Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

Awesome theory @Subvisual Haze, hard to prove or disprove, but very fun to think about. What if they use the surge of division's spiritual aspect to project their consciousness into their highspren? Like you suggest, this would be an amazingly powerful method of surveillance. If this is truly the mechanism, maybe this is wherein the danger lies. We've seen from the drooling Fuzed the unpleasant effects of a damaged spirit web, maybe the Skybreaker using this spiritual division likewise run the risk of giving themselves a spiritual lobotomy if they aren't rigorously trained in the use of this surge. This is a cool enough theory that it has been mentally flagged, my next time through the full SLA (including edgedancer) I'll be on the lookout for details that corroborate or refute this. Overall, awesome idea, and I love how it ties into the essence associated with their order.

Rad

Thanks on both counts. I like your profile picture, but what are you holding in your hand? It looks like a giant pickle.

Hahahaha, rad @Personification! My favorite part, because it matches the cadence and the lyrics of the original so well and it's brilliant, is this: Once again, brilliantly done!

Awesome, thanks all! Thanks for dumping @Jofwu's calculations of the physical characteristics of Roshar @RShara, really helpful stuff. I am working on some calculations for conjoined fabrials. I realized that after the first couple of answers came in that the proportional gravity of Roshar was stated by Khriss in Arcanum Unbounded (duh), but it's rad to have all of those calculations that Jofwu did in one place like this.

I need this for some calculations, I saw that someone had figured this out on a thread but I can't find it now. Thanks!

Apparently not very much...But I do think that the inversion captures the regret of an unsuccesful attempt to write poetry whilst drinking, and the resultant depression of rejection...Well, here it is... Crem is gray, spheres are blue too, I drank some violet and wrote this poem for you. For poetry, this writing, violet some drank I. Too blue, being sphereless, graying being Crem.

Granted, your new name is Chiri Chiri and you're a larkin. You get to live on some nicely potted shinovar grass, and your budy Rysn gives you quite a few spheres to drain a day. I wish that I could travel to the future, say 150 years, and see the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (which in the future will be a geosynchronous low space orbit concert venue) perform some classic music. I would wish specifically to see the full orchestra rendition of "More than a Woman" by the Bee Gees.

This is totally a Bad Romance: Does this mean that Szeth is going to marry sword nimi?? I can't imagine that this will end well...

The Nightwatcher's green vaporous form coils around you, you stare into her alien yet too human face as green wispy tendrils of luminescent vapor pierce your mind. Suddenly you find yourself standing on a train platform in Sussex, in one hand you hold a newspaper wrapped in a cone, dripping hot oil, filled with sublimely deep fried breaded chunks of cod. In the other hand you hold a train station schedule. In a logical leap that transcends space and time, you realize the true teleological purpose of mankind. The scales have fallen off of your eyes, you perceive the deep and all penetrating truth of the true meaning of life. Looking up, with eyes unclouded by mere petty existence, you see it. You see the face of god, and more importantly you see the train conductor hat that he is wearing and the dingy less than respectable condition of his basement. You my friend have just discovered the reason that we were created, God is a train enthusiast, and we are all part of the greatest scale model train set ever built. Your curse is that now that God knows that you are aware of his model train set, he wants to get your opinion on his world class stamp collection. I wish that the world would realize that dividing by zero is just as valid as multiplying by zero. If you divide something into nothing parts, for crap's sake you have nothing! Why is it more valid to say A times 0 = 0 then it is to say A divided by 0 = 0?

Granted, you are instantly transported to the middle of the Saharan desert. Hope you had a bottle of water in your pocket when you made that wish... It's nice and quiet being far away from civilization, but if you don't feel like cooking delivery's not an option, here's a google map view of the closest restaurants: I wish that every time you had to use the constant to figure out a math problem, that you would get a slice of real pie to eat while you are figuring out that math problem...

I just noticed that you are now "Keeper of Words" a fitting title for an Arcanist. Is this valentine going to be about Tensoon????

