Senor Feesh

I'm with you on this Happyman. Dalinar wasn't granted any knowledge of the midnight essence or the KR either during his visions. I would imagine that the language is something to do with the way the visions have been created, some kind of cognitive manipulation or some such. Making it so that the visions could be understood seems like it would be easier than total understanding of concepts outside of one's experience.

That is... a lot of math O.o I'm not sure, but I seem to recall there being another quote somewhere in the database stating that the number was in the region of 50... if anyone can find the quote that'd be awesome, otherwise I might be getting confused with other people's theories on the number of metals. As for the number of God-metals - whilst it's possible that all the Shards may have (or be able to manifest) God-metals of their own, I'm going to speculate that there aren't any. The reason for this is simply that Ati and Leras created human life on Scadrial. They took the time to mess with the planet's natural development. To the best of our knowledge, no other Shard is confirmed to have tinkered on Scadrial, so I would suggest that ONLY Ruin and Preservation have Invested (note the capital!) Scadrial with their own magics, so these would be the only Shards with God-metals. Does Harmony have a God metal? I would say speculating against the same logic (bearing in mind I have pretty much nothing but gut-feeling to back this up, it's not very scientific ) that it's possible. As the holder of both Ruin and Preservation, he could create a God-metal containing both types of Investiture that exist already on Scadrial. WARNING! WARNING! SOMEONE WHO HAS SPENT VERY LITTLE TIME THINKING ABOUT REALMATICS IS ABOUT TO ATTEMPT THEORYCRAFTING! So, going on from my previous points, my brain has decided to start working on the problem even as I type, so this might become very stream of consciousness. Sorry if it's messy. Why can Allomancers burn the Physical form of Ruin? I posit that it's because humans on Scadrial are Invested with both the power of Preservation and Ruin. Ruin exists already in their Spiritweb, which allows them, through the magic system granted by Preservation, to access both parts of the Shardic Investiture inherent in their beings. A weird thought that cascades from this line of speculation is that if a Scadralian were able to directly access the power of Ruin (as opposed to Hemalaurgy, which seems to simply (simply? since when is such highly specialised knowledge classed as simple?) be a matter of stealing the Investiture of others, then they should also, through the same system (whatever form that might take), be able to access the power of Preservation. Ugh, this seems really unlikely in retrospect (we already have a lot of info suggesting, if not outright confirming, that Hemalurgy IS Ruin's magic system - it's destructive, end-negative, Ruin has knowledge of all the Bindpoints etc.) that I don't think this really has any legs. And as we know Hemalurgy CAN be used to interact with other forms of Investiture, it seems that Allomancy (and all the other magic systems) should have the same potential for interaction on some level. I guess what I'm saying here, in a roundabout fashion, is I have no clue but it does seem likely that even if there are no God-metals from other Shards, then at least Allomancers should be able to interact with other sources of Investiture somehow. Blergh. Bad post is bad. *hangs head in shame*

I'm not sure that TES really maps out that much for people who aren't already Cosmere aware - beyond the explanations of Realmatics, I don't recall a huge amount of Cosmere info being revealed (nothing specifically pertaining to Shards for example). Please feel free to correct me on this, my memory is poor at the best of times. Also, I think you'd need someone who's never read the books but is at least aware that they're linked to have the desired effect (otherwise they're not even going to be looking for the things TES gives clues to).

Huh, I wasn't aware of this... the Kindle version is available, so if you're desperate you can get that (if you don't own a Kindle, you can get the Kindle reader for most smartphones/tablets or Windows - not sure about Max OS). Surprising though.

If anyone ever needs evidence that we obsess about these things far too much, I will point first to this thread Seriously though, the effort I see here is incredible. If I was an author, I could only hope to have such a dedicated fanbase.

Heh interesting catch, I'd not noticed. It does depend on your interpretation of Lord though - as someone who grew up in the UK, where we have the feudal system in our history, my first reading of the word Lord is a landowner/leader of men.

