Inevitable

I think the Way of Kings would work well as an RTS in the mould of the Total War series. Players can choose one of the High Princes to play as and either fight the Parshendi, or other High Princes (a little creative license for more interesting gameplay). Each High Prince has its own specialities, such as Dalinar having stronger Heavy Infantry, and Sadeas moving about the map faster (due to Bridge Crews). I thought of an open world style RPG for Elantris, employing the Aon rune drawing. Players assign chosen runes to hotkeys (or buttons. I'm a PC player myself). When they use a rune, the player character draws it in the air. Upgrade the rune for added effects, which cause it to take longer, or upgrade the player's speed at drawing it. Could work even better on the DS, with the player actually drawing the rune themselves. The hotkey option is still there, but the player can pause the game and draw one themselves. Depending on how accurate it is, the player drawn rune can be much stronger than the hotkeyed one. ------------------- The thing with Sanderson's magic systems is they suit computer games unbelievably well. The limitations are all clearly spelled out. The magic is simple to grasp, yet vast in effects. I've not touched Mistborn, since it's actually in development, and been discussed a lot already. But the only series that wouldn't translate well is the more vague Warbreaker. The magic system there seems far less understood. Also it'd be impossible to implement that ability to see all the shades of a colour.

"If a tree falls in the woods and there's no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Personal bias. This is a typical example of Anthropocentrism. Essentially it's that humans have a habit of perceiving themselves as the centre of all things. And yes, I do include myself in this. Everyone does it, without even realising it. It's even in the name: "Human" confers a notion of "humanity". We've named ourselves after an ideal. I'd imagine a hypothetical alien would find this terminology insulting. Anyway, though you don't specifically refer to humanity, but rather the nebulous concept of "life", you do go on to define its importance based on the the observation and understanding of the universe by our species. You argue that you'd rather have no gravity than no life. But this is meaningless. If there was no life, the Universe wouldn't ground to a halt. Everything keeps spinning whether we're around to watch it or not. What's more is you're not even talking about Life in the same way we were before. Then it was Life as a healing force. A magic clearly based in the Physical Realm. Now you're talking about intelligence and observation. Clearly Cognitive and Spiritual, which I said earlier I'd rather not deal with, as both of those are completely fictional. Therefore the importance of "Thought" (to discern it from the healing, physical aspected, "Life") within the cosmere can be discussed all you want.

I wouldn't describe Soulcasting as a "product" of matter as such. Soulcasting is, rather, the mastery of matter and the bonds that make it up. Stormlight is like a drug. When it's in your system it effectively replaces the normal sources of energy, including oxygen. What it provides is a super version, enhancing your physical body. The other systems operate on the same principle. They don't enhance "Life", they enhance the body's properties. You could argue that those are the same thing, but I've already pointed out that healing is basically just Soulcasting but with added complexities. Making it a unique surge in these circumstances would be like making Weight different to Gravity. There's just no point. Of course, I admit that there may end up being a Life surge. I just think the idea is absurd. But that's the point really. Surely you see why I think this without me explaining it? You must be able to tell that Life just isn't as... important as the other things. It doesn't, as such, deserve to be in the same tier as Gravity and Pressure.

Ok, "mystical energy" was a poor choice of words. It's more... Gravity is a thing, it can be identified as this single phenomina, revolving around mass and pulling forces Pressure is a thing as well. Concentrations, volume, that stuff. Travel is... too uncertain right now to say anything about. Might be to do with dimensions and warping reality... Soulcasting is also difficult to work out. Presumably it could be described as Matter. Which is something clear Time (unconfirmed) is a thing. The progression of past to future. "Life" is just a set of reactions. It has no inherent power, indeed, would appear to be just a product of Matter, and therefore should be subject to Soulcasting, which is why Soulcasting can, infact heal.

Except the force that keeps your body running and is responsible for natural healing is chemistry. Pressure may not be fundamental, as such, but it... actually this is too hard to explain. I'll leave it at this: I just don't see life as being important on the cosmic scale of things. There's no mystical energy working behind the scenes that allows things to live, there's nothing out there for a surge to tap into and use.

My personal opinion is that part of it is a videolog. Most notably the vision where Honor talks to him for more than a few words. The REST of it isn't a log. Dalinar clearly shows that he can interact with the visions. Since Honor is dead by this point, he cannot be manipulating it to make sense in that context, or he could respond to Dalinar's questions. Thus I conclude that Dalinar is being subjected to a Time Surge (that may or may not be an ability of his own) that is showing him possible pasts. Specifically, a key event, chosen by Honor, then branches into whatever path that describes how that period would have gone had Dalinar actually been in control. A sort of varient of Malatium, but for the past and with the ability to control what you see. This enables Dalinar to extract far more information from the visions that if he were simply watching them play out.