Ok, so this is a Totally 70's valentine, I had to censor part of this because holy crap they had the tightest most disgusting pants in the 70's (probably led to infertility in the long run). If you want a soundtrack to have on while staring at the majesty of a bygone era, I would humbly suggest the following (spoilered below):

Hmm, I don't think the first part of your statement is correct, but I do agree with the qualifying follow up that we can't really treat them like beads. Every person that falls into the sea of glass beads in Shadesmar invariably sinks without the ability to swim. This implies that the glass beads are not like a classic solid or a classic liquid. If they were like BB's or gravel, i.e. were rigid with a fairly high density, they would form what essentially is a large grain solid. If you tried to dive into a swimming pool filled with BB's you would get a broken neck, or likewise if you tried to dive from a sand dune into sand you would also get yourself a broken neck. But, if the beads have only a negligible mass, your weight will be able to disperse the beads, and their round shape would allow them to push past one another with minimum loss of energy in the form of friction. Like jumping into a ball crawl pit, the balls with negligible mass are displaced as your weight is applied to the composite solid and you sink in. The greater the mass of the beads, the more force would be required to push the beads, and due to the conservation of momentum, the displacement of beads at a greater depth would require a much greater force because the push would essentially carry on through all of the beads until it reached the surface where the force of the push can be dissipated by displaced beads. The beads aren't like a classical liquid either, as evidenced by the inability to swim. The biggest danger inherent in dropping into the Shadesmar sea is aspirating beads. I think that this shows us two things about the Shadesmar beads: They have a negligible mass (based on textual descriptions of how people fall through them, they probably even have less mass than a thin shelled hollow plastic ball crawl ball). That "glass bead" is just an analogous term, it's not a physical description. If they were in fact made of glass, then your supposition that you would be squished by the pressure of tons of beads on top of you would be correct. But similarly, you would only be able to penetrate to a certain depth, before the collective rigidity of composite solid stopped your downward progress. At best you would be able to wade into the glass bead sea.

@RShara that is incredibly touching! The two hearts stabbed through and connected by Nightblood makes me kind of teary eyed. Currently out of upvotes but a scene that touching is definitely worthy of some upvote love, will get you one later.

Sadeas - Decomposing Lopen - The Jasnah - Peerless Mraize - Amraizeing Kaladin -Super-Kal-fabuloustic-extra-freaking-awesome Hoid - Impenetrable Sebarial - Flatulent Nightblood - Devi

What you are seeing is that I didn't edit my post, I originally was arguing that the first activated conjoined fabrial set the basis for equilibrium for the conjoined system, and the fabrial that was activated second inherits this equilibrium baseline (but inverted) from the first fabrial engaged. After looking at this from the perspective of a balance scale, I later came to the conclusion that the magical portion of conjoined fabrials had to do with that at the time the conjoined reverse fabrials are engaged, a new and balanced relative framework is created. The difference in initial potential energies of the two conjoined paired fabrials becomes the baseline balance for the system. To move either conjoined fabrial from this baseline rest position would require an additional force. In my diagram, the 500g weight was to show the difference in initial potential energy states of the linked platforms so that the balance scale analogy would make sense. You are starting off from two unequal potential energy states (one at rest with 0 potential energy, the other substantially raised off of the ground with a positive potential energy), and when the conjoined fabrials are engaged, this would become a zero potential energy system. This is the magic part of it. It's creating an artificial baseline of balance based on the relative positions of the conjoined pairs. The other option is that conjoined reverser fabrials try to find some type of balance point based just on the mass of the two conjoined parts. The ardents could have done the calculations and made the archery parapet much heavier than the floating square platform, but to me this doesn't seem tenable. After the ladders are wheeled away, the floating square platform hangs in the air. No mention of bobbing, wobbling or any minor fluctuation in position is related. Though while it is being lowered lots of mention of wobble of the ascending platform is given. This implies that at the point that the conjoined fabrials were engaged, the system is at rest or at equilibrium. Further, I think for practical reasons they used a conjoined platform similar in mass to the archery parapet to be raised, because you could probably use a smaller less massive platform to raise the archery parapet but it would require a greater degree of force to move than a more massive parapet, F=m*a afterall. If the archers all jumped off the parapet who were on the parapet when the conjoiners were engaged (and thus part of it's initial mass) and the square platform was still tied down, the archery parapet would bob up. It's loss of mass would make it lighter than its initial baseline state, and this would cause the square platform to push downwards towards the ground with force equal to the mass of the lost archers * the acceleration of gravity. This would cause a slackening of the rope, and when the ropes where cut with the conjoined fabrials still engaged, the archery parapet would go back to it's initial position and push against the ground with a force equal to the mas of the loss archers * the acceleration of gravity and the square platform would rise back up higher than it's original starting position. I don't have time to do a diagram on this, but I think this is sufficiently clear. If you want another diagram I might be able to do another one later tonight (depends on how much of my real work I get done before then). I am currently out of upvotes, but the clarifying use of diagrams for the purposes of argumentation will always get an upvote from me, so I'll get you one later when they come back online.

