Thought

This is a triumph! In fact, I will make a note right here: Huge Success! It really is hard to overstate my satisfaction. Administrator science: you do what you must because you can. For the good of all of us, except the ones who are banned. But, well, there's no use crying over every mistake, you just keep rioting our fanboyish passions until you run out of zinc. But the posting gets done, and the theories are a lot of fun, for the people who are still alive. Regarding your absence, I'm not even angry. I'm being so sincere right now. Even though you broke our hearts and left us. And left us in pieces. And threw every piece into a fire (metaphorically speaking, of course). As we burned (metaphorically) it hurt because we were missing you so. But now, your points of reputation are making a beautiful line, and you're back from wherever, you're posting on time. So, I guess that I'm glad that we got burned (again, metaphorically) because, well, look at all the things we learned in your absence. For the people who are still alive, of course. And if you feel the need to disappear again, well, go ahead and leave us. I think we'd prefer to stay behind. Maybe you'll find some other author to be a fan of. Maybe John Scalzi... the was a joke, ha ha, fat chance. Anyway, this forum is great, its so vibrant and active. Look at me still blabbering when I'm sure you've got some posting to do. When I look at the admins, it makes me glad I'm not you. You've got threads to read, there is theorizing to be done, with the people who are still alive. So, in conclusion, I wanted to say that I believe you when you say that you are still alive, yet this begs the following questions: 1) Are you doing science while you are still alive? 2) Do you feel FANTASTIC while you are still alive? 3) When we are dying, will you be still alive? 4) And when we are dead, will you be still alive? 5) Are you still alive? 6) And most importantly, are you ?

Flameo, hotman!

I'd wondered about that myself, but it seems to go against the nature of hemalurgy. That is, hemalurgy brings nothing of its own to the table, it only steals from other power sources. Thus, it makes sense that it would steal allomancy according to how allomancy is arranged, and it would likewise steal from feruchemy based on how feruchemy is arranged. It would be a bit too... positive if hemalurgy had its own perspective. Of course, that's just my perspective: there isn't firm evidence one way or the other (yet). Edit: As for pewter and brass possibly stealing the same feruchemical abilities, I'd be inclined to suspect that one would steal the physical realm's "physical" powers and the other would steal the physical realms "mental" powers. That is, storing memories and storing, say, identity would be realmatically different, even though we might normally classify them as being products of our brains.

First things first, upvote because I love that clip. Second, yes, it has been true and still actually continues to be so. Science is an interesting case because, despite the tomfoolery that abounds, it is still quite free. What is ethical and what is unethical is still controlled by scientists, even the government funding agencies are staffed largely by respected scientists (the current head of the NIH, for example, is Francis Collins, the guy responsible for completing the human genome project). For all the willingness of politicians to prohibit the teaching of Evolution in schools, none have tried to prohibit the use of Evolution theory in science. New scientists are minted with the approval of old scientists, their research is left to what they would pursue and what the funding institutions will support, etc. The most significant infringement on science was the ban on embryonic stem cell research, but even that was just limiting government funding, and even then it only denied the creation of new embryonic stem cell lines, not the continued research on existing lines. Science does currently have a PR problem, but that hasn't yet broken down the professional status of the field. Of course, science has always been a strongly professionalized field, whereas teaching, by its inherent nature, is a weakly professionalized one. It is most kind to professionals in other fields who wish to come teach, and to teachers who wish to leave for other fields. This has unfortunately resulted in education being perceived as a fallback profession, rather than a profession in its own right. This is quite illogical in itself, since there is no profession more critical to the social welfare, professional vitality, or the economic prosperity of a people than teaching.

Well, Feruchemy is divided into four quadrants that are arranged realmatically. Two for the physical realm, one for the spiritual, and one for the cognative. Since brass and pewter already steal the physical quadrants, it seems logical that the two other feruchemical spike metals would steal cognative or spiritual feruchemy. If gold is valid, then it would steal one of those. This also mean electrum should steal temporal allomancy.

I'm surprised that, given the Doctor Who love shown early on, no one's branched out. Matt Smith has that perfect lankiness and absentmindedness for Elend. Arthur Darvill may be a bit on the old side, but he generally looks and acts exactly like Spook should. John Barrowman would also be well suited to the irritating optimism of Kelsier. And finally, Burn Gorman's unique face would be brilliant with Inquisitor spikes.

It is a curious matter. Teachers are trained professionals. Parents, simply put, are not. There are parents who are, for one reason or another, themselves educated sufficiently to be able to intelligibly comment on the teaching process, but these individuals are the exception rather than the rule. Why, then, is education the only industry in which we allow uninitiated, uneducated, and unskilled passersby to meddle? This doesn't apply just to parents, as politicians do it too, but the former are most relevant here. As a society, we grant parents the right to determine their own child's education. Yet, what maltrickery is this, that the parents of a single child can deny a classroom full of the children of others (and the subsequent generations that the teacher would have taught) the experience of a Science Fiction classic like Ender's Game?