There's been no real evidence that it is. There ARE those Cognitive and Spiritual things. But that has, by definition, nothing to do with the physical body, and therefore Regrowth. So while the mind/spirit and actions of the living may have profound importance in the cosmere, the body does not. The body is just a collection of biochemical reactions, hardly an "elemental force" worthy of a surge. Sanderson has, both in Mistborn and here, made a clear effort to produce almost scientific magic systems. If this were to be upheld I can't see any way Life could be a surge. Something that's just occured to me: It's argued that Time is not the Surge involved in regrowth, however we know that the KR orders all possessed two surges. Could Regrowth be a product of Time and Soulcasting, which we've already seen to have healing properties?

It's not important though. I mean, sort of yes, but it's just a series of chemical reactions. The confirmed Surges are pressure, matter [transformation], and gravity. These are fundamental components of the Universe. "Life" is, as far as the Universe is concerned, a wholly unimportant side-effect of other forces. It is not, in any way, relevant to the grander scheme of things. It just doesn't make any sense putting it with Gravity and the likes. A lot of this was recently discussed in the Regrowth thread actually. I also mentioned my own reasons for why I think there's a Time Surge there (in short; Dalinar's visions of the past).

Though only those with Shardblades appear to feel the "Thrill" you should remember that there are only 4 main, male, characters that the book follows. Szeth is probably too miserable to feel anything but self-pity in battle, and Kaladin is too restrained by his own honour. The other two are the shardblades. When the Thrill is discussed I'm pretty sure it claims that all men feel it, not just shard-wielders. Also, back to Szeth, he has a Shardblade yet feels no Thrill. As a final point from me, I'm really not fond of this idea that shardblades are somehow derived from Odium. As I understand it, the whole thing is derived from Kaladin and Syl's distaste of them. Remember, though, Kaladin also rejected the shardplate Amaram now has. If the shardblade was the source of his unease, he could have rejected that and still kept the plate. The counter argument would be that Syl focusses on the fact Dalinar gives up the sword at the end of the book, and doesn't mention the plate. At this point, I don't think Dalinar HAS given up the plate, and even then, he's just giving it to his son. It's not really as lost to him as the sword becomes. There could be any number of simpler reasons why Syl dislikes shards, or Shardblades if you prefer to think there's a distinction. They could be symbolic to her of the Recreance. The betrayal by the Knights Radient, and therefore a loss of honour. Or perhaps the betrayal has been mis-understood by history. In which case, I've argued elsewhere that the Shards may be viewed as very valuable, almost holy items. Potentially they are unique to each shardbearer, or have to be earned in a complex ceremony. Either way, whenever they're used by someone who's not a KR she sees that person as a thief... or dishonourable.

I can't see anything like that. But it might be due to a smaller map. Can you screenshot it? Also while I'm here, why is there a woman on the borders of that map. Is it just decoration? *peers closer* She seems to have one of those safe-hand cover things, so I'm guessing it is.

During one of the Kaladin's Past chapters he and his family are depicted living in a settlement where most people are farmers. It also wouldn't make sense if there were no farms. It'd be impossible to support a civilisation of the size we see in WOK without them, Soulcasters or not. Plants grow on the rocky landscape of Roshar. That's farmable right there. Soil is not a required component.

Only when being tapped.

/ So what would happen if you were already holding the potential opponent, and then tried to push them at high speed?

... Which raises the interesting question of would that break the Steelrunner's hand? We know that hitting someone would cause major damage to the Steelrunner and throwing is effectively the low-mass version of hitting. And if that IS the case, shouldn't the Steelrunner's clothes cause hidious bruising? Hmm... or am I being tired-induced stupid? The rock would accelerate with the hand holding it... as long as you don't try hitting it mid-air there wouldn't be any effect? Bah, I'll think more on this in the morning.

Actually, we know that Lerasium does create Mistborns and it's alloys create Mistings (Ferrings aren't mentioned at all, and it'd be more likely that they'd be related to the hypothetical Sazedium, since Feruchemy is a product of both Preservation AND Ruin). We also know that it does "something else" as well. As in, an actual effect. Though we haven't learned what any of these alloys actually do, we have been told that Lerasium grants further Physical or Enhancement effects to the base alloy. Atium, which we do have one example of, grants further Temporal or Mental effects. Consider Gold, which grants a vision of a different path the user could have taken. Its Atium alloy, Malatium, adds a further temporal effect, by granting a vision of another person's past.