Pagerunner

It might be putting the cart before the horse, but if they share the same orbital, they occupy the same space (r isn't a distinct value for any electron, it's a probability distribution obtained by applying a different operator to the wavefunction, correct? And if they share the same distribution for r, then they can be used interchangeably in the equation), so they'll exert the same average electromagnetic force. Yes, it assumes that electrons will order themselves into orbitals in the end, but as long as they do that, I don't see why there'd be a problem with the math. I haven't included neutrons in the potential energy calculation, but I did assume that the functional electromagnetic force from both kinds of protons is similar (23 Ruin, 22 Preservation, it's within 5%, lets me fudge the math and say they're identical).

It should be the same constant, almost all the way across the board:

Hey, no need to apologize; this is exactly the kind of discussion I was looking for, and it was a pretty good explanation of the Schrodinger equation. I'm pretty weak on my PChem, but I can always dig out my old textbook if I need to. (And it sounds like I will have to, since I don't remember the derivation of atomic orbitals.) I hadn't considered that additional forces would change the actual orbitals; would it just change the energy levels, or would it actually change the 2-6-10-14 progression of electrons in orbitals? (i.e. Positronium has a similar energy level structure to hydrogen, but with different spectral lines.) You'd have additional potential energy terms, but as long as: Investiture forces are the same order with respect to distance as electromagnetic (which, as you point out, would definitely be necessary) The atom is sufficiently large enough that the Preservation and Ruin forces coming from the nucleus are similar (say, less than 5% difference, like 22 vs 23 protons), the difference in additional repulsion from the nucleus will be negligible (since that's only a portion of the potential energy, anyways) Ruin and Preservation electrons are evenly distributed throughout the atom (so that a pair of electrons which share the first 3 quantum numbers will have a Ruin Electron and a Preservation electron, their combined potential energy with any given electron will be the two electromagnetic potentials plus the Investiture potential, means that for either of those two electrons, the average total potential is their electromagnetic potential plus half of the Investiture potential) Then shouldn't the Investiture potential energy terms combine with the Electromagnetic potential energy terms (all a function of the same r), leaving us with, basically, the same potential energy form with a more complex constant in place of the electromagnetic constant? (They really do need an equation editor on this board, just for this thread!) And a changing a constant won't change the form of the eigenfunctions, correct? For reconciling the Pauli exclusion principle, I was debating between two different possibilities, neither of which I've mentioned yet because I didn't find it relevant. The first was piggybacking it on the spin quantum number, to avoid four electrons per orbital, but then it would have to be limited in this effect for just harmonium, since atium and lerasium obviously have both spins. The other one, which I liked a little bit better, was that Investiture just straight-up didn't play into the Pauli exclusion principle, and that the specific mixing of electrons in harmonium was set by Harmony when he created this metal, but it sounds like the extra forces have a 'feedback' effect into the original physics of orbitals, so that might not be feasible. Maybe it's a combination of the two; when Harmony created his metal, he recognized that it would be all skiwampus if he didn't pair up the electrons one-to-one, so he has to be intentional when manifesting it. But, all-in-all, great thoughts, and I'll need to pull out my old PChem textbook and do some reading. Unfortunately, I'm a chemist, so when we start to look at one atom at a time, that gets a little outside my comfort zone. That's why I'm glad we've got some physicists to chime in!

The blue line shows where you've read in a thread; any new posts are below that line.

Dude, you're way overthinking it. If they will be important, you'll find out when you finally read it. If they're not, you'll find out once you've read the very last Mistborn. You asked a question about a future story... that's, like, a textbook Read and Find Out!

Oh, man, I forgot to mention Tarkin. I went with my brother's Star Wars roleplaying group, and we all agreed that Tarkin didn't work, especially when he was standing next to a real actor. (We called him Polar Express Tarkin.) The way his face moved made me think of Yoda in Episodes II and III, but it's fine if Yoda's facial movements aren't entirely human, since he's an alien and all that. But we all agreed that Lucasfilm did a good move by taking one for the team; this technology has been talked about for years (like self-driving cars), but someone needs to actually pull the trigger and get it done. This didn't work, but they probably learned a lot for the next time they try it. The original trilogy made a ton of practical effect breakthroughs. It's a very Star Wars thing to do to push the envelope on technology, and once CGI recreation works, it will be a huge game-changer, an order of magnitude larger than when James Cameron developed new 3D cameras for Avatar.

