Ixthos

Welcome back once again to the Flexiprompts! Today's list is smaller than last time, being only two prompts, but I hope to also use this time to give a brief summary of what I'd like to do with some of the future posts. If you're interested, read the spoiler box below. Otherwise, feel free to skip to the dice rolling section! So, once again once again, grab a d6, or use Google's dice roll function, and choose from the following: If you rolled a 1, 2, or 3, go to to Spoiler Box A If you rolled a 4, 5, or 6, go to Spoiler Box B Spoiler Box A Spoiler Box B I hope whoever is reading this is having a great day, and I hope you have a wonderful week!

I did! And thank you, that was amazing!

I only found out about this last night when I watched SFDebris' reupload of his review of Mask of the Phantasm, and saw he dedicated the video to Mr. Conroy. As soon as I heard, I remembered this clip: May the LORD God bless his soul and grant him rest and peace.

Funnily enough, I get that on both counts, and at the very least for those condemned the idea of eternal conscious torment always bothered me. And this point (eternity and humanity) is a great topic to discuss* for both the unbelievers' fate and the believers' fate. As I mentioned before, I'm somewhat heterodox in certain positions, and I believe both points - for believers and unbelievers - can actually be argued to be much more complicated than the pop-culture / theme-park versions many of my fellow believers, as well as unbelievers ... believe. I'll be brief, because if I don't I'll be writing all day: The issue with how people view "Heaven and Hell" is complicated by the fact that we have three bodies (as I mentioned earlier in this thread, being the body, soul, and spirit), and most Christians and non-Christians tend to think only in terms of a meat-puppet body and a puppet master soul or spirit (which they believe the Bible teaches is immortal - when in fact the Bible teaches that NONE of the bodies actually are), as well as the conflation between the ideas of (for Hell) Hades / Sheol / the Grave, Tartarus, "Satan's kingdom," and the Lake of Fire, and conflation of the ideas of (for Heaven) Heaven, the Kingdom and the Kingdom Come, and the New Heaven and New Earth - all these ideas within their respective groups are related, but they are not the same; There are three main views on the nature of Hell, being Traditionalism (eternal conscious torment of some kind, some viewing it literally as eternal physical flames, others as metaphorical fire), Universalism (eventually Hell will be emptied and everyone in it redeemed), and Annihilationism (Hell as destruction, the body and soul completely destroyed). Of the three, the one I want to believe is Universalism, but the one I think has the most scriptural support is Annihilationsim - this site has some excellent articles going in detail about all the verses discussing the afterlife and why Annihilationsim actually fits scripture best - https://www.hellhadesafterlife.com/ Also note, that I think the way the three bodies of humanity interact with the worlds might explain some of the confusion that arises around this topic - the body and soul will be destroyed, but to ensure that that particular individual is destroyed forever their spirit is locked away, thus the underlying pattern that formed their soul can never manifest again, the consciousness of the person is gone forever and into all eternities they will never exist again, in all of infinite time that pattern is lost, and this is because their spirit has been sealed away to eternal contempt; The Bible is clear that humanity will be changed - and indeed must be changed in order to enter - in the New Heaven and the New Earth, and there are key points implied and mentioned in scripture which strongly indicate that eternity in the LORD God's presence will be eternally wonderful: What makes being with the LORD God wonderful isn't that we are living forever, but that our relationship with Him will be restored to its fullness, as it was supposed to be, and so our own natures will have been changed - it won't just be us "living forever" as we are, with our original flawed natures, able to be bored and run out of things to do, but rather it will be "new every day" and our natures themselves changed; We are awaiting not just a New Earth, but a New Heaven as well - scripture is clear on this point, and that implies that even the nature of the Spirit World will change, that the nature of archetypes will be different, and thus that the very nature of our reality will be different - and not just that, but it will be a combined New Heaven and New Earth, like Eden was; We will have bodies like Yeshua's Resurrected body, and so our natures won't just be physical (bound by time) but spiritual, which is implied to be timeless - and as brain chemistry determines much of how we think, new bodies implies a change to our minds, just as when we grew from baby to toddler to young child to teen to young adult to adult to middle ages to elderly, we are not the same people we were before, but each step contains the seed of who the previous you was, like a seed to a plant - you will be you, and you will be different, and you will be who you always longed to be; We will partake of the life and nature of the LORD God to sustain us, and He exists outside of time, and is the very source of order - not sterile but vibrant and living and alive - and of creativity and of purpose and love, being with Him and learning from Him, and thus we will free to finally be who we are meant to be, and redundant elements of our bodies and minds, like boredom and pain and the ability to feel and experience negative states, will be gone - and our hearts will be changed, so that we can finally and completely love God and finally and completely love one another, no more division or hatred between the peoples - and finally free to be useful into eternity, and to enjoy that usefulness Also, in brief, my fascination with the different sizes of infinity shows that it is possible for someone to have eternal time and yet, even over the course of infinite eternities, always have something new to do - if the cardinality of the one is less than that of the other, or even if they are the same (see Hilbert's Hotel), one can, if both are infinite, always have something to do and never get bored. Nevertheless, even if I have misunderstood the nature of the afterlife, I fully believe and trust that the LORD God will do what is right - as all He does is right, as all solid moral standards flow from Him, as does all mercy and justice - and so all will be well, and all will be dealt with justly, no-one being rewarded or punished beyond what is right. *(One which I think would be nice to fully tackle in great detail after I've posted the Seven Days of Creation post - I've been working on it intermittent for the past couple of months, though life has been especially hectic and draining lately, I've had lots of ideas popping into my head that derail my focus, and I got a bit distracted by the preview chapters for The Lost Metal. I might need to dial back on the forum for a while.)