This is from TWoK I- 5 Axies interlude and it shows that it's a biological modification not the suppression of sensory information that allows Axies to not smell unpleasant odors: In both of these instances Axies uses mental focus to alter some tangible aspect of his body, the most major modification would be the "scultping" he does to his nose to keep from smelling. It's not explicitly stated that he makes his nose disappear, he might just seal up his nostrils, but there is some form of biological change to his body that he is instigating by pure thought alone. In the Rysn interlude in WoR, the guards (who are admittedly dense and superstitious) have this to say about everyone's favorite upside down Collector: Finally here are some paraphrased and admittedly information poor WoBs about Siah Aimians that deal with the Siah's ability to control their biology: Sculpting your body to remove your sense of smell implies a certain plasticity of form, that I think gives enough basis for the speculation that Siah Aimians could probably create webbed hands and feet for increased maneuverability in the water.

Ok, so here is the text from Chapter 35 of WoR where Navani and the scholar ardents are performing the test on the conjoined platforms (empahsis added): Also, as further clarification for this scene, here is a cropped view of Navani's notebook that deals with workings of the conjoined Archery platform fabrial: From the textual description and from the diagram above, you can see that there is no attempt of the given system to balance out. This I think is pretty clear evidence that the act of activating the conjoiner establishes a mechanical linkage between the two items conjoined, and the base state of relation is set at the time of activation of the conjoining fabrials. I would posit further, as I did in my previous post, that the Rest or Equilibrium state is defined by first of the conjoined fabrials to be activated. The one that is activated second, linking it the intially activated fabrial takes it's current position and establishes this position in relation to the first activated fabrial as it's equilibrium rest position. Classic physics can then take over from here, as force is required to move this secondarily activated fabrial from it's rest position. This in turn propogates in inverse force vectors to the primarily activated conjoined fabrial, but I would wager that if the square platform that was hanging suspended in air and then lowered to raise the archery parapet was untied from the ground, both the square platform and the archery parapet would return to their initial rest state. I think when they are conjoined they are essentially connected by a magical mechanical linkage, the linkage for this setup would be like a balance scale. Pushing one side down causes the other to rise. And further, as a clarifying thought experiment, imagine a balance scale with a 500 gram weight on one side, and say that this is the difference in potential energy states of the two conjoined fabrials when they are engaged. One side of the balance (the one without the weight) would be higher than the one with the weight. To get the scale to balance, force would need to be exerted on the side without the weight in direct proportion to the weight on the other side of the balance scale, causing the side being Forced down to descend and the weighted side to ascend. Because I do love diagrams, here's a diagram about what I'm talking about: Maybe the explanation is really that the baseline of equilibrium is actually set by the conjoined system at the time the two pieces are conjoined. There will be a difference in potential energy states of the two parts of the balanced linkage, and this difference could be the offset that the system without the application of additional force would be trying to return to (like in diagram step 4).

In the WoR Rysn interlude the guard tells Rysn that Axies who hands are bound and who is hung upside down by his feet could escape at anytime. Also in the Axies interlude in TWOK Axies gets rid of his bruising from the previous night's thrashing and clears his headache. Both of these imply a high level of Cognitive control over his body, the creation of a different organ system for respiration might be stretching this ability quite a bit, but I thinks it's safe to infer that he could craft webbed hands and feet to aid with swimming.

Here's one from Elhokar to Aesudan, from the Great Beyond: Aesudan my dearest heart, Sadly in death we must part You broke my heart and your own, when you swallowed that Odious stone. I really like picturing Elhokar as this sad fopish bicycle riding King, check out that awesome beard curl action he has going on, they almost look prehensile, like he could possibly use them to eat with.