Welcome to the forums, and what a great question to start out with! The answer gets pretty deep into realmatics, so buckle up, 'cause this is gonna get messy. Metals themselves don't produce Investiture; they are keys to Investiture, which comes from a Shard. We do know that metals from another world are useable for Allomancy; if you're watching very carefully, you just might see it in Stormlight. Metal is an additional cost, like water is in White Sand or color is Warbreaker. The magic doesn't come from water (probably), it doesn't come from color. The magic is all drawn from the Shard behind that magic system. Allomancy is powered by Preservation. Elantrians are powered by the Dor, a mixture of two other Shards. To gain access to a magic system, you usually need to graft a piece of that Shard's Investiture onto your soul. (Initiation is the technical term for it; in Allomancy, that takes the form of Snapping). Whenever you use that magic system, you're drawing energy from a Shard. It turns out, actually, that the Dor is the exception in this case, that it's very difficult to power when you travel off-world. We learn why in the essay for the Selish system in Arcanum Unbounded. I'll put it in spoilers below, in case you haven't read it yet. So, if a Mistborn goes to Sel and burns a metal from Sel, they are consuming a piece of Selish matter to activate their Spiritual Connection to Preservation, letting them draw on Preservation's energy to power their Allomancy in a specific way. (Ultimately, this energy will return to Preservation; Shards will never run out of power from people using their magics.) It is also possible to power a magic system using pure Investiture, if you can find Investiture in a physical form. (It takes many forms across all three Realms.) Burning atium draws directly on Ruin's power, since it's a physical piece of Ruin's Investiture. Drawing on the mists pulls directly from Preservation, and lets you apply that energy to whatever Allomancy you want. Stormlight appears to be a similar phenomenon; it's the Shard's power embodied physically, and it gets stored in gemstones until a Surgebinder can use it. But it's a wild card; the Investiture can be used in any number of ways, as opposed to the Investiture gained when a Mistborn burns steel, which can only provide energy in one specific form (Pushing). It is theoretically possible to 'hack' a magic system to be powered by another Shard's power, especially when you have access to a physical form of Investiture. This has happened to an extent with a certain character on Roshar, who consumes Stormlight instead of Breath (but hasn't figured out how to Awaken with Stormlight). Sand Masters, from the graphic novel, might be able to recharge their sand by exposing it to Stormlight or Mists instead of sunlight on Taldain. (One theory is that the sunlight itself is Invested, and carrying energy from Taldain's Shard.) But that isn't the usual way of powering a magic system, which involves a direct path to the Shard in the Spiritual Realm. How you get that path in the first place varies by magic system. For Allomancy and Feruchemy, there's a genetic component (with an additional Snapping required for Allomancy). For Surgebinders, it looks like if you behave certain ways and say certain Oaths, you bond a spren (which is a piece of a Shard). Awakeners can be anyone; all you need is to collect enough pieces of the Shard Endowment (and we've seen a certain Stormlight character with perfect pitch, who probably has some Breaths). For the most part, you need to be from a specific world to meet those requirements to gain that magic. Hemalurgy is a big exception, and one that the author of the Ars Arcanum has commented on; anyone, anywhere, can use Hemalurgy to steal any magic. All you need to do is know how. So, I hope this answers some questions (and, honestly, I hope it raises a bunch more for you). Don't quite take everything I said as gospel truth; the big picture is confirmed (Shards can power their magic anywhere in the cosmere), but some of the specifics are debatable (like whether water for Sand Mastery is the exact same as color for Awakening, or the specific forms of Investiture that are required for Initiation). But hopefully this gives you a good springboard into the deep end of realmatics, to take the plunge and look with a close eye at passages in Brandon's books to puzzle out how all this fits together in the underlying theory.