*Blushes manfully*

True, but note the sections I highlighted from The Lost Metal pre-release chapters. If Sazed were to be affected in this manner, it likely would result in the transformation of the Shardic investiture into something, and Sazed is heavily invested in the planet, and if that Investiture self annihilates, it has to change in some manner. If that investiture suddenly changes state, the most likely result would be a Physical or Cognitive realm explosion. And even if the result only is Spiritual Realm related, it would likely Splinter Harmony, and no Cosmere spoilers, but a splintered Shard would likely be almost as bad as a Physical Realm explosion. Trell may itself actually be made of corrupted Investiture, so the red may be part of their nature by default. Also, the metals are, I think, much close to being Investiture than matter, but either way I think Trell is primarily focused on performing an equivalent act on Harmony, which Hero of Ages implies is a risk Sazed faces if he ever, even by himself, lost his harmony with the Shards. Also, yeah, I also doubt Scadrial is doomed, but knowing the enemies plans - or trying to work them out in advance, certainly is fun

Welcome back to the Flexiprompts! Today well be continuing similarly as before, though perhaps, maybe, we'll see if subsequent ones are so straightforwards! This time the prompts are a bit more themed, so to speak. There are four here now, with two fantasy themed (with possible science fiction elements), and two science fiction themed (with possible fantasy elements). Two are based on classic genre tropes with a twist added, and two are a little more exotic. Each of the prompts will also involve rolling at least one of the options twice for two different characters or groups. These options will be listed with an asterisk* next to them. I hope you enjoy! So, once again, grab a d6, or use Google's dice roll function, and choose from the following: If you rolled a 1 go to to Spoiler Box A If you rolled a 2 go to Spoiler Box B if you rolled a 3 or 4 go to Spoiler Box C And if you role a 5 or 6 go to Spoiler Box D Spoiler Box A Spoiler Box B Spoiler Box C Spoiler Box D Hope you find this fun and I hope it gives you some ideas for writing. Good luck!