Hard to describe without diagrams, but using the quote Meg provided - If the bridge length is more than twice the width of the chasm, then simple physics will see you get the bridge across with no worry about losing the bridge down the chasm, and no need for rope. Consider the lip of the first chasm as the pivot point. Because of the length of the bridge, at least half the bridge will remain over the first plateau whilst the front is being pushed into empty space. By the time enough of the bridge is beyond the lip to cause it to pivot downwards, the lead end of the bridge is already over the second plateau, and will simply slide along the ground. Once everyone has crossed, they simply pull the bridge from the other end, with the same physical principle stopping the bridge from falling. I believe there's also a quote in the book that the return route will differ due to the necessity of needing the landing point on each plateau to be lower for this to work (though that may be an invention of my brain trying to support this method of plateau traversal).

This actually raises an interesting point that I'd not thought of before. In a world where Allomancy and Ferruchemy are becoming much more commonplace, might there be a) specialised jobs (which don't exist in our world) for people with these abilities, or inequality between people with metal-magics and people without? Consider the most simple: obviously your labourers are going to be much more useful to you as Pewterarms or Brutes, whilst Archivists would probably make great journalists. There are probably many more examples that could be thought of (I could see someone starting a thread for it; that would be better than thread-jacking this if people want to discuss it). So yeah, I had the idea because of tecslicer's comment about stagehands and huffing stage sets about, but it could be applied to other theatre roles too I'm sure.

Actually started a topic a while back discussing this, you can find it here

I guess Realmatic Theory? We know Brandon prefers world-building with defined rules and structure. The champion bit may be tied into it as well somehow though - after all, look at Vin and Marsh. I wonder if Raoden might be considered Devotion's champion. Or does a Shard need a holder to make that choice? If so, Honour would be without a champion as well, and I feel Kaladin is heading in that direction. Sorry, no answers here, just more musings ^^

That's an interesting idea. I'd always read it as just a take on 'fifth column', but this could have some legs. And could totally be the basis for a large, metaplot-spanning threat.

I actually find it quite shocking at the reaction a lot of people seem to have to Vin Elend's death at the end of the trilogy. Personally, I find 'Happily Ever After' endings immensely distasteful and unsatisfying, as I just don't believe them. Maybe I'm just a cynic, or a sucker for tragedy, but I honestly can't see how any ending where the two of them end up living in bliss would have been more satisfying than the pair laying down their lives for the greater good of everyone on Scadrial. (Off-topic) Also, don't get me started on the movie ending for Stardust *puke* read the book, that's the REAL ending.

Quality-wise, I'd find it hard to decide. I love the trilogy (and Alloy of Law is also totally amazeballs). As for conclusions, Sanderson was pretty savvy with this - the traditional trilogy set up. Book one has a tangible plot and resolution, leaves enough questions unanswered to have scope for a sequel, but not so much you'd feel cheated if there wasn't one (e.g. if the book had tanked, and the sequels weren't [picked up by a publisher). Book 2 then leaves on a much more bleak, not exactly 'cliffhanger' ending, but at least you KNOW rust needs resolving in the next book - think Empire strikes back, where Has is in carbonite, the second Death Star is under construction, Luke just lost a hand and found out the truth about Vader - huge plot awaiting resolution in the final chapter.

If there was an immovable object above, then it would balance, however as she isn't able to offer the same resistance as the ground would, they're both heading skyward (her much faster and higher though).

I would have to find the quote, I'm not sure but I think it's during the Chasmfiend attack, but Dalinar or Adolin ruminates on the ten heartbeat time. He (whichever of the two it was) considers how it the Shardblade forms faster when the heart rate is increased, such as in times of stress (like before a battle). So the ten heartbeats IS the required time limit. The blade takes EXACTLY this number of beats to form each occasion it is summoned. As to why? Theorise away! I still don't think we know enough about Realmatic Theory to do more than speculate (and lacking the ability to test our hypotheses, we're stuck in the dark until Brandon gives us more).