It's not that the planets are the 'focus' of a book; it's where the books are set. Stormlight has laid hints that its story will unfold on multiple planets in the Rosharan system (Cognitive Shadows on Braize, anybody?), so that's why I included it on the list, because I think stuff will be happening there. (Maybe even on Ashyn, too, since Brandon has RAFOd some Ashyn questions because the answers could involve Stormlight spoilers.) I'm honestly surprised Braize is getting this much pushback... I thought it'd be harder to convince people that Threnody counts as a core world, after all this time lumping it in a category with First of the Sun.

Yeah, Brandon actually just spoke about it today. Dark One is cosmere.

What is the distinction you're trying to make? All planets in the cosmere are Shardworlds; some are major, some are minor (presence of a Shard); and some are core, some are not (importance to the Cosmere story).

No, other than the first WoB I linked, we have no more specific confirmation on which are core Shardworlds. But, since Odium is on Braize, the Everstorm has allowed travel from there, there are a bunch of Cognitive Shadows, whether or not Hoid has been to Braize is 'the biggest RAFO'... some of us think there will be a significant portion of the Stormlight Archive set on Braize, especially in the back five books.

Part of the problem is, we don't even know the full extent of atium's Allomantic powers. It seems to allow someone to peer into the Spiritual Realm, and this manifests most simply as seeing a little bit into the future, but it's possible to get other effects out of atium. (I suspect that atium can replicate any of the atium alloy's powers, but it's hard to specify the exact power you want without an alloy.) Sort of the same thing for lerasium; it can overwrite your sDNA, but the 'default' is to rewrite it to Mistborn. Alloys specify which Misting you want it to be. So, atium stores age. Is that a Spiritual Realm property, like the other Feruchemical Spiritual powers? Is it possible that Lerasium lets you store your own sDNA? But, no, that's what Nicrosil does... unless Nicrosil stores the piece of Investiture that fits into your soul when you snap, and lerasium gives you a way to temporarily change your sDNA by storing and tapping. But, then again, aren't Identity and Investiture part of your sDNA? There's some really deep Realmatics behind the god metals. And, since we only have one instance of a god metal being used in Feruchemy, it makes it really hard to extrapolate when we can't develop either a pattern or a mechanism. That's probably why we don't have too many theories, the door is just too wide open. I don't think it will let you store anything, though; each god metal has a universal effect in its god's magic system. Lerasium can let anyone become an Allomancer, atium can be used for any kind of Hemalurgy. I think Harmonium can be used to store any attribute, so that's why I don't think lerasium is behind universal metalminds, since Feruchemy is of both Shards (like Harmonium is). But, hey, let's throw out a crazy thought. What if you can just store your whole self in there, like a genie? Pop in there, set a timer, pop out without aging. It could be one of the ways Hoid has been alive since the Shattering, but not necessarily 'awake' that whole time.

Fine, the settings aren't as inventive. Cloud City, Jabba's Palace, those get the imagination going. The prequels had that in spades; Theed's architecture, the Gungan city, Coruscant, Kaminoan floating cities, the Geonosis arena, all the Order 66 flashes in RotS like Felucia, Mygeeto, and Utapau... really cool-looking, stuff that would never exist on Earth. The new Disney worlds just haven't seemed as interesting to me, and have just seemed like Earth locations.