Good point, Odium. A gas attack, for example, could prove to be quiet effective against a slider, provided that the misting doesn't have a gas mask handy, for that very same reason. One really just needs to make sure that the slider is in a no-win scenario.

You are over looking the simple fact that flamethrowers have been proven to be effective against normal human soldiers. A slider has no particular advantage in escaping a flamethrower over that of a normal human being, since their powers wouldn't let them "dodge" it like they might a bullet, nor would their powers deflect fire like it would a bullet. If a flamethrower can kill a normal person effectively (and we know they can), then they can kill a slider effectively.

AoL already gave us the answer: flames. Or, more pragmatically, a flamethrower. You want something that will utterly consume the area, if only for a brief moment (like the explosion that nearly took out our favorite lawman). The slider's bubble will make the flames slow down, from their perspective, but as long as one can encompass the entire bubble (about 5 feet diameter, if I recall correctly), that will just delay the inevitable. In the words of Peter Vincent/David Tennant: "and a [slider] on fire isn't thinking straight."

An Iron(A) Steel(F) twinborn might be rather interesting. Not on the level of The Thing (Pewter/Pewter), The Human Torch (brass/brass), or the Invisible Woman (duralumin/duralumin), of course, but hopefully worth your time. The problem with a lurcher is that they're largely a defensive creature: they can pull metal towards themselves, but that will rarely harm other people, but it can protect them. A twinborn with steel can partially remedy this. The twinborn would start by throwing a bit of metal away from him, then pulling on it. He then would tap steel to get out of the way quickly enough, and the metal would then fly past him. Then, he'd pull on it again, sidestep again, and repeat. Essentially, this would mimic Kelsier's first fight scene in Mistborn, where he kills guards with a paperweight. The need for steel is simply due to the increased demand on positioning: Kelsier had pewter to make him quicker, and steel to push an object as necessary. This twinborn, however, would need something else to help him move quick enough, both to sidestep and to position. Steel is that something else.

I'd "hate" to ignore such a request, Odium! And now, shiver me timbers, it is time for a reply to Shiver-me-tongue! yahar!

Ah, it sounds like your outlines are much more detailed than mine. Mine just give me enough information to have an idea of where a scene takes place, whose in it, and how it adds to the overall story. The in late out early rule also helps prevent you from getting sidetracked with worldbuilding: there's no time for that when the bomb is about to go off/the deathstar is taking potshots at your fleet/Bruce Banner is getting angry. Anywho, that aside, perhaps taking a different approach to your outline would help? The three act format may help you discard those ideas that you don't need. For me, writing a book is more like adding paint to a canvas, but it sounds like for you it is more like taking stone away from a block in order to produce a statue. I'm still listening through the backlog of Writing Excuses, but I don't think they've really touched upon what I like to call the "quest" version of the three act format. Have you played the game Chrono Trigger? It is an excellent example of this (spoilers follow). The game starts out with a "Minor Quest" (save the Princess), during which the basics of the game and the first Major Quest are established (time travel, the ability to change the future, and Magus). That takes us to the ruined future, where the party finds out that their world is doomed and that Lavos is to blame. They find out that Magus made Lavos, and the First Major Quest is underway! The basics of the second major quest start to appear (a red star, dreamstone, a displaced smith, magic, Ozzie's in a pickle, etc). We fight our way to the top of Magus's castle, have an epic fight, and then the twist: Lavos has a different origin. The party finally has their sights set on the right target and the Second Major Quest then focuses on that. So, when you're writing, it might be useful to consider the Three Quest Format. A minor quest is the thing that will motivate your Heroes to go out into the greater world and discover The First Major Quest. Generally, if find that for epic fantasy, the Major quest is too major to not have a minor quest lead-in. WoT did this with having Rand and the others chased from their home. LotRs did this with Frodo being unexpectedly given the Ring. Even Mistborn did this: Vin's last job for her old gang is the minor quest that put her out into the world and got her noticed by Kelsier and the Major Quest. Of course, then they defeat the Lord Ruler and find out that he was, essentially, their Magus who was protecting them from Scadrial's Lavos. Hopefully that is somewhat useful?

Perhaps recreating the map might be easier than simple coloring it? Either way, the Cartographer's Guild is a great place to look for resources and help with the actual down-and-dirty of map making.