It depends. I think, if Trell is invested in Scadrial, and isn't planning to commit - or was designed to be a suicide weapon - it likely would survive the planet's destruction, though possibly weakened. Though I don't think Trell is invested in Scadrial, but has hacked hemalurgy somehow, possibly due to incorporating some of Ruin into itself - if trellium contains traces of atium, that might explain how its spikes can function if it isn't invested in the planet, and if Trell is invested in the planet, that implies there is a fourth Metallic Art.

And of course rather than drug checks one would be looking for illegal spikes, both to gain an unfair boost to ones native allomantic or feruchemical power, but also to try to slip an extra power past the ref! Oh, and also because it would imply someone was murdered ...

Interesting idea however, E=m*c^2 (though from what I understand, that is only for the rest mass, and when dealing with moving objects the equation is a little bit longer, and I think it has a ^4 in it somewhere ...) is all about determining the amount of energy a chuck of matter has based on its mass - it is the relation between energy and matter. Rather, what you want is one other equation, say the equation that relates a given amount of energy to a certain amount of investiture, and from there one could then derive an equation for a relation between investiture and matter. The key point is that investiture, while it can become energy and / or matter, is not bound by a set amount within a given invested item - after all, if Wax were to full his ironminds the total mass of the Wax-ironmind system would go down, but the amount of investiture would go up. I don't think a full metalmind has any difference in weight to an empty one, thus there is no way to multiply the two, but rather one would have to add a "+ (energy-investiture relation)" into the mix. So the equation would be (for a rest mass): E (energy of the item, say a metalmind) = m*c^2 (uninvested rest mass of the item) + "I*R" (I being the amount of investiture the item has, R being the energy-investiture relation) With R as a constant, just as c^2 is a constant based on the constant c. It could be R is a more complex number, but related to some other cosmere constant.

Avatars are in a sense almost splinters, but remain connected. However, it is implied each Avatar has a type of Vessel, so either is in a sense bestowed on someone or was shaped with a specific mind by the Shard or by the nature of its natural formation, and as different Vessels for a Shard can subtly influence the metal produced, so to it is implied that Avatars would have at the very least subtle variations in the metal they themselves produce. This also is assuming that Avatars can't be made from combining pieces of other Shards together, which would then create an alloyed metal or something like harmonium, which is distinct from lerasium and atium.