I had really low expectations for this movie, as someone who did not enjoy The Force Awakens and who has been a huge Legends fan since I was a kid. And I was very pleasantly surprised. As a whole, I really enjoyed the movie, and the way it reframed the narrative of the Rebellion. It had flaws, of course; CGI Tarkin was really bad, and it looks like they'll never be able to come up with planets as imaginative as George Lucas's, but the movie had a soul, which is more than I can say for TFA and the Star Trek reboot. This is the founding of the Rebel Alliance. You have all these disparate groups just kinda resisting, they've been puttering around for 19 years building secret alliances and collecting warships, I'm pretty sure there are some Separatist forces mixed in with our Rebel heroes (Cassian has been a rebel since his family was killed when he was 6, and the visual guide establishes that he was 26 at his death, so he must have first become a rebel (lowercase-r) in the Clone Wars.) But they haven't had an identity yet. When the rubber meets the road, some people bail, and some people (Bail) step up in a big way. The entire black ops wing of the Rebellion, which has been killing their own allies the whole movie, willingly lay down their own lives instead to grant the Rebellion their first victory against the Empire. They pare down the Rebellion to those who actually believe in 'the cause,' and sacrifice themselves to achieve a better galaxy for everyone else. That left them at Yavin with 4 fighters; they literally gave everything. The next 3 years, they needed to rebuild, and that's why they needed Han to stick around for as long as he did; everyone else with actual military training had been killed. It's why they were running away for all of Episode V; they were assembling forces for another big strike, they couldn't sustain a large offensive. It paints a very different picture of the galaxy, why the Empire was able to cement its rule for almost two decades before the Rebellion we saw forming at the end of Episode III actually took off. They were bogged down with people who weren't willing to fight and people who weren't willing to fight differently than the Empire did. So, it fit really well into the existing narrative of the saga, and added new nuances without completely changing it. That's why killing everyone at the end was also a good sign in my mind; the filmmakers needed to fit with the saga, and if any of them had survived, they would have been very influential in the Rebellion. So, despite the impact it could have on toy sales (where Star Wars has always made most of its money) and sequel plans, they killed off the entire team. Because it's what the saga needed. Episode VII didn't fit with the saga; it had to twist the Empire back into power and the Rebellion back to being underdogs to replicate the feel of Episode IV. A natural progression of the galaxy would have been much more in-line with Episode II, where the good guys are in power but the bad guys are working behind the scenes. But that doesn't 'feel' like the original Star Wars, so we didn't get it. Me and my brother really liked the Hammerhead in Scarif battle, a neat call-out to Legends fans and a ship that fits well in the Rebel fleet (an antique that gets pressed into service). But I think they could have gone farther, since they drew on some obvious Legends influences. Jedha was obviously Ossus, the ancient Jedi fortress world. Scarif, the archive world, could have very easily been Obroa-skai. The Mon Cal admiral filled the role of Garm Bel Iblis; while I understand why they wanted to use a Mon Cal in that role, I think it's a shame they didn't bring in the third founder of the Rebellion to share scenes with Mon Mothma and Bail Organa. With some minor backstory changes, Chirrut could have been Rahm Kota. The Dark Troopers are probably actual Dark Troopers, though. Oh, and I couldn't picture the droid as a droid, since I knew his actor so well from Firefly. I think he was way too human, in a way that HK-47 and C-3PO aren't. I think he should have been an alien instead of a droid, like maybe a Givin, but it looks like they're moving away from alien Imperials being a thing. So, yeah, good movie, but it doesn't really give me much anticipation for future movies. But, then again, isn't that the point of Anthology films?

I've edited the original post to include further musings on core Shardworlds and total Shard count. Please feel free to continue derailment. Further plot twists: someone in Dark One uses the portal stones to take the pristinely ungifted to bring about a post-magic world. (Am I doing this right?)

