unique functions should grant different abilities as well. Tell me what you guys think.