Are you (probably) a Shard or Avatar (or Splinter), possibly created specifically as a weapon against another not-quite-as-Harmonious-as-the-name-implies Shard? Want to blow up its planet as well? Well, Trell has just the solution for you! Based on information from the blurb, Chapters 15 and 17 of The Lost Metal previews, how Vin and Ati killed one another, and why Sazed didn't. Step 0: Check to make sure your rival is fully invested in their planet - this will be crucial if you intend for there to be a massive light show. Step 1: Get your only mostly stable rival into a state where the two halves that compose their power and essence are in extreme conflict. A war between its peoples should suffice, especially if your opponent is driven to both Ruin and Preserve, and they genuinely care for the well-being of their people Step 2: Approach your rival in the Spiritual Realm where the division is most prominent. If the point of greatest division is in the Physical or Cognitive Realm, approach them there instead. Step 3: Apply your power to this junction. Note that this step will only work if, by your nature, you repel other forms of Investiture Step 4: Watch as the now-in-conflict halves of your opponent, polarised against one another, annihilate each other, releasing enormous amounts of power into the planet, destroying it. (Note: if you were specially made to enact this event, it could well be you were not intended to survive it, but that is a small price to pay for the light show.) ... So, yeah, I think the explosion is going to be more than just a massive polarised harmonium / trellium explosion to wipe out Elendel, as the blurb implied Harmony ultimately saw nothing if Trell succeeds, which implies that, and makes the most sense if, Harmony was himself also destroyed. It also seems that, if Trell doesn't eliminate Harmony, then Trell would also always face the threat that Harmony posed, only now free to use his full power to avenge his people, or meddle elsewhere. Some relevant sections of text: The blurb / Tor book announcement: Vin and Ruin's final moments: Sazed becoming Harmony: Extract from The Lost Metal, Chapters 15 and 17: Based on these, I think the following is in effect: Ruin and Preservation are among the most naturally polarised Shards, and as Vin and Ati showed, when their powers are directed in opposition to one another, they annihilate one another. When Vin killed Ati only their minds touched - while their powers were in opposition, at the time only their Cognitive selves made direct, destructive contact, thus the bulk of the Shardic investiture remained unaffected Sazed took up both powers, but by being the mind directing them both, and by being - at least in theory - in harmony, the powers could function together. If Sazed ever lost that harmony, he would be instantly killed, just as Vin and Ati had been, and the Shards would - similarly, if harmonium begins to polarise ... The war puts immense pressure on the two halves of Sazed's power, and is the closest equivalent to a Spiritual or Cognitive "heating" of the Shard, and polarisation of its two halves, to Ruin and to Preserve, especially coupled with Sazed's commitment to protecting the planet, yet also letting it find its own way. Shards can't be destroyed, just broken into smaller pieces. I don't want to go into Cosmere spoilers here at the moment, but it seems much more likely that Harmony, though a single Shard now, would splinter, and not necessarily into Ruin and Preservation, but completely and totally. Harmony would be gone, but so to would Ruin and Preservation, leaving only splinters ... and a massive wave of energy. No Cosmere spoilers, but this is I think obvious. Harmony is deeply invested in the planet. If Harmony is destabilised, then the conflict within the investiture suffusing the planet - as it was made by both powers together, see the underlined text extracted from when Sazed took up the two - would be functionally equivalent to the polarised harmonium / trellium explosion. The two powers, driven as close to conflict as the possibly can be before hand, suddenly allowed to act against one another, all facilitated by a being whose metal repels other investiture. Thus Trell will destroy Harmony and the planet by replicating either in the Spiritual Realm, or all three Realms simultaniously, the same experiment Wax did - and indeed, pulling a Vin at the same time, touching the core of the Shard, or a point of division. Harmony will self-annihilate, and in so doing would do so more completely than Vin and Ati did, and thus release all the power of the Shard, or most of it, as an explosion centred on Scadrial. What do you think? Do you think Trell plans to turn Harmony into a planet-busting bomb, or to primarily use their metals for the task?

It's certainly possible, but I doubt it - Brandon's reading from the sequel to Sixth of the Dusk implies Roshar and Scadrial are set to be opposing groups (at least generally) in Era 4, and Scadrial is specially an Earth-analogue setting, as opposed to the more fantastical technologies of Roshar. The radio likely is just that, a radio, and the first introduction of this as a new technology. Brandon also mentioned that different methods of FTL are going to be developed in competition with one another: So again it implies Roshar will go one way with its magitech, and Scadrial will to another, though Seons are themselves Selish, so who knows how they will play into things.

I like the way you think the question is, where would those descendants be, and would they still be mistwraiths/kandra, or transformed into humans?

You know, it just occurred to me now, but mistwraiths are all descended from full Feruchemists, and as Hemalurgy affects connections, might it not be possible for a mistwraith to be spiked in such a way that it "reconnected" with its ancestral power, granting the mistwraith the power it would have had if its line hadn't been transformed ... which could also play into the idea of the Set kidnapping descendants of Spook, to try to hack any connection the may have to him. [Edit] ... aaaaaand I just saw you made that same (or similar) observation earlier in the thread. Never mind. My take - he is a fullborn kandra now, and that same technique is something the Set wants to exploit, at least in terms of ancestor hacking.

