Pagerunner

You can learn a little about Yolish Lightweaving if you read sample chapters of the unpublished book Liar of Partinel, one of the prequels to the planned Dragonsteel series. (The structure of Dragonsteel is a bit unusual itself; Brandon was going to write a duology, starting with LoP, and then jump ahead to a five-book main series several hundred years later. Large chunks of Dragonsteel were incorporated into Way of Kings and the Stormlight Archives, so the Dragonsteel series will be much shorter when it actually gets written.) Brandon worked on LoP in 2007 after writing Warbreaker; he completed a draft, but he didn't like how it had turned out, so he scrapped it. It would be the earliest cosmere book, taking place before the Shattering of Adonalsium. His work on the Wheel of Time interrupted his plans, and he wound up writing Stormlight instead of fixing up Dragonsteel. The chapters aren't canon, although some elements of it have been referenced elsewhere (light Lightweaving, obviously, and the fain life was mentioned in AU). Notably, Brandon tried to repurpose Aethers, a magic system from one of his other unpublished books, although he didn't like how they fit. So, large chunks of this will be non-canon. But you can indeed see some Lightweaving at work. Lightweaving most likely appears in Dragonsteel, as well; Brandon had written that book (the first of 5 mentioned above) as his master's thesis back in 2000, but it wasn't good enough to publish. A few lucky people have been able to read it, but Brandon discourages them from discussing it for a number of reasons: major spoilers for the cosmere as a whole, elements that will change when he eventually rewrites it, and also he feels it is just badly written. But the Shattered Plain sequence originally appeared there, until Brandon repurposed it for Stormlight. But all that goes to say, Lightweaving on Yolen has been a part of Brandon's master plan for a long time, so I don't expect that it will look too different from what is in the LoP sample chapters.

Such is life. I guess I'll need to start loading up my sig more. Thanks for the transparency!

Just checking in, has this transcript been completed yet?

@Just another guyn, any updates on the BYU signing? Have you found out if you're allowed to post the audio?

Suggestion for a future Leaderboard update. I think it can very easily be used to generate a "Top Theories" list, which is something I think would be a huge benefit to have for newer members (and even some of us older members). Right now, filtering the leaderboard by "All-Time" and "Posts," I can get some of the most popular theories and posts, but it's pretty clogged with Brandon's 2012 Q&A topic. (Anything below 90 gets pushed off the list.) I think that if you can sort on only the first post (like a Topics option), that would let you better see what theories have been upvoted the most. (There will still be non-theory stuff, of course, but there will at least be more theories than there are right now.) If you ever implement a forum-by-forum filter as well (which has already been suggested), that could be even more useful to look at top Mistborn theories, etc. I guess I'm looking at reputation as more relating to posts, than to members. There are some great theories, that have a lot of upvotes, that can only be found in a few members' signatures. I don't know how much you're able to do with the reputation system, but it could be a way to bring some of those theories out into the open a little better.

http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=699#6 When Brandon uses Devotion, he is using it as a synonym of love. The word itself can have other meanings, but those are not what Brandon is getting at.

It's possible, but I don't think dopplegangers is how Hoid has fooled them. I think he tricked them in how he exited Shadesmar into Roshar. The Seventeenth Shard is looking for him around the Purelake, presumably because there is a Shardpool around there. But Hoid actually went through in the Horneater Peaks, when Rock witnessed him. So, more that they're looking in the wrong place, is how I've interpreted that line.

I don't know if it was confirmed or not, but the thread I linked to lists it as a possibility. It's widely accepted, I think.

Source.

So, Allomancy can be used by people on other worlds; we've seen a worldhopper using it in Stormlight Archive. (You need to watch very closely, though!) Because Allomancy is passed along genetically, if this worldhopper had children, they would have a chance to become Allomancers. So, strictly speaking, yes; Harmony can create Metalborn on another planet without affecting Scadrial. Beyond that, your question is actually getting into some very deep and poorly understood concepts about where magic systems come from in the first place. I view Allomancy as inherently being from Scadrial, even though it can manifest elsewhere. According to my understanding, particular magic systems are due to an interaction of a Shard (which provides the power) and a planet (which sets some of the specifics and limitations), and they are created when a Shard Invests themselves into that planet to tie themselves strongly together. So, I would say, if Harmony Divested from Scadrial and went to another world, he would have some control over his new magic system, but would also be constrained by the world he was going to. (Like, if he went to Roshar, maybe he makes a Feruchemy analogue that stores in spren or gemstones instead of metal. Or he might go to Nalthis and make something a little more divergent that's still in line with his Intent, if I may use my own fan-created magic system as an illustration.) I'm not sure if it would necessarily result in the destruction of the old magic system; as long as the Shard was Invested for a sufficient length of time, the effect on the Spiritual Realm might sustain the existence of Allomancy. The Spiritual Realm is time-independent, so even after someone has died their Spiritual aspect still exists there. We don't understand much of the Spiritual Realm, but it is a place of Connection. A strong Connection between a Shard and a Planet (a potential mechanism for creating a new magic system) wouldn't disappear when a Shard Divested from a system; the Shard and the planet have still had a major influence on each other. Basically, there might be enough Spiritual momentum to sustain the magic system after the Shard has left. Which could explain why Hoid can still Lightweave, which was an ability he had pre-Shattering. But, all that is only my understanding. Some people can approach the same limited information and come up with drastically different interpretations. Some people think that each Shard has a magic system that they take with them wherever they go. Some people think that all magic systems today are forms of magic systems originally from Yolen, and are only powered by different Shards in the modern time. At the end of the day, it's an excellent question, but we might be waiting a while to get an actual answer for it. EDIT: By the way, welcome to the Shard!

In the column on the right, look at "Once." It does look like it's letters, one-to-one, with C being either S or K depending on how it is pronounced.

I don't think we're in disagreement. The inference I took from Kurk's post was that he thought the key in this thread was inaccurate because it had H as its own symbol. Which, for the sake of the English cipher (which is what the women's script is thus far), one of their letters does indeed match the English H. Even if it's not actually an H in Alethi.

You can read the card:

So, when used as a cipher for English, there's definitely an H, because we need an H. But here's how I interpreted Brandon's latest comment: we're not writing in the actual Alethi alphabet (which has at least one letter that doesn't exist in English, the KH from Kholin). It's like taking a Greek keyboard and writing English words using what would be the keystrokes on an English keyboard, like this (λικε τηισ). That's nowhere near correct in any sense, but it's not writing Greek, it's not even transliterating English into Greek symbols, it's just being used as a cipher to write English. That being said, I'm pretty sure the 'H' in Women's Script will correspond to a different letter in Alethi. (Like the greek Eta, whose symbol is a capital H, but it's a vowel, a long E), maybe one that is attributed elsewhere in the English cipher. Maybe Alethi has even more consonants than English. Maybe there actually is a large consonant with three short lines following it, but we don't use it for transliteration because we don't have that many letters in English. (Or maybe not; if Alethi doesn't have separate Js and Ys, or if the Ch is actually pronounced like Kh, I think we've got room to get some extra consonants.) Side note, I don't know if this has been brought up in this thread, but the double-k is a guttural stop, I believe. Another non-English letter, one I don't think we've seen in the east of Roshar, only the west. Alethi might not have a consonant for it, even though I really hope they have a glyph component for a glottal stop.

Ctrl+f didn't work? Are you sure you typed the preceeding part correctly?

I like a lot of where you're going, but I don't like how you got there. I've suggested before that I don't think they're truly 'tapping' F.Nicrosil, either, but rather that the Investiture can still contact their souls and allow them to use the magic encased in the metalmind without needing to be drawn out of the it. I view this similar to Hemalurgy, but not quite identical; more that I don't think a 'Hemalurgical Charge' is anything special, unlike a Feruchemical Charge, but a Hemalurgical Charge is just a piece of a spiritweb. (Where a Feruchemical charge will be some property converted to Investiture, unless it was already Investiture to begin with.) All that goes to say, I like that part of the theory. But that doesn't really address the Connection aspect of it. I think your explanation of Internal vs External Connections is incorrect. I actually like the distinction you've made, but I don't think what you've identified as Internal Connection is Connection at all, and thus wouldn't be involved in F.Duralumin. I think, to understand how External Connection truly works (Or, as I like to call it, Connection), we need to look at the one source that actually explains it in any detail: Secret History. When Kelsier looks into the Spiritual Realm: I think it's interesting that Brandon rarely refers to singular objects in the Spiritual Realm as 'Connections'; rather, he refers to the spiritual substance of Connection, which forms lines of Connection. And it's not just a simple cross-reference table, either, that one person is either Connected to something or not. There are hundreds of lines of Connection between Kelsier and Ruin alone. I think, just maybe, that a line of Connection is an event, the way that the Spiritual Realm manifests anything that will influence a person. Anyways, from this description, there are three kinds of Connection: Person to person. Kelsier leverages this when he speaks to Vin, and later to Spook. I believe this Connection is also used by Forgers and Soulcasters, who both need to understand and leverage the history of an object with respect to individuals (Forgers more than Soulcasters, but Shallan's transformation of the boat in WoR definitely illustrates the concept.) Man to world. This is the kind of Connection that the translation medallions utilize. Kelsier to god. This is probably going to be the Connection that would be involved. I'm not sure of the extent of this sort of Connection needed to manifest magical abilities, or even what this type of Connection means in general unless it's more of the behind-the-scenes influence that gods have. This kind of Connection is definitely needed to Ascend, so maybe it is also an important component of Initiation. I don't think this is primarily of a religious nature; Kelsier didn't worship Ruin, he was influenced by him. I think religious ties are covered in Person to Person Connection, so even though this is between a person and a Shard, I think what you're looking for to explain drawing on someone else's powers would fall under the first kind of Connection. I'm struggling with a specific mechanism for how any Connection would be used in granting magic, unless it's a component of Initiation, along with a crack in the soul and the provision of a piece of a Shard's Investiture. But, since there is no duralumin on the medallions themselves, that would mean that the Connection is only used in their creation, not in their implementation. That all being said... I don't have an alternate mechanism for Connection being involved. At this time, I don't see any relationship between lines of Connection and obtaining magical powers, which is what medallions are all about. (Like you, I have no idea how the original question-asker thought to approach from this angle.) It almost seems simpler if this was a misheard question; if Brandon was answering for Feruchemical Aluminum or Hemalurgical Duralumin, both of which could easily be used. But that would be bad hermeneutics to assert, so at the moment I'll just publically air my musings and leave it at that. There are a lot of tangents that I won't address for the sake of staying on topic, especially since some of those I've addressed elsewhere. (Edwarn's weak/benefit is 'only' unkeyed metalminds, Feruchemy is not storing part of the spiritweb like Hemalurgy does, Excisors are clearly a new term for Spikes.) I like the acupuncture analogies, and would like to see that properly spun off into a theory that I can Espouse. But, best I can gather, the core of your theory is that an artificial Line of Connection can allow Person A to use Feruchemy on Person B's Spiritweb. While I like much of the Realmatic fundamentals you've presented and disagree with a lot of your specific interpretations, on the whole, I find it to be too much of a leap from what we have seen from Connection. So, I guess I do need to expand on what the Set is doing, then, since that is where you're drawing direct manipulation of another's spiritweb. Wayne found the unkeyed goldmind. Someone filled that up; if someone like Templeton's wife was a willing participant (I don't recall that exact scene, but I think I had a vastly different interpretation), they would have suffered the weakness. But Wayne was the one who drew out of it, and received the benefit. The Set already has a secret method that can accomplish exactly what Edwarn described, so I disagree with looking for a more complicated explanation of his words. Sure, you can wonder why anyone would do that, take a F.Aluminum or F.Gold spike and spend all your time storing for someone else. I think there could be a number of personal reasons someone might be willing to do that, and it doesn't necessitate developing this new Connection mechanism. EDIT: @8bitBob, I don't think the second half of Edwarn's sentence is referring to Hemalurgy. It is a bit of a tangent ("even if..."), but still connected. He's saying something like 'We're limited to being triple Ferrings, even if it is Feruchemy+. But the Bands could make me a Full Feruchemist.' The Set has figured out a Feruchemy+ that lets you get energy out that you didn't put in; even if some of us disagree on exactly what that mechanism is.

WoB Count: 759 Reddit: 100% Twitter: 9%, 9/97 months Blog: 53%, 77/145 pages Interviews: 0%, 0/484 Welcome back, everyone. Things are still moving along - as you can see, I am 100% up to date on Reddit! (Well, as much as I can be. There will probably be some other snippets I'll pull in that are listed on their own in Theoryland or in their own topics on the Shard.) Right now, I'm still working my way through the blog and through Twitter chronologically. I'm actually pretty much at the same spot for both of them - through Dec 2009 for twitter, and Sep 09 for the blog. It really is interesting to look back with all the knowledge we have now, to be able to read between the lines of his WoT updates to see how early they actually were working on the split. Even though I'm enjoying the Wheel of Time stuff, I'm not getting all that much for the cosmere database. That's why you see, even with the latest AMA, I haven't even added 100 WoBs this month. This will jump when I get around to adding new interviews - there has been quite a bit of stuff this year that Theoryland doesn't have, and there's another con coming up this weekend. For now, I'm doing a lot of skimming, searching for the harder-to-find stuff, to get everything that Theoryland doesn't have in there first. (Also, I'm having some computer problems, while it's easy to go through the blog on my phone. I'll probably need to call Microsoft to resolve some battery issues with my Surface 3; I like the machine, but it won't charge, and it's really hard to use when its battery is dead.) My plan has always been to pull together the data that nobody has, and even if I don't get a functioning system, I have stuff other people can use after they've pulled everything Theoryland has. And, if you keep your ears to the ground, you can actually hear a lot of movement around the internet on something new to store and share WoBs. Here on the forums, over on Discord, in back alleys, up in blimps; people are talking, working on getting a new system in place. I think there will be at least one new player in the WoB game by the time Oathbringer comes out. So keep your ears open, boys and girls. But, all that to say, I might avoid Theoryland entirely, and try to comb through the Time Waster's Guide archive once I've completed the Twitter and Blog passes. I know some of the big stuff from TWG is already in Theoryland, but Peter just passed along something interesting from a long time ago, that Hemalurgy was the original name of Sazed's magic. These are the kinds of things I'd really like to find, the stuff that has been lost to the ages. So, if someone else is going to work on taking Theoryland's data and putting it into a new system, I might just keep digging. Lastly, here's a WoB to leave you all with, from the latest AMA. It's not as earth-shattering as some of the other ones I've shard, but I think it has some neat implications. I'll discuss it more below the jump. Source The Arcanum Unbounded essay for the Scadrian system said that there were two worlds where humans were created by Shards. Scadrial is one of them; I've suspected that Nalthis is the other one, since Breath is built into their spiritwebs. This lends credence to that idea, and maybe that the entire ecosystem was made by Endowment (although the planet itself was probably already there, but uninhabitable). But the particular phrasing of his answer shows that there are five kinds of worlds in the cosmere: Created by Shards, earth-like ecosystem, humans created. (Scadrial, Nalthis [probable]) Created by Shards, earth-like ecosystem, humans imported or no human presence. Created by Shards, divergent ecosystem. Created by Adonalsium, earth-like ecosystem. Created by Adonalsium, divergent ecosystem. (Roshar) Brandon saying it's common implies that there are more worlds created after the Shattering with earth-like life besides Nalthis and Scadrial that were created after the Shattering, since there are 'a bunch' of minor Shardworlds. But, again, we also know that only two worlds had their humans created by the Shards. Does this mean that on other worlds, the ecosystems were created by Shards, but the people came from elsewhere? Or maybe it's referring to some of the uninhabited worlds in the systems we've seen, like the other worlds in the Threnodite system? (Basically, Threnody and the Drominad worlds are either Type 2 or Type 4, and Sel might be one too if it doesn't turn out to have dragons.) We also learn that there are worlds created by Shards, that are not like Earth. (Assuming Brandon didn't mean that 100% of Shard-created worlds have earth-like life, which would technically still mean "it is more likely to happen on a planet ... created by Shards.") Roshar is out; we know that was created by Adonalsium, and it's a Type 5. Of the ones we've seen, that leaves Taldain to be a Type 3, with an ecosystem created by Autonomy. But if that's the case, where did the human population come from? (This question remains for all Type 3 worlds, even if we later discover Taldain is a Type 5.) Also, let's just throw in Type 6 and Type 7, predating Adonalsium and being earth-like and divergent, respectively. I don't know if these exist, but I'll cover my butt just in case. Yolen might be Type 4 or Type 6, and who knows if any Type 7s exist. I should probably spin this off into its own topic somewhere. And combine that with my Major/Minor and Core/Auxiliary terminology to have a precise way to discuss many aspects of Shardworlds. (Even more of a side note, I've been planning on adding Augmented and Diminished to go with Major/Minor, to address whether a Shard is currently there or not.) Like I said, this WoB might not seem like much, but I think it's an important piece to understanding the cosmere as a whole. I can really get my wheels spinning on it.

Have something specific, or you're just begging for a RAFO. Is there something more specific about that scenario you're wondering about?

Brandon never charges. Sometimes events will have an entrance fee (or bookstores will make you buy a book), but Brandon does not make money from signing books or taking pictures. Purely promotional.

I think this is about the AU map; Threnody's star was the only star outside of the Scar that was red.

Good questions all around. The red star in Threnody's system has been bugging me for a while, and I don't recall anyone asking about it. That being said, 1) will probably be a RAFO, since Oathbringer focuses on the Bondsmiths, and Brandon has been RAFOing questions about them pretty freely. 4) might have an interesting answer, but Brandon didn't actually design the constellations, Isaac Stewart (his art director) did that on his own initiative. Details like that, and Scadrial being in Nalthis's constellation, don't seem to have all that much significance. Also, for 5), are you referring to the chasmfiend shown in one of the WoK illustrations (about two-thirds of the way down this page)? Ultimately, ask the questions you are interested in, and don't feel like you need to carry water for the greater community. Brandon has an uncanny ability to sense when someone is pulling from a list, and he'll talk a lot more when he can tell you're asking questions you came up with yourself. (But if you don't have a lot of time, I'd recommend asking 1) and 4) last.)

The simplest theory, yes, is that harmonium could not exist until Harmony existed. That being said, I'll go into why some of us think it might be older than that. Brandon has implied that harmonium is the titular 'Lost Metal' that the next Wax and Wayne book will be named after. Also, since there were prophecies about the Hero of Ages even before the time of Alendi, it's possible that the combination of the Shards was something that had been planned a long time ago, maybe from even before Preservation betrayed Ruin. They might have been working together to produce some harmonium, but then they stopped after Ruin's imprisonment and all the ettmetal that had been produced had either been consumed or reacted. It's far from the simplest scenario, that's true. But, for me at least, I started looking into those alternatives because of the quote I linked above, how harmonium could be considered 'lost' if they hadn't ever had it before.

Hah. How crazy would it be if what Kelsier did to Ati was exactly what Rayse did to send the other Shadows Beyond. He just finds them and knocks them out cold, and that sends them Beyond.

Yeah, I suspected that that idea might have been floating around again. You can actually go and debunk that line of reasoning if you want to: the metal that Bleeder used was from a Shard we knew in 2015, before we learned about Ambition in Arcanum Unbounded at the end of last year. (Of the Shards we know, that only excludes Ambition; it's the one Shard we have learned about since that WoB.) So, even though I mentioned it, I say it's not actually a valid possibility for Ambition to be Trell, barring some complicated mental gymnastics.