TheOneKEA

Are we sure Ruin didn't appear in the Cognitive Realm? I need to reread the story and see what color the mists are; Ruin is associated with black mists, according to WoB, so they may be there. Given that Ruin is Cognitively trapped by Preservation for most of the story, it makes sense that the mists are not a uniform mix.

Thanks for coming here and posting this info Brandon! I am always intrigued to learn more about this type of continuity work. It adds a lot of depth to the original story without changing it.

Indeed. I was too enthusiastic and posted it in the wrong forum. I PM'd Chaos to ask to have it moved.

I think that it is quite likely. My current belief is that Spook was cognitively and spiritually worn out and wanted to move on Beyond, and Kelsier used some knowledge gleaned from somewhere about Hemalurgy to re-anchor himself in the Physical Realm and inhabit Spook's body as a possessor once Spook had died. It's even possible that Harmony expended a portion of the Ruin Shard's Investiture to make this possible, although I'm willing to bet that it may not have been done willingly.

SPOILERS for Mistborn: Secret History!!!!!

WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWWWWWWWWWWWWW This novella was everything that I could have hoped for and more. Everything that I ever wanted to know about Realmatic Theory, the Cognitive and Spiritual Realms of Scadrial, the true nature of a Shard's Spiritual power, the true nature of being consumed by Shardic Intent, the cognitive emptiness of interstellar space combined with the first signs of the relationship between a planetary gravity well and the borders of its cognition.... WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW I am extremely interested to know more about what's happening on Threnody, and whether or not there is more magic on that world than we thought. I am extremely interested to know more about the beings whose powers of mind are so great that they can shape the fabric of the Cognitive Realm into an energy pipeline for an entire outpost. I am extremely interested to know if there is a reason why the spirits of objects on Scadrial resemble the spirits of objects on Roshar. I am also tremendously pleased that Elend, Vin, Sazed and Kelsier were all able to achieve some semblance of peace and understanding with one another before Elend and Vin moved on outside of the cosmere. It pleases me a great deal that Sazed started out on better terms with his god hood than we thought. I am incredibly happy that Brandon was willing to give this novella to us. Another mighty step forward in our understanding of Realmatic Theory and the Cosmere!

I really like this term too. Now that we have FINALLY seen the Cognitive Realm on Scadrial and FINALLY seen how the Spiritual power of a Shard is contained by the mind of its wielder, I believe that calling someone the Vessel for a Shard makes much more sense.

I perceived the end of this scene as the forced capture of the mind of Edvarn in the Cognitive a realm, to be used for some nefarious purpose.

I agree with everyone else here. The connections are too obvious; Iyatil has to be related in some way to the Malwish people from Southern Scadrial.

YES!!!! Watching Steris grow and change, and Wax change alongside her, was amazing! Brandon really showed off his growth in character development and plotting with her and I couldn't be happier! I can easily see Steris Ladrian becoming a woman who is spoken-of in-universe with the same reverence as Vin.

A lot of people think it is. I noticed her immediately but I couldn't remember what we thought her name was.

It certainly is not!! This was the single biggest revelation of the entire book!

The Excisor might be the break in the loop. It might provide the catalyst to allow the Nicrosil Ferring to store into the aluminum metal mind created by the Trueself. Once that happens the events you describe can proceed as you described. What I am curious about are the cognitive perceptions associated with a nicrosil metal ind we saw numerous examples, especially with the Bands, of how the metal mind starts to work once you perceive it as one. This may be the starting point for understanding the Cognitive Realm on Scadrial and how the Metallic Arts interact with it.

WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW First of all, I really, REALLY did not expect Telsin to survive being shot by Wayne. I expected her to do something nefarious against Wax and his party because tropes, but I didn't expect her to outrank Edvarn and to actually possess Bloodmaker abilities! I am convinced that ettmetal is either sodium or cesium, mixed with a god metal of some type. And I am VERY interested to learn more about duralumin Feruchemy and the other abilities it grants besides an innate capability to speak a language, and nicrosil Feruchemy and its relationship with the cognitive portions of Realmatic Theory. I am just in awe at what was revealed to us in the Cognitive Realm around Scadrial. To actually see it for the first time and to see the cognitive representation of the entities laying siege to Scadrial was absolutely incredible, and I will thoroughly enjoy the Theorycrafting on how Harmony has protected Scadrial and what he could be protecting the Scadrians from. Last but not least, where is the extra piece of Ruin??? Does the man who may be Kelsier, who went south after the reconstruction of the planet, actually possess it? Is that what the spike is? And how does this interplay with the Kendra associated with the Set? Are they mistwraith who were given the mysterious spike? And finally, where did Hoid get that metal mind? I eagerly await the novella!

I didn't notice that until I read Peter's posts on Reddit. Now it makes perfect sense why it isn't available from iTunes. Now I am merely annoyed instead of displeased... That was why I PM'd firstRainbowRose, because I didn't want to get tossed in the sin bin by the staff. I am so unsurprised that I'm surprised! I'm just waiting for the next unexpected novella to show up and for the latest round of "STOP DOING THAT" from Inkthinker on Reddit...

The iTunes Store usually releases pre-ordered books for download between midnight and 6am.

It is not available yet from the iTunes Store. This displeases me. I spoke to firstRainbowRose via PM shortly after I spotted that Reddit had found the postscript of BoM and the mention of the novella inside it, and she advised me that the staff were discouraging discussions of the novella so that Brandon could spring it on us. I 'd really like to know if Brandon was always going to spring it on us the day before or if he changed his plans after Amazon screwed up.

I have a question! Is Spiritual DNA shaped like a helix?

I really like this theory a lot! Your research and collection of quotes supports a very interesting argument that makes a lot of sense.

Is it even worth referring to them as spren? Someone once characterized Scadrial as a very Investiture-poor world in comparison to Roshar, so I'm not sure if it's possible for a spren to even exist in the same fashion on Scadrial, in any of the three realms.

I agree, Yata's explanation seems to be the most likely one. If I get to see Brandon at a signing I will see if he is willing to answer questions about this or if he RAFOs them. It may provide some insight into Realmatic Theory on Scadrial, since it doesn't look like we'll be seeing the other two realms on this planet anytime soon.

I'll just be happy if Brandon comes anywhere near Baltimore again. He was last here in early 2013.

I hadn't actually considered that as a possibility. I had always assumed that Investiture and Spiritual power were the same thing where the Shards were concerned and that if you put a lot of the former into one place that the latter would appear.

I was thinking about the mechanics of Realmatic Theory in connection with Scadrial while reading the Era 2 Mistborn novels and I had a sudden thought that I haven't seen a lot of discussion about in this board. What prevented the pile of atium in the kandra homeland from self-organizing into a Splinter of Ruin? When I thought about this for a while I figured that there were a few possible reasons why a Splinter didn't manifest from this pile of metal: - There was no Cognitive perception of the cache as a unified, organized entity, and so there was no opportunity for self-organization. - Preservation deliberately acted to prevent the Investiture taken from Ruin becoming self-organized when assembled in a large quantity. - The atium was in solid form and was therefore unable to interact with itself in the manner needed for self-organization. Has anyone thought about this at all? Does anyone have any theories of their own?

I still think that Sazed expended the leftover portion of th Ruin Shard's power on the Koloss, to change them into a more normal life form capable of breeding like ordinary humans.