Fair point, I'd forgotten about them, but that still is far less metal than Odium has provided, and again Odium is loath to part with his power. Also, the spike in the Cycle was noted to be smaller than the other spikes, which also implies Trell is being as sparing as possible when providing the metal. And all this is still based on the assumption that Trell's metal is identical or similar enough in terms of its properties to Bavadin's, which it might not be. And, of course, the assumption Trell survives into Era 4 Maybe Trell is very willing to provide metals to their followers, and it is a variant of bavadinium, but, once they are dealt with, trellium and / or bavadinium, which might be a vital metal for many technologies, would become much rarer, with only the trellium previously available left to power an entire interstellar civilisation, and so now the hunt is on for more trellium and / or bavadinium. I'm not sure on the certainly part, as while I do agree the medallions almost certainly require hemalurgy, at least initially, in all their construction, I think it is far more likely that, once you have the systems you need, medallions can eventually "bootstrap" further production, such that you don't need another person to spike - that if you have a heating medallion and know what you are doing, you can make another heating medallion, and don't have to hunt someone down who already has heating. Maybe you do, maybe you can only get so many medallions from one person and that's it, but I imagine it should be possible to use one medallion to make more. It also is likely that, by Era 4, medallions are themselves antiquated technology, and have been replaced with something better that provides more power, and is self-sustaining. I also think it likely, given the Shardbearer's implicit power, that he or she or they alone could have killed everyone in that room, regardless of their Aviar's abilities - that is certainly what they all think. I'm not denying it is a possibility that the Aviar are seen as a key to greater power in and of themselves that the factions interested in First of the Sun wish to deny to others, I just feel, based on Brandon's interest in the economics of magic and its impact on how societies are driven, and the implied value of shardmetals for future technologies, that Aviar as a means of accessing Autonomy's metal would be a much more interesting story than "space birds give you access to power everyone already has." I'm not entirely convinced that Rosharans need access to Scadrian systems to replicate their powers - I think it is implied that, once you gain enough refinement on a power, it can emulate what others can do, if not exactly - for example when Vashar took the kidnapped girl's memories of her kidnapping, which emulated copper feruchemy via Breaths. I also hope it isn't entirely a case of all of Scadrial vs all of Roshar (vs all of Sel, etc.), but rather that there are Scadrians who work with the Rosharans, and Rosharans who work with Scadrians, and so there are future Knights Radiant (or their equivalent) on both sides, even if one has more than the others. We do know some spren can emulate Seekers (in Oathbringer, for example, the ones which detected soulcasting, requiring aluminium to shield the soulcasters), and there are mechanical systems being developed and implied to be being developed to perform these functions mechanically without needing the input of a Seeker (White Sand, Wax's theory on a use for trellium, etc.). We are talking about Era 4, where they have developed space ships and FTL. We don't know about most of the other shardmetals, and we had to wait until RoW to learn that Raysium is a polarised metal that conducts investiture. There likely is some mechanism to extract investiture from some source and then condense it - remember, Wax and Steris noted that the mists were made from vaporised lerasium, and discussed the methods of changing shardmetal states. Thus if one can take a shardmetal and, using some unknown method, turn it into vapour such as the mists, one can in theory turn the mists into the metal. Again, I'm not saying we know how it can be done now, any more than Wax knows how to make shardmetals change state into vapour, but only that it is highly likely that there is at least one method which can: extract investiture of a given type from a being that naturally uses that investiture contain that extracted investiture, and cause it to change state, solidifying it into a metal, or even a liquid And this method would be useful to acquire a given shardmetal, provided one can gain access to its source. And it likely would take a lot of a given vapour / light to produce a small quantity of shardmetal. I like that theory, though I also like the idea that Trell is going after Harmony because Harmony broke an agreement, unknowingly, that Ati and Leras made, and Harmony is being held accountable. Also, Autonomy likely doesn't see that as cheating - I get the feeling it is a little hypocritical, valuing its own freedom over that of others, and so it should be free to do what it wants, even if what it wants causes you to be less free - I want to do what I want to do, and I don't care what you want to do or if I'm hurting you, I only care that your objections are interfering with me! I know, as I said, tin foil still, I like the idea of a semi-villainous organisation in one series being "heroic" or heroic-adjacent in another, and vice versa. Though I do wonder if the men of gold and red really are Odium's, or some other faction, possibly using a mixture of multiple Shards together - Miles did say they would bear the "final metal." True, but remember most people don't know the worms are the true origin of the Aviar powers, and it could be that one needs to be in an Aviar for the power to even be accessible. As to direct access to the Perpendicularity, there could be some factor in play preventing that (maybe one of the laws that govern the space based societies forbids tampering directly with Perpendicularities, and perhaps trying to access a Perpendicularity to extract power from it disrupts it too much, and as such one must gain power through indirect methods), or, more likely, no permanent base can be set up there to access the power, due to the sheer danger that Patji represents - for all we know, Patji's ecosystem is too dangerous even for Era 4 technology to reliably counter.

