Oudeis

How? EDIT: Moogle, you beat me to the point I was gonna make. I am fascinated in the differences between Surge and modern fabrials. I frankly assume we'll get some big revelation saying that the Surge Fabrials operate on entirely different principles than modern Fabrials. Minor Mistborn spoilers.

Keep in mind, Desolations, near as we can tell, are already army against army. So far, according to Tanavast, Rayse has lost every single time. Is it possible Honor's had Champions this whole time, i.e., the Heralds, and that this is why he's always won? Perhaps the Champion would simply be one more tool for Odium in addition to his armies, not instead of (see above where I suggest that the Champion's drive might be to "lead Odium's armies"). So, it would be something like an Odium Herald, someone who would fight alongside the Voidbringers the way the Heralds fight alongside humans, helping them win pivotal battles just as the Heralds do. Basically I see a lot of assumptions in this thread, that there's only one possible thing "appoint a Champion" might mean. It's entirely possible I'm wrong and Mr. Sanderson will simply follow the trope this time. It would, in classic Sanderson fashion, be unique for him. Hrm... sidenote. If the Heralds are already the Champions of Honor, and between Desolations they go to Braize to be tortured and broken... is it possible that if Odium chooses a Champion, this person will spend the time between Desolations on Roshar, forced to live among the common people, giving humanity the chance to win him over and convince him to reform and betray Odium on humanity's behalf? Just spitballin' here.

Mimiddle: A lot of what you post is your personal opinion. It's entirely possible that it will end up being accurate, but I would personally be surprised. I've found in the past any time I assume Mr. Sanderson will simply follow the trope and do something the way it's always been done, I've been mistaken. If it does work out that both sides will appoint Champions, I suspect it will turn out to be a subversion of the trope. It's also an assumption that "champion" means a one-on-one duel. Maybe Odium's Champion will be charged with "Find this artifact in time," or "Lead my armies" or even "be very charismatic and go to all the nations, convincing them to fight amongst themselves so that my everstorm simply kills them". EDIT: Considering the conflicting W's-o-B and the context, I would still be surprised if "Bond an Honorblade" is as simple as picking it up and inhaling the nearest gemstone. But, admittedly, it's possible he's simply changed his mind entirely since that first, unambiguous WoB.

Again... Do we know The Good Guys will pick a Champion just because Odium might?

Q: Can someone bond more than one honorblade A: Honorblade? You can't bond an honorblade, though it can be given to you. Shardblades, however, come from a spren bond and it is possible to bond more than one. [clarified in a later signing] Source. Simply picking it up is not the same as wielding it.

Feruchemy, no question. Far more versatile. Every time I'm in bed and my feet are cold, I wish I were a feruchemist.

WoB is that you cannot simply Bond an Honorblade, but you can be given it. Presumably that doesn't mean that literally anyone can pick it up and hand it over. If that's all he meant, you've got a point, but it's very possible that the Alethi will have this Honorblade, and no way to use it.

Don't most of your arguments support my point? If I were to stipulate (which I don't) that allomantic traits are universally a mate trump card, wouldn't that make them a prized commodity? Wouldn't they become concentrated in the most select lines? In animals, a "better" trait will eventually spread to an entire species, but humans are the only species capable of conscious control of their own reproduction. If your points were valid (which I don't believe they are) it would still lead us to a scenario where powerful allomantic lines were all kept together, leading to a world where the "one in fifty" rule is statistically useless, because depending on your circumstance, you're either in a line where powers crop up commonly, or from a family with a ridiculously low chance of being born an allomancer. So if either your circumstances or mine prove to be correct, my central point remains valid. I still think you're wrong, but that's entirely irrelevant to the core debate. Kaymyth, why don't you have two friends, both trying to convince her she's not a freak, but conflicting like Pathfinder and I over exactly why.

I do concur; when you keep in mind that we're seeing from our perspective a bit under half of the globe, Roshar's landmass is prolly pretty close to right.

Soulcast silver, bring it to Threnody.

We know that one plan is to try to force Odium to choose a Champion. Do we have any reason besides supposition to assume that "the other side" will also have to choose a champion?

You have a point that in the original trilogy, we do have occasionally note noble families commenting on their allomantic potential, or lack thereof. However, the law about not interbreeding with the skaa is hardly evidence that the noble families frequently chose to marry for allomantic potential. Regardless, as you say, the world is a very different place in Alloy of Law. You imply that it would be a progression based on the previous system, and I disagree. I think with a more-than-decimation of the population and a complete breakdown and restructuring of social and societal order, "who marries who" would be a new system from scratch. I agree wholeheartedly that when some families, particularly politically or financially powerful ones, would certainly let allomantic and feruchemical potential be one factor they use to pressure their children into who they should marry. I am not denying that it's a factor, I'm reacting to previous comments which suggested it was likely one of the primary, overriding factors. I haven't seen any evidence to support this theory. In fact, we see Wax, proof of power in both allomancy and feruchemy, desparate to make an advantageous marriage alliance. His family's history and prominence are both explained as bargaining chips he can offer. At no point does anyone comment, "also, you should be able to make a good match because your offspring might be magically delicious." I find the lack conspicuous amongst all the other things mentioned. If it was something he brought to the table, would it not have been brought up with the other factors? I agree that any merchant family would find themselves pleased to have a child with feruchemical copper or zinc. However, that seems... like a poor bet. I'd suspect that any family who forced their child into a marriage, gambling that their child would not only be one of the 1/50 to have any feruchemical power at all, let alone one of the two powers actually pertinent to your interests... that's roughly a 1/400 shot, meaning you'd have to hope to have about 200 kids before you had a good chance of getting the one you wanted. A family that spends the capital of an entire human being on such a longshot will likely not stay in financial power so much as one who marries for economic or political advantage, finds a Sparker or Archivist, and just hires them. I'm also not sold that an Archivist would be of such tremendous value. Someone who can keep records that literally no other person can access, so if they get sick or go on vacation or die your access to this information is simply lost... it seems like it would only be good for black market activities. Which can be lucrative, I suppose, but it remains a tremendous longshot for a niche position. A Sparker could be useful in negotiations, but it would have to be paired with someone with actual skill in negotiation; if you put me, for example, in charge of a transaction, it would hardly matter how much faster than the other person I thought. I'd prolly still be terrible at knowing how much value I can possibly squeeze out of the deal. Emotional allomancy is useless since the people would prolly wear aluminum-lined hats, and we