Morsk

That ignores the history of slavery. Slavery is older than civilization, and only very recently have we gotten rid of it. Humans don't only kill their enemies. They've also performed an awful lot of slavery. Parshmen fulfill a fantasy of "natural slaves" that proponents of slavery have always advanced, that certain races are unable to be civilized on their own, and can only have civilization when enslaved by a master race. Even in the absence of any such people (like on Earth), we lie and claim certain races qualify, to rationalize slavery. On Roshar, the parshmen seem to actually qualify, if only because something magical happened and took their spren away. Humans would jump on the opportunity to exploit such a people.

Brandon told us they're the same on Reddit. It's endnote #2 in the Coppermind's entry on God Beyond. I think Brandon is trying to write an "agnostic" setting, where it's not clear whether there's an Ultimate Being, Creator, etc., or not. It leads to much better characterization of faith and doubt than I've seen in other fantasy. But it leads to some odd questions about what's canon. Is Brandon writing so that the God Beyond is real, but doing a good job of hiding? Or is he writing ambiguously so that it might or might not be real?

Doesn't it not matter for what the OP is trying to do? He wants time travel, and general relativity methods aren't any less problematic. Even completely magical "instant cell phones" with no mechanism at all would cause time paradox. Worldhopping would too. I figure there has to be a preferred reference frame, and some requirement of getting away from the planet, and at rest with respect to the preferred frame, to use FTL. Then whether it works by stretching space, or just by instantaneous jumps, is mostly a special effect. What matters most is that it doesn't cause time paradox.

Maybe this is a regional thing and the word means different things elsewhere, but "scribbling" is something little children do with markers and crayons, before they learn to write. I'm surprised Brandon even left the word in the novel, to describe the murder suspect. To me, "scribbler" suggests someone at most 5 years old.

We've already seen FTL without time travel in the worldhopping. It's just more magical than technological, and we don't understand the mechanism yet. I expect the physics explanation for FTL without time travel will be a preferred reference frame. It's not a popular thing to do in sci-fi, but in the cosmere we know you can go to Shadesmar, cross an Expanse, and end up in another solar system. That's an awful lot like a preferred frame, so I expect to see one in the Physical Realm too.

I never noticed this! I thought the war camps were just clearings the Alethi made. Did none of them wonder how strange it was to have 10 clearings already made for them? I guess on this world, if you do things in sets of 10, like have 10 Highprinces, sometimes you find convenient 10s in nature that accommodate you. Is this the quote everyone's referring to, or are there more I missed?

Good news. I was about to petition Management for a few dozen spikes, to increase fandom in Connecticut, as a precaution against any further readings going unrecorded. Now the spikes can be saved for making more Catquisitors.

There might not be a titular character; it could be a symbolic reference to Rithmatics in general. The Warbreaker cover has symbolic elements that never happen in the story, like Siri using her breath, and having a sword. They refer to the magic system and the impending war symbolically. That's cover art, not the title, but it could be a variant of the same idea. If something looks good as a title, it would be a shame not to use it just because it doesn't 100% fit any character.

Do you know about Hoid yet? [Oh ok. I removed most of this post because it just filled space, and you already know.]

I was replying to the first post in the thread, and its idea that Odium isn't part of Adonalsium but is somehow opposed to it. It's not about whether Rayse's defense attorney gets to blame the Shard in court, but whether the Shard is something foreign to Adonalsium, or something we'd be better off without. It's probably ruled out by canon directly, because we're told Odium is one of the sixteen. But besides that, I find the stories more interesting if Odium is something they can't just get rid of, if it's an important part of human nature, and they have to work with it or around it instead. We've heard Ruin's excuse that it's necessary to life. We haven't heard Odium's excuse yet, but it should be interesting whatever it is. You say this as if it's a bad thing! Isn't weaving theories all night long and still doubting ourselves endless entertainment?

It has to be translation. I think you mean "crystal lattice" instead of "salt grid", but I'm guessing. I don't know much chemistry.

There are Herald statues somewhere near the "Have you seen me?" beggar guy. I think they're outside his room, and Szeth stopped to look in a door at him, then walked past the statues in the hallway outside, but it's not 100% clear. But if that's the setup, the beggar knows there are Herald statues outside his room, and when he sees Szeth in the doorway, he's asking Szeth if he's seen his statue. Blabbing hints of his secret identity is stupid, incoherent, or both, so it requires that he actually be drunk and not making sense. He could be a Herald that wants to die, but won't kill himself due to the whole "eternal torture" thing, so stays drunk 24/7 and seeks obscurity as a beggar instead. Or something like that. I don't know why Isomere guessed Ishi specifically. The hair color doesn't match Jezrien's in the Prelude, and it can't be Taln, but that's as far as I got narrowing it down.

There's a much older quote that makes it sound like Surgebinding and Soulcasting used to be separate, in an earlier revision. http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=428#21 I'm not sure it really does mean that though. The quote could be referring to "all the Windrunner abilities" as one magic system, and "Shallan and Jasnah's Soulcasting" as the other, since that's what shows up in the first book.

