SwordNimiForPresident

How could he have gotten her away from the guards without attacking them? The idea that there would be no repercussions for her disappearance is laughable. Tresting would want to know where his little rape treat went. No doubt he would torture and kill at least a few skaa in his displeasure. Also, what does he do with the girl? He should just abandon his plans and become this random child's father? Send her into the underground where she will also be raped and likely later killed? There is no scenario where he takes any action and there is no consequence for the skaa. The least worst thing he could do was break her entire family out of bondage and give them a small chance to make a life for themselves in the underground or rebellion. If you can do this then there is no point in arguing. If you would let a child be raped and murdered because of what the consequences of stopping it might be.. I can't think of a way to finish that idea that isn't insulting. They were already in a life or death situation. Any one of them is a slightly debilitating injury or minor sickness away from being beaten to death. All of the women and children are at risk of rape and murder. They're all on the edge of starvation. How is their new situation worse? One less child rape/murder happened. Good enough for me. They were all complicit in the fore mentioned child rape and murder. Additionally, what would happen when the other lords and soldiers find Tresting murdered on a night when he was engaging in has favorite pass time? They would go torture and interrogate some of the skaa, then kill some to make a point.

What was the non selfish thing to do then?

Lets consider what Kelsier did. 1 - Prevented the rape and murder of a child (and future children), where he was the only chance of that act being stopped. Killed the people that were perpetrating said acts of rape and murder. 2 - Caused a few people to go into hiding, and didn't didn't take the time to hide them himself (because he needed to go kill the evil demigod that caused the entire situation in the first place). Perhaps there's a better example in the books you would like to use instead?

Isn't SA happening about 1000 years after Elantris?

It certainly would fit in the narrative better. Advanced particle physics would be very out of place in this story. That being said, so would a fight to the death between Jasnah and Kaladin. Why would Rosharan science need to advance? There are many other worlds out there that could be at a place, scientifically, where knowledge of subatomic particles isn't uncommon. As to the strawberry jam, that (or any other prepared food) would likely be one of the most difficult things to soul cast. You would need to distribute the various chemicals that give it it's taste in a very specific way in order to replicate it properly. I expect this is why soulcast food is always so bland. Comparatively, making a particle, or group of particles, swap their charge should be pretty straight forward. You wouldn't even need to violate conservation of matter.

Oh I thought we were using hypotheticals here. I had seen several posts referring the Kaladin’s plate and assumed.

I’m not 100% on the science behind nuclear weapons, but if memory serves, they require a conventional explosion to trigger them.

Lies

I don't know who adi is. I wasn't only referring to the antimatter that existed prior to baryogenesis. As I said in my post, antimatter exists through many naturally occurring phenomena that are still happening today.

Antimatter occurs in many places in nature, it is even a byproduct of the natural decay of some atoms. Mostly they result from very high energy situations, such as cosmic rays hitting a planets atmosphere, or the accretion disks of black holes. It might even be pretty easy to soul cast since antiparticles have the same properties, mass for example, as their matter counterparts. She would really just have to change the "charge" of the particles in the air. I think the essence would depend on what you were soulcasting into its antiparticle.

That was the intent. Wipe out a continent or two. He's a Knight Radiant, might as well be sure.

Jasnah soulcasts a half gram of antimatter into the space between them while stepping into Shadesmar. We get to find out of Stormlight can save you from vaporization.

@robardin I think the issue there is that, by the time you are capable of making essence marks, you are already as good at making soul stamps as a person can be. My thinking was that you would stamp yourself first to make the book more plausible, and then stamp the book.

If we manage to get CGI that looks like live action (before the world descends into a Mad Max dystopia) I would be on board. Otherwise I'd rather just read it.

Agreed on all points. Especially about Rand and company. Wheel of Time spoilers I guess. Back to Stormlight, I really hope book four brings some closure to all of the relationship shenanigans.

You could however stamp an empty book to become the book that you wrote, after stamping yourself.

You could just keep reapplying the mark every day until you finished the book.

Tough call. I love Dalinar and Kelsier. Both have the destroyer/savior theme going on. Jasnah is another. She is just so competent and capable. I'd love to see her and Kelsier interact with one another.

You guys are all to deep for me. I'd become a super spy. Hacker, pro gambler, soldier (special forces, I'm already a veteran so this would be redundant otherwise), pilot (fixed wing and rotary wing), transgender (this would pretty much be the craziest disguise ever), and finally a lottery winner (you know I'm talking about that power ball).

OK, last loophole since I just realized how off topic I am. Ars Arcanum is an in-world text, which means that it is subject to the same potential for errors that Brandon applies to all in-world knowledge. That being said, I don't imagine Khriss is wrong. It would be borderline cruel to include that in the text just to mess with us.

I'm not sure I follow. It says that it doesn't matter who he gets the breath from, it will last just as long. That's the fuel part of the scenario, how long it lasts. I obviously can't speak for why a child's Breath would make him more vibrant, but I assume it is because the Breath carries a small piece of Identity or Connection from the person that last held it. Children are, generally (I'm looking at you Vin), untainted by the cynicism and bitterness that comes with the responsibility and experience of adulthood. Can't argue with that. It does not however say why they vary, so the part about it being related to age is still speculation. I am curious what the "circumstances" are that would vary the heightening.

Ok, I went back and found what you are referring to. I'm assuming it is the part in the annotations for chapter three where it discusses why they use a child. It explicitly says that the Breaths have the same power. It just says that the Breath of a younger person makes him plucky.

Could you link the WoB that says breath decays? I don't remember that from the book. I wasn't talking about the machanics of being Returned, they obviously consume Investiture to say alive. I also wasn't saying that Breath isn't Investiture, it clearly is. The WoB you linked before doesn't really say anything about how Breath works, it basically just discusses phase states.

But it isn't fuel. Fuel burns away. So where does the power come from?

Isn't awakening fairly new by Cosmere standards? If I remember correctly the events in Warbreaker happen about 300 years after Awakening started being studied. Personally I don't like the idea of Breath being fuel. I've always looked at it more as a key. If you have the breath, you gain access to Investiture from the SR. The more you have, the more Investiture you get. It's a bit like metal, except that it doesn't need to be consumed, it just grants a passive stream of power from the SR.