SwordNimiForPresident

I've been curious about this as well. Can Shards see inside of a black hole? Do they have knowledge of what happens in there? Can they change them in the same way that they do planets? For that matter, can they change stars? Taldain's system seems like it might have had some meddling done to it's stars, but it could also just be that Bavadin placed the planet where it needed to be in an already existing solar system. Is there a WoB on whether the Cosmere has a supermassive black hole at it's center like Sgr A* in our galaxy?

Yea that's pretty much what I was thinking. It probably depends on Realmatics like you said. Edit: That could make for an interesting question to Brandon. Are Realmatics Universal or Cosmere bounded?

This does make me wonder if the CR contains an infinite plain of obsidian outside of the Comsere, or if you could "walk off the edge" and come out on the other end of the Cosmere.

@Prudii Verd You've struck upon one of the major conundrums of the Universe, there is always the question of "what came before". If you answer that question, then the question is simply reapplied to what ever the answer was, ad infinitum. I doubt Brandon will answer questions about origins or endings in the Cosmere. I think I've seen a WoB where he said he prefers to let the readers make their own determinations.

Speed chess with F-steel and F-zinc. Alternatively you could have them play Go. Iron twinborn tug-of-war. Coinshot Quidditch.

That would still result in the issues that he brought up. A sphere represented on a flat surface will need to be split at some point. It would also cause the outer latitudes to be massively inflated in size. Personally, I don't think that our concepts of dimensional space exist in the CR. It is flat, but also still a sphere. I'm not sure how this would relate to the "edge" of the map, but it doesn't really have to make sense. I think of it like a set of Penrose stairs, I can conceptualize it, but it can't actually exist.

If you gave them the right bones, and a big pile of feathers, they could probably make themselves some fluffy white wings. They would probably need the blessing of potency in order to get airborne with wings the size of the ones depicted in classical Christian art.

*slowly turns swivel chair around to face Jasnah* *steeples fingers* "Have you heard of Hemalurgy? I think you might find it.. interesting." *cackles menacingly*

@Inquisitor #5 I don't take it personally. Elend is a tough call. He was ignorant of the results of his actions, but that doesn't excuse them either. He does express genuine contrition when he is confronted about it, so I'll give him credit there. I should note that if I lived in the times, I would be completely on board with Kelsier and Dockson. Whole sale genocide against the nobility wouldn't even start to repay the evil that they visited on the skaa for 1000 years, but it sure would be satisfying. I can accept that up to a point. There comes a time though, when you have to come to terms with the fact that you're evil. When you're standing on top of a pile of the corpses of all the women and children that you've raped and murdered, it's probably time say "Yea, I'm pretty evil".

I don't think you could use the events in way The Way of Kings as a good example of the system, Sadeas was a would-be usurper and Dalinar was an actual usurper. Elokhar was a very weak king. If he had been able to be more authoritative the high princes would have seemed more like secretarial positions that they do in the book.

I'll preface this by saying that it is speculation. I think being a squire has more to do with the Radiant's inclination towards you. If they have sworn the right ideal to allow them to have squires then it comes down to who they feel is their squire. Looking at Kaladin, he had felt responsible for his bridgecrew for a long time before he swore his 3rd ideal, so it makes sense that they would immediately become squires. With Shallan, her people didn't start to become squires until she started to actually feel responsible for them, she largely ignored them at first. After her talk with Adolin she starts to "bond" with them and eventually they develop into squires. Skybreakers are more direct. They treat it more like a school where the Radiants are the teachers and the squires the students. They also cheat a bit IMO. They already know how the system works so they don't have to do it by instinct. They can simply decide that someone is a squire and they are. In Jasnah's case, her aversion to taking wards would, in my opinion, extend to taking squires. I think the only person that could have become one, so far, was Shallan, and she was already taken. While I agree that the Bondsmiths aren't likely to have squires, I think it is very irresponsible. They are, in my opinion, the most important Radiants. They should always have at least one squire who is ready to take their place in case they die.

@Inquisitor #5 The nobility being a product of their environment doesn't make them any less responsible for their actions, no matter what their situation was. Better to die fighting the evil god, than to live as a slaving, raping, murdering piece of filth. There is no excuse.

@Pathfinder Seem's just as plausible as what I was saying.

I'll preface this by saying that this is pure conjecture. I think that Wax is powering his small pewter charge with the Mists. Here's another quote from AoL during the big fight at the end. He's talking to Wayne about their injuries. There's another part at the end of the fight where they trick Miles with the cadmium bubble. Wax was strong and ignoring a ridiculous number of injuries up until that point (if you've seen The Punisher on Netflix, I see Wax here as Frank on his worst days). I think that this could have been the point where Marasi activated her bubble and the time change somehow interfered with the mists reaching Wax. Alternatively, it could be the point where the mists finally ran out inside the bubble. I'll also add that this theory is completely dependent on the mists granting Allomancers power (like Vin when she killed Rashek) in Era 2. I don't think there is any confirmation of that, so take everything I said here with that in mind.

That's the creation of the spike. The rest of it doesn't require intent, it just needs to be inside the person (preferably in the right place, but only if the idea is to actually gain a power). Personally, I think Wax's earring was giving him a very small pewter charge. Quote from Alloy of Law. I included the last line to be fair. It kind of undercuts my theory by making it seem like he means more emotionally strong.

I should clarify myself. Using Hemalurgic spikes that already have a charge at range should be entirely possible. It's the making of a Hemalurgic spike that I feel should not be possible at range. Putting an already made spike into someone doesn't seem to require intent given that Vin repeatedly spiked herself with her earring without knowing it.

Wax has never been shot by someone trying to make a Hemalurgic spike from an aluminum bullet. Like I said, I hope ranged Hemalurgy doesnt' work, because it would be dumb.

This seems like one of those questions that is intentionally open ended. It's like asking "what's in the beyond?". It's better for Brandon to leave origins and endings up to people's head cannon.

*Throws aluminum spike* "Ruin take the wheel"

I read "behind enemy lines" as recruiting the enemy. He has a whole band of sympathetic Singers to recruit.

@Calderis @Scion of the Mists My angle on the Hemalurgic aluminum was more about volume rather than accuracy. If you 50,000 pieces of metal through someones chest, the odds that one of them passes through the right spot seems fairly good. Like I said, I hope ranged Hemalurgy (the creation of spikes, not the placement of them) isn't a thing, it would make every idiot with a gun and some aluminum bullets the most powerful guy in the Cosmere. As for the two WoB you guys linked, they do seems fairly contradictory. This is the problem, I think, with asking the author questions outside the book. Writing the book is a team effort with lots of eyes on all parts of it. With WoB's people are forcing Brandon to spit out cannon stuff on the fly. I tend to take all of them with a grain of salt.

It's tough to make order specific guns. The real barrier to killing them is their armor and their healing. Their surges are mostly offensive abilities as far as I've seen. The goal would be to kill them without letting them use their surges on you.

I really can't see Kaladin, AKA the guy that broke his oaths and almost killed his spren in WoR, becoming Honor. That being said, I can't see anyone becoming Honor. I think the end game of SA is going to be that the Shard's power is left with the Bondsmith spren and accessed, through the Nahel bond with those spren, in a much more limited way. I agree that restoring the Oathpact would be a bad idea, and I would also add that it is likely impossible while the enemy has Jezrien's soul trapped in that dagger. I hope Jasnadin is not a thing, I hate the idea of them as a couple. If I had to chose between more books with them as a couple, and no more books, I would choose no more books.

I should clarify that getting shot by my completely imaginary revolver would smoke you the same way Nightblood does.

Since none of the surges would let you reflect the bullets back at the shooter (there probably is a way to do this if you're creative enough), you would probably be better off with a fairly conventional approach. You would want something with good penetration in order to break up the plate, and you would want bullets that can dismember an opponent. To that end, I would go for something in the .50 caliber neighborhood, and with a large powder load. Something along the lines of a Browning M2 would probably do the trick. The BMG rounds that it fires can blow people into pieces, and penetrate light vehicle armor. It also has a very long effective range at 1800 meters. It's worth noting that it has been in service since the 1930's and has gone largely unchanged since that time. This means that it wouldn't be to much of a stretch for Rannet to design it. If we are talking about non crew weapons, I would go for a sniper rifle that fires the same round. Honestly, the farther from the Surgebinder you can be, the better. If you're going for a side arm, I would probably say a revolver at .44 caliber or larger and a high powder load. The goal being a charge large enough to break their plate and a bullet larger enough to cause an injury that slows them down for a second or two. I would probably focus on neck shots in this scenario, with the goal of decapitating them. If we're going for Roshar tech, I would go with a balista that fires aluminum coated spears with lots of barbs. You want something that will get stuck in them and that they cant cut out with a Shardblade or soulcasting. I'm not sure if having aluminum stuck in their body would prevent and Elsecaller or Willshaper from transitioning, but if it does all the better. If future tech is on the table, I would go for the nuclear option every time. Vaporization seems like the surest way of removing a surgebinder from the equation. Stepping into magical weapons, you could potentially create a fabrial that launches the bullets at much higher velocities, something along the lines of a fabrial rail gun. You could also get creative with the projectile. For example, you could use a heating fabrial, that is hot enough to burn flesh, as the bullet. As long as it breaks the plate and lodges in their flesh, it would probably eat up a lot of Stormlight with the constant need to heal the burning. Another effective weapon would be aluminum Hemalurgy. If you made something that fired an extremely high volume of aluminum spikes (I'm talking modern gatling gun speeds, so 5000 rounds per second or more) and manned it with someone that constantly intended to make a Hemalurgic spike from each of the rounds, you could potentially yank out their Nahel bond, which should kill them almost instantly given the stream of metal that's being rammed through their torso. (this assumes that ranged Hemalurgy works, I very much hope it does not) Stepping waaaay out there and bringing Vasher to the table on this Radiant killing council (and just flat out making stuff up myself), you could make an awakened revolver that works something along the lines of a ranged Nightblood. I'm thinking that instead of firing bullets, it fires corrupted Investiture in a sort of plasma state (think: a slug of burning hot liquid Nightblood smoke). It draws the Investiture from the person firing it and consumes part of it in the process. If you fire it without having any Investiture, or without having enough, it uses your soul instead, killing you in the process.