Siah Aimians' shadows always point towards the light, this also happens to Jasnah in the WoR prologue when she in the corridor and transitions to Shadesmar to confront Ivory. Also Siah Aimians can through thought alone change their skin so that tattoos of thoughts show up on their bodies, this implies cognitive level control of their physical aspect and also possibly that they are perpetually straddling both the physical and cognitive realms. It probably is too much to conjecture that they can slip into Shadesmar whenever they want, but this also could be a possibility. It seems to me from the descriptions of near drowning in the see of glass beads in Shadesmar, that this doesn't have anything to do with inability to get oxygen, it's more of a function of aspirating glass beads. Having noses, mouths, lungs etc filled with glass beads is not conducive to respiration. Given that the Siah Aimians can rejigger their physiology, they should be able to create a breathing structure that eliminates the inhalation of the bean sized glass beads. The WoB where Brandon explains the glass beads definite size is spoilered below: Whether the created filtration system is a semi porous membrane with holes that are 1/4 the size of the bean sized shadesmar bead or the creation of a biological one way valve, like the blow hole of whale, is moot. This is something that the Siah Aimians could do rather easily I believe. Umm, yeah, good point. The distance traveled in both the PR and the CR would be approximately the same, and if Axies understands how fish breathe, he might be able to create gills along with creating webbed fingers and hands. So he would probably be better off swimming his way through the Physical Realm's real waters than walking through the unswimmable sea of glass beads in Shadesmar.

Another possible explanation for the current state of the Nightwatcher comes from Hessi's Mythica: The alternate explanation is this, the Nightwatcher, instead of being a splinter of Cultivation is in fact Chemoarish, a splinter of Odium, and Cultivation has been attempting to rehabilitate this Unmade during the 4,500 years since the last desolation. All of the Unmade seem to me to be powerful (possibly Cusicesh level) spren that predated the Shattering of Adonalsium. If the Unmade were all pre-existing spren that Odium Unmade into the hateful extension of their base drive then the Thrill would have been the incarnation of Competition, Re-shephir would have been the incarnation of fear of the dark, Ashtermarn would have been the incarnation of Indulgent Excess, Moleach would have been the incarnation of fear of death, and Chemoarish would have been the incarnation of Greed. Her attempts to sway Dalinar all focus on selfish aims and she is unable to understand the concept of forgiveness. Just as Re-shephir has an innate sympathy for the people that she is killing, the Nightwatcher is attempting to understand the people that come to her, and specifically want aspect of personal Greed drives them. Personally, I don't see what benefit there would be to having a bondsmith bond the Nightwatcher. Would this bondsmith have the added ability to dole out boons to their followers and banes to their adversaries? Probably not, it seems like the boon/bane is a package deal and not on the whole a great package at all. I can see the utility in bonding the Sibling, essentially the Duracell Battery for Metropolis Urithiru. Someone's gotta make sure that the sewer's don't back up and that the power is flowing and that the crops are growing. But I think a far more interesting 3rd bondsmith spren would be Bo-Ado-Mishram. I personally hope that the Nightwatcher isn't a bondsmith spren, I would love to see Taravangian bonded to BAM, especially because of his double agent agenda. What better knife to stick in Odium's back than one that comes from the triple crossing Taravangian? This also has the benefit that on the surface at least, Taravangian bonding to BAM would be palatable to both the KRs and Odium. His duplicity could be seen by both sides as an asset to both parties simultaneously, while he still works for his own utilitarian aims. That would be RAD.

Or he could alter his body for the shadesmar trip (get rid of his nose and mouth) and walk all the way to Urithiru, ignoring the sea of glass beads. Or, since he knows a lot about spren, he might be able to catch a ride on a Mandra. In the WoR interlude with the two Ardents studying spren, this quantum effect was limited to the individual spren that were measured. Only the flame spren whose height was quantified exhibited the freezing in place phenomena, so I don't think that Axies' studies would be having a generalized effect on a whole class of spren. I think he's just functionally immortal and trying to fill his time up with something diverting, but that is an interesting idea.