Welcome ladies, gentlemen, and kandra of all generations, and a special welcome to those doing NaNoWriMo! Welcome to the Flexiprompts! The idea behind this is to provide a couple of flexible, variable writing prompts, so that two people can both use the same prompt and yet get somewhat different writing suggestions. The way it works is you either choose a prompt from below or let some dice decide on the prompt for you, and then fill in the variable fields based on the result of further dice rolls, taken from the list below each prompt. I hope you find these ideas interesting, and I hope your writing goes well! So, grab a d6 (six sided dice), roll it (or ask Google to roll for you), or choose from the following: If you rolled a 1 or 2 go to to Spoiler Box A If you rolled a 3 or 4 go to Spoiler Box B And if you rolled a 5 or 6 go to Spoiler Box C Spoiler Box A Spoiler Box B Spoiler Box C Good luck, and I hope you enjoy!

Impressive! What did you use to paint the picture?

Possibly, though we've only seen two confirmed examples of trellium so far (three if Suit's assassin was spiked as a precursor to being "taken"), and we know that Rayse, who was very much a hoarder of his own power (to the point that in RoW even the barest scrap of it had to be carefully looked for after the anti-light explosion due to its rarity) provided enough for the daggers and spears used by his forces. And, (and I feel this is very relevant, enough so to have "and (and)" in this paragraph ) while I certainly agree Trell is most likely at least partially related to Autonomy if not entirely, it could well be that different Avatars of a Shard have unique metals - similarly for Knights Radiant with their spren being hybrids of Honour and Cultivation, which causes their Blades and Plates to be unique shardmetal alloys, I suspect any unique mixture will have its own properties, and so if that theory is correct, then trellium might not be Autonomy's metal but an alloy of Autonomy and one or more other Shards (perhaps a bit of Ruin, as trellium certainly evokes the idea of "rust," or Odium if it is related to polarisation). If trellium is related to but distinct from bavadinium, then even if trellium is common (which it might not be, if Trell is slain and cease to exist as an independent Shard or Avatar, or if Trell has only provided a small supply of their metal, enough for the task they wish to perform), Autonomy's metal might still be sought by others later in the Cosmere, especially if the secondary theory of Autonomy being hunted and treated like a resource by the other spacefaring cultures comes into effect. That's certainly possible, especially if medallions require hemalurgy to be made, but we do know both factions would still allow the inhabitants of First of the Sun to have some Aviar, with whoever controls the planet taking the bulk for themselves. If it was simply a matter or denying them to any other group it would make much more sense for the plague mentioned in the draft for the sequel to run its full course, wiping out the Aviar in their entirety. Also, while Aviar abilities are cool, they are no wear near as impressive as currently shown than Surgebinding, the Metallic Arts, Sel's systems, or even Awakening - they are very much "low tech" magic, if you will. It could be as you say, that they have some other advanced ability, but either way, all this effort to gain access to a power that can only be used second hand, when we know the Metallic Arts and Surgebinding are already far more powerful than the Aviar are implied and even hinted to be .... Yup - and Autonomy certainly seems to be one who is the most meddling of the Shards, save for Odium. If Trell is Autonomy or an Avatar of Autonomy, then they certainly haven't generated any good will towards themselves on Scadrial! And I agree the Ghostbloods likely haven't endeared Roshar towards Scadrial, that is for certain. If my tin foil hat theory is right (actual tin, not aluminium, as aluminium is actually useful in the Cosmere for mental shields), I'm wondering if Shallan isn't behind the Set, or the Set is some other organisation's efforts to strike back at the Ghostblood home world.