Brandon recently responded to criticism that he was adding too many new works in this year's State of the Sanderson, by showing us his original plan for the cosmere that contains most of these works! Also includes a new statement on Dark One; it hasn't always been cosmere, but now we've got an up-to-date WoB saying it still is. (For now, at least.) EDIT: Upon further reflection, I think this also narrows down our 10 core Shardworlds. [and Shard count] Dragonsteel: Yolen [?] Mistborn: Scadrial [2] Stormlight: Roshar [2] Stormlight: Braize [1] Elantris: Sel [2] Warbreaker: Nalthis [1] White Sand: Taldain [1] Threnody novel: Threnody [0] Aether of Night: ??? (Vax seems more and more likely) [1+] Silence Divine: Ashyn [0] This would revise some traditional lines of thought that have defined Threnody as a minor Shardworld. I don't think Brandon has been intentionally lying to us about its status; I think we've conflated 'core Shardworld' and 'major Shardworld.' The first is an out-of-universe term to describe the 10 worlds the books are set on. The second is which worlds have Shards Invested in them and actual magic systems. All core Shardworlds have significant Shardic influence, but they don't all necessarily have a Shard. Ashyn seems to be another core Shardworld that isn't a major Shardworld (no magic system, but diseases interact with Realmatics because it has significant Shardic influence). It's still possible it actually has a Shard, and I've misplaced either Cultivation or Honor on Roshar, but I view those as less likely. This would require a new term for the Drominad system; they have no magic and no book, so they are minor and... auxiliary? Dictionary.com hasn't been terribly helpful, and insists 'core' isn't an adjective. But I'll call First of the Sun an auxiliary minor Shardworld, Threnody a core minor Shardworld, and Scadrial a core major Shardworld. If Dark One has a Shard, then it would be an auxiliary major Shardworld; not part of the core story, but still having a full Shard. This has further ramifications on our Shard count. Since Aether has a magic system, it must have at least one Shard on its planet. If I run the math (adding in Ambition and the other worldless Shard), that means there are 5 Shards to go between Aether's world, post-Shattering Yolen, and any potential auxiliary major Shardworlds. (If Ashyn is major, it wouldn't change the overall math; we know there are 3 Shards total in the Rosharan system.)

It's as important as Stormlight, and he won't write it concurrent, but that's the same deal for the other two Mistborn trilogies. The original plan was a 5-book main sequence with a 2-book prequel, the Liar of Partinel duology. He's cut down his plans to 3 books, which may involve cutting the Liar duology entirely and heading straight into the main series. They were all supposed to be big, but not this big. He's said he wants every book to be shorter than the previous ones, and so far each has been longer. He just has too much fun while writing them.

So, Brandon cut back on his projected release schedule to only go through 2020, since in the past he's been a little... let's say 'optimistic' and leave it at that. (Has anyone even heard the word 'skiwampus' before?) But it seems he's accepted that Stormlight books will be a 3-year affair each, so I have a little more confidence in this assumption. So, I've gone ahead and extrapolated out well beyond what is reasonable, with the following assumptions: During regular Stormlight publication, Brandon will release one Stormlight novel and one other cosmere novel every 3 years. During post-Stormlight publication (and the interlude between SA5 and SA6), Brandon will release one cosmere novel every year. YA and novellas are included in the writing time for the cosmere novels (a.k.a. recess is on the schedule). They are left off the publication estimates, since they are not prerequisites. So, here's when I expect we'll finally finish up the cosmere sequence: between 2046 and 2052. I would say this is a rather conservative estimate; as Brandon continues to improve as a writer, he may very well be able to cut down the time it takes to get a Stormlight book out, or somehow manage to keep himself from writing each one longer than the last. He could also potentially slow down on some of his YA stories, finding time to add an extra cosmere novel or two. But, it could also go the other way and stretch even farther; because of the way Brandon writes, slips in this schedule are likely. I've assumed they'll happen generally like they did this year, where a Stormlight book stretches longer, or like with Wax & Wayne where Brandon decides to throw a while new book in, which he's threatened to do with Elantris 2 in 2018. He may also need to write some more White Sands drafts, if he wants to keep the graphic novel publication pipeline full; they wouldn't take as long as a 'real' book (no offense), but they could still delay Stormlight 4. Rearranging the schedule is one thing (writing Elantris 2 before Stormlight 4 wouldn't affect Mistborn 3.1), but because the Stormlight series is a prerequisite to Dragonsteel, adding in new surprise books (like the ones listed in Other Cosmere Novels) would push the whole thing back. I assume, when he writes his remaining big trilogies (Mistborn, Dragonsteel, and Mistborn again) that he'll power through without mixing another cosmere book in the middle of a trilogy. I've also assumed that he'll get himself too excited once he starts finishing up certain big series, and he won't take time for a break cosmere book. (Stormlight 10 right after Stormlight 9, Mistborn 4.1 right after Dragonsteel 3, those kinds of things), but he may need to stretch them out if he needs to fit some novels he hasn't written yet (especially stuff like this new Threnody novel or Aether of Night before the Mistborn finale). So, when I've totaled up the possible slips I identified, I get 6 years. So, that's why there's all that blank space at the bottom of the timeline. Room to breathe. So, in my estimate, I've left room for at least two cosmere novels, which could be anything. They might be standalones that have been churning in Brandon's brain since he was a kid. They might be more Mistborn excursions. But I don't know which of his planned Other Cosmere Novels will actually be novels, and which ones might be novellas (which wouldn't push back the rest of the schedule), which I think is the current plan for Silence Divine. Aether of Night might make a great graphic novel adaption to follow White Sand. But, the way I see it, Brandon can definitely write two of these books in the Stormlight back half without slowing down the overall publication schedule. EDIT: Oh, by the way, the numbers to the left of the timeline is Brandon's age. Very doable.