I probably don't have the math for this myself, but when this sort of situation arises in an RPG, I would resolve as follows: As mentioned, Jasun becomes Mistcaek in short order without someone else intervening. Fiusha moves at high velocity to a dramatically appropriate height, according to Narrative Determinism, and must now catch herself on the way down (or come up with some other creative solution to her problem). Don't let physics bog things down when awesome drama is way more interesting and takes less time to resolve That said, I'm still interested in the physics resolution from a purely academic standpoint.

I had a thought concerning this earlier, which I'm hoping I have straight enough in my head to word correctly. It revolves around the idea of Nalthians keeping Breath in circulation. Basically, my thought was that if Breath IS a gift from Endowment (and not an intrinsic part of the human soul) then logically there would be an upper limit to the amount of Breath that could exist (probably an inordinately huge number, but bear with me). Following this, it could be assumed that upon death, any Breath held by a person would be returned to Endowment (or put back into circulation for new human births); much as burning Atium allows Ruin's power to coalesce back in the Pits of Hathsin as more Atium beads. If every human were to give up their breath before death to another human, the breaths would not be available for new humans, requiring Endowment to give up more of itself with each generation, until the theoretical cap was reached. If however the Breath IS a part of the human soul, end Endowment simply gives the gift of (well, of the ability to Endow I suppose) then this would not be the case. Any thoughts? At the very least, this could be a sneaky way of wording a question to Brandon (something like, "Is there a limit to the amount of Breath than can exist in the population at one time?").

Seconded; I'd see either as being a possible avenue for Returning. IIRC Lightsong in life was a clerk who looked over people's ledgers/accounts searching for instances of fraud. Not particularly selfless, or a particular example of 'Endowment'. The others are a much better fit for endowment as a lifestyle choice however.

Perhaps Caution? Keep coming up with similar Synonyms, can't get my brain off this track

I'm not sure why burning a God-metal of another Shard would give access to a magic system from another Shardworld. If your postulation is correct, then surely ALL magic on Scadrial should be tied to metals as a focus; as such won't Surgebinding/Awakening etc be off the table?

All the shards want to survive, but this one wants JUST to hide and survive - which makes it seem as though this would be it's intent. I do see what you're saying though.

I'm going to try to avoid treading on anyone's religious sensibilities too much, because I don't want to offend unduly (I'll save offense for where I think it's deserved, or hilarious ) but I have an issue with Odium being a smaller part of a divine manifestation. Why? Because your definition of how it would fit into the whole is too arbitrarily limiting. You say it could be a hatred of sin. How are you defining sin? Sin differs from culture to culture, and across time - it is in itself a very human notion, not a divine one. Morality has a basis in evolution (acting immorally tends to be bad for propagation of genetics), but specific sins vary massively. It's sinful for a Jew to eat pork, or a Muslim to eat beef. It USED to be sinful for a Catholic to eat meat on Friday (it's not any longer). Whose definition of sin do you use? We know there are multiple religions in the Cosmere. Is Brandon one day going to reveal to us which is 'correct'? I don't buy that. As an option for this unknown shard, may I perhaps suggest Prudence? Can't see that one having much mileage, but I want to put it out there.

I think we may be missing something important here. Brandon said there's a shard who "just wants to hide and survive." If a Shard JUST wants to do one thing, and only one thing, wouldn't that thing be its Intent? Has Brandon given us a clue as to the name of another Shard? I'm not sure I can come up with anything right now that would work, best I can do is Tenacity (but that doesn't really infer hiding); anyone have any ideas?

As a counter-argument to this: imagine a world where nothing could change, because everything was preserved. Nothing could die, no new things could be created (because this would require a change in the preserved order of things). Could Preservation, if left unopposed manage this? I suspect the answer is yes (as for if preservation WOULD, well that's a different discussion, and depends on your interpretation of the shardic intent). A world in stasis, perfectly preserved, and perfectly stagnant. I'm sure some creative minds could think up some doomsday scenarios for other 'benign' or 'altruistic' shards (such as Honor) as well.