Is there anything in particular that is giving you trouble? Its easier to focus comments if there is. I don't have too much advice to offer, since I tend to have trouble forcing myself to complete an outline before I start writing (but I've learned that I'm not the "discovery" writer that I used to think I was, so I try to stick with it). However, perhaps this is a problem for one of two reasons? The first might be that you simply don't know where to start the scene, and the second it that you might not have the confidence to write it. In the first case, I'd recommend thinking about the conflict in your scene. Then, start the scene just as the conflict is heating up. If you are writing about a king meeting with a foreign emissary, start with the meeting already underway and the negotiations deteriorating. Generally, scenes in your story will need to center around a conflict, even if it isn't a major one. That conflict might be a character worrying about how they fit into the group of thieves that they've found themselves in (Vin in early Mistborn), or it might be how people will react when a character has a monitor removed (Ender at the start of Ender's Game). If it is the second case, there's nothing to do but write anyways. I've had a lot of first-chapter disease because I always thought that things could be done better. I'm trying to get over that by just plowing through. It works, as long as I define success by what gets done, rather than my perceived quality of that work. Hope that helps. If that is the case, think about the conflict in your scene (hopefully you have the conflict in you outline: if not, the outline might be

The gridlines are an improvement, but the road/railway/river lines currently seem unncessary, at least until you color the rest of the map. They're a little too bright with everything else a light greyscale. Also, I am not entirely sure that the thin squiggly lines are rivers, rather than old roads. Admittedly, they seem to be rivers, but then you have the thing like the one that starts near Callingfale, just a few miles from a sea. It heads south and eventually through a mountain range. I suppose it is possible that the canyon is actually still downhill for it, but that seems unlikely. And it is odd that inside the basin, none of these lines meet up before Elendel, or go to the sea of Yomend first. That basically necessitates a really strange topography. It is something that could exist, of course, but not something that is at all likely.

However, that wouldn't make the allomancer a hazekiller. We see misting assassins use hazekiller-esq techniques at various points throughout the series: Lurchers in particular use wooden shields to block coins, and those assassins at the start of MB2 used soundmakers in order to disorient Vin. They're still not called hazekillers. Indeed, when one thinks about it, if all it meant to be a hazekiller was to be trained to fight mistings and mistborn, then nearly all physical mistings and mistborn should be hazekillers. The books seem to strongly imply that being a hazekiller is incompatible with being an allomancer. To use your example, while there is nothing to stop a pewterarm or lurcher from fighting in a unit of hazekillers, that wouldn't make them a hazekiller.

While I hope the character of Kelsier himself doesn't show up, I'd appreciate learning more about survivorism, or even seeing Pathians turning him into some sort of divine herald of Harmony (since, presumably, he and Sazed hang out a lot). If he were to show up as an actual character, I think that would need to wait for some sort of pancosmeric story, where the spiritual realm is playing a significant role already. First, sorry, I love languages, so this might be more information than anyone really wants. For "deux," are you familiar with the Greek god, Zeus? Like that, but with a D instead of a Z (actually, the words used to be the same). The e and the u shouldn't really be pronounced separately: they're a diphthong. The "ex" is fairly straight forward. Think of Jack Nicholson as The Joker telling us about Chemical X. "Machina" is a bit trickier because of that "ch" sound. It isn't "ch" as in church, and it isn't "ch" as in chameleon: it is like the ckh in "block head." It's fairly uncommon in English, as you might have guessed from the need to use two separate words to approximate it. If you are ever curious about how to pronounce Latin thingies, like this phrase, I'd recommend checking out Wheelock's Latin, which is the definitive source for all things Latin languagey. It's a wonderful book, but it also has useful pronunciation guides online. Of particular interest here are: eu: http://wheelockslatin.com/chapters/introduction/introduction_diphthongs.html ch: http://wheelockslatin.com/chapters/introduction/introduction_consonants.html

They probably wouldn't stretch their powers, but it might affect their normal operating norm. For example, if you always store energy, you might always feel hungry, even when you are no longer storing it. Likewise, if you compound energy and are always drawing upon it, you might never feel hungry, even if you haven't drawn anything for months.

I'd like to announce that I think "The Kandra Detective Agency" would make an awesome in-world children's book.

If that is what the RPG says, then that is in direct contradiction to what Sanderson said in MB1, ch 5: "Kelsier let the safe drop to the ground. Hazekillers weren't Allomancers, but they were trained to fight Mistings and Mistborn." Emphasis mine.

At your command, Shardhold of Replies!

He probably had duralumin, but if not, then he probably had an extra rioting or soothing spike, too. We know, after all, that he controlled a large army of Koloss, and normal soothers/rioters weren't powerful enough for that. Thus, he was probably in turn missing one of the base powers (or had gold allomancy replaced). Assuming he didn't replace any spikes, then it wouldn't surprise me if he was missing Copper(F) or Zinc(F). Not much need to think or remember if Ruin if directing your every move.

Yeah, I feel special, considering I just noted that the 11-spike inquisitor's had feru-healing, and thus would need 11 to have that plus the then-known allomantic powers. Ignore me.

Currently listening to , by Chameleon Circuit. It's Trock. Yes, Time Lord rock. It's awesome.