I also don't think "percents" need to be tied into something done by Italian merchants. It's a pretty simple concept. Percent just means "divided by 100". 50% is 50 / 100. That's all. Anyone can come up with it; it's just choosing a standard denominator for comparing fractions, to make it easier. If you do 60 it's called minutes, 360 and it's degrees, 100 and it's percent.

The Heralds never would've broken the Oathpact, because torture doesn't really hurt all that much; you just "embrace pain" and laugh while being tortured. Shallan's family wouldn't suffer emotional damage from the abusive father either, for the same reason. Jasnah would slap and insult everyone who annoys her, and people would fear and respect her for it, never considering it childish. The time she apologized for making Shallan cry? Never happened. Instead, she lectured Shallan on how to make people cry herself, and then Shallan thanked her for teaching her how to be strong. Dalanar doesn't free the bridgemen. They're his property, and freeing them would be a terrible act of abandonment, and would lower his eyes. The bridgemen appreciate this, and kiss the floor in his presence.

We don't know. All we have is a one-liner from an allomancy chart saying "various expanded physical and enhancement effects".

I see it as a combination of coincidence and something deliberately unnatural, so it doesn't have to make a lot of sense. The planet using base-10 and percents is coincidence. It's like how these aliens from another planet, in a universe where Earth doesn't exist, somehow look and act like humans. On the Mistborn planet, they even have European architecture and accents. It doesn't have to happen that way, and there isn't really a reason; it just did. The 16% thing was supposed to look weird, and does look weird. Unfortunately, it confuses readers not just the characters! That's what Preservation wanted though. He wanted it to look obviously unnatural, and it does.

It's from Vin's PoV so it could be wrong. On the other hand, she's a goddess and her PoV could have access to privileged information. Also, we know Rashek was unable to use Preservation's power to kill Kwaan. edit: Oops, I didn't see there was a Page 2 when I replied. I guess I actually beat Phantom with a quote though!

Here's a new way they could not get along: Hoid stole investiture from Scadrial. Kelsier held the power between Leras' death and Vin's ascension. He could have become aware of it then, or noticed at a later time when Hoid was moving through Shadesmar. Lerasium is the body of a god, both sacred, and a scarce natural resource. Running off with it is like coming into some country without a passport, violating a religious temple, and running off with the nation's oil reserves. Except it's not even countries; Hoid is an alien from another planet. We think he's a great guy, but any resident of Scadrial could be really pissed off about this. They are Preservation's people. Leras sacrificed to create them. The investiture belongs to them. Kelsier could also be jealous. Egomaniac that he is, he'd easily transition from "That belongs to Scadrial!" to "I should have gotten that. I'd use it for Scadrial!" The jealousy could lead into a lot of hatred.

This kind of thing makes me wonder if a Shard can be shared 50/50. Or even traded. The Shards could meet up and have an "Adonalsium Party" trading metals with each other, then all end up with balanced intents.

I have the ebook so I was able to search for "leaves". There are a lot of them. The most memorable is the poison leaf Syl brought Kaladin. Also at least some of them come from trees. This is from Chapter 37, one of Kaladin's flashback chapters

Temperature sense is the extreme example though. We perceive "warmer" and "colder", not "warm" and "cold"; that's just how it works. I've seen non-relativist philosophers rephrase it all too, and say the sense is measuring "heat transfer", which is objective. It tells us when we're losing heat or gaining heat. I agree that contrast can be helpful in understanding things. Temperature sense gives a very one-sided view of it though. Some things don't contrast interestingly, say, fear and anger. Or two different music genres.

Yeah, I was wrong about Jasnah exhaling. It must've been something I'd guessed at months ago, figuring that her inhaling was a red herring, and whenever we saw her inhale, it was only because she was exhaling before or after. Somewhere between then and now, I forgot that it was only a guess... I really have no ideas on Jasnah. I went and looked over the times she Soulcasts jam and bread, and then Shallan's blood, but there are no clues about focus in any of it.

Szeth blinking! I never noticed that, and it opens up the body focuses to be so much more than I thought. We had Kaladin inhale to infuse, so I figured #2s exhale to infuse, #3s focus on their soul to infuse, etc. Now, how can I use this to prove that Shallan is #3 Brave/Obedient? (Because I love everyone's theories, but I love exploiting them for my own purpose more.) It gets her a line to #4, and explains her use of blinking as a focus, just like Windrunners having a line to #4 explains Szeth blinking. The #6 Blood order doesn't have a line to #4 and can't explain it. As for storing the memory, not just blinking, I'd say it's Soul. #3 is right on that, and #6 doesn't link to it at all. Can I get Jasnah as #2 with this? All we've seen her do is inhale. It fits, but it's too little to draw conclusions from. I'm happy enough with Shallan though. (edit: At first I thought we'd seen Jasnah exhale, but I can't find it in the text and must've been confused.) So, after having corrupted your theory to a purpose you didn't intend, I find I support it wholly!

I've also wondered whether Vorin women tend to have mental gifts like Shallan, and men have physical gifts, so long as they follow the crazy gender restrictions. We see men have the Thrill, and I wondered if the Assuredness Movement in female scholars was their version of the Thrill, some creepy Odium aspect of the power, with the Vorin restrictions being the Honor part. And individual gifts being Cultivation. But I agree with Shardlet that the gifts ought to be more common and notable if this is really going on.