I will be brief, mainly because I'm trying to focus on IRL things right now, as well as a post for a topic in the General Discussion section of the forum which I've been working on intermittently for the past few months, but this is something I've been thinking about for a while now, and the recent interactions of trellium with harmonium have brought this back to the fore. The basic premise of this theory is as follows: The different shardmetals not only have unique properties in and of themselves, but also with one another, as well as in various alloyed forms, including the possibility of raysium wires within devices to channel specific flows (as perhaps different alloys of raysium with another shardmetal allows only that specific type of investiture to be conducted along its length), trellium in detector devices or in the refinement of other metals, etc. Most of the cosmere's more science fiction related technologies, from travel to weapons to the more esoteric, will be based on the use of these various metals - not just with Scadrial's Metallic Arts, but as Fabrials, Radiant tools, etc. as well The shardmetals will be a primary resource to extract and use, in various forms, in the later Cosmere books, and most especially in Era 4 of Mistborn, and as such the prevalence of various technologies will depend on how readily available specific metals and their alloys are These metals, as they are the condensed form of a shards power, can, in theory, also be extracted from different sources of magic (for example, the spren who are naturally "organic" creatures of the Cognitive Realm, condense into metal when manifesting as Shardblades, and the possibility of condensing metal from the mists, as the refers was implied in last weeks sample chapters) Some metals will be more readily available than others, and some may become more readily available if a shard decides to actively contribute some of their power - thus some technologies, which depend on a rare metal, will be less common, but more sought after, than others Autonomy's metal will be VERY rare normally, as Autonomy's systems are rather low-power compared to most others, and Autonomy, or an Avatar of Autonomy, seems to dislike at least one manifestation of their power and tried to eliminate it (Sand mastery) Autonomy's investiture can be found on First of the Sun in the form of the Aviar / the worms People from at least two different cosmere factions want access to the Aviar, even though the Aviar abilities are already related to magic at least one of those factions (the Scadrians) commonly has access to already Therefore, those factions want the Aviar in order to "render them down" into Autonomy's metal ... That feels a little disturbing to me, but it seems the most logical conclusion. In any case, this also might imply, and this is a theory I think could be interesting, that Autonomy is on the back-foot in Era 4, its worlds or those with access to it being treated as resources for other factions, and an interesting reversal from the implications that Autonomy is at least partially a villain in the current eras, especially if Autonomy or one of Autonomy's Avatars is Trell. Thus a former villain becomes a put upon utility of the future cultures, someone being hounded for a resource they embody.

@hitkay, just a brief interjection, but you may find it helpful to post the Arcanum links rather than just to reference them, as when you post a direct link to the page, or directly quote from it, it makes it easier for others to see the particular quote from Brandon that you are referring to. For example, with your reference to the San Diego Comic-Con@Home 2020 (July 23, 2020), you can highlight the entry's name in Arcanum and post it here, as shown in this sentence, or click share and then paste, like this https://wob.coppermind.net/events/431/#e14009, or click copy, go to your post, make a quote box, and post it in, as shown below: Either way, I think you might find this helpful, and it will ease others in following your quote chain. Hope you're having a good one!

If I may (and your music sounds fantastic!) I have a prompt: Someone is exploring another dimension, a strange and different world, and they are slowly coming closer and closer towards something alien and eldritch, the world, itself already alien, seeming to become more and more bizarre as though they were pressing against the edge of some strange creature's dreams ....

Who wants to bet that Wax's reinforced box is not going to survive the next couple of chapters?

But of course! What body would be better at playing fetch?