Yeah, we've known for a number of years that Elantris was planned to be three books, and both even made it onto the State of the Sanderson publication projection last year. The plot hook for the sequel is quite old (from back when Elantris was first published). I just discovered right now a really peculiar WoB from a Wheel of Time signing, that Elantris 2 was going to be titled 'Dragonriders.' I'm not sure how accurate of a paraphrase that WoB is; it says that there were going to be 3 sequels all released in 2015 about side characters in the city of Dakhor. I can see how to stretch it to get it mostly consistent with what we knew of Brandon's plans; he says 'trilogy,' it gets interpreted as 3 new books. He says he wants one out in 2015, it gets taken as they're all out then. But the title, that's something I hadn't seen before, and I don't know where that would have come from.

Good call; he did mention it, and say that he did say that there are 'seeds of the story already in other books.' That implies there's more than just the Amberite in Mraize's collection. Vax, having been mentioned twice in two different books, is a good candidate. I also didn't get a chance at the last signing to ask about my pet theory, that some Southern Scadrians have Bestarin, but it could also fit.

Here's the first (and only other) description of Soulburner, from last year's SotS:

As far as I know, the stories themselves are identical. AU has the essays, of course, and the author's comments might be slightly different. (I think my electronic copy of Shadows for Silence, at least, has a longer introduction than AU's postscript.)

Top of page 503 in Arcanum Unbounded. Right after they turn on the machine for the first time.

Things I found notable: A Threnody novel that's been planned since his unpublished days! That finally rounds out the old 36-book cosmere sequence. Although, people returning to the Evil-stricken continent does sound a lot more appealing than those who were originally fleeing it, since we've already seen the aftermath. Silverlight novella. That could make a very nice tide-us-over e-book-only novella for 2017, and who knows, maybe include the missing Nalthis essay and map? I guess Adamant isn't cosmere, if Brandon will bring in other authors. But, I like how he has accepted that Stormlight books are 3-year endeavors, and that he doesn't want to slot too much in. A much more realistic State of the Sanderson, without too many changes from last year. Like I said earlier in this topic, we don't want to see his 5-year plan changing drastically on a year-to-year basis. EDIT: @Argent, SotS2015 had two Elantris sequels in the plan, and he name-dropped Soulburner as a new setting he started developing. No story attached, just a 'very distinctive' world.

I think Peter recently spoke about the editing process on Reddit. IIRC, the first draft is Brandon originally writing it down, the second draft involves the continuity team going over with a fine-toothed comb, the third draft is back to Brandon, and then there's at least one more run-through from the continuity team looking to make sure all the errors have been corrected. So, in this case, they've been drafting by part instead of by book. They've completed Draft 2 of Parts 1&2, and sent that back to Brandon for his third draft. While the continuity team is doing Draft 2 for Parts 3-5, Brandon will do a Draft 3 for Parts 1&2. They expect this piecemeal approach will cut 1/2 a year off of editing time. Short answer, Draft 2 isn't Brandon's job, so he doesn't put it up on his progress bar. EDIT: Here are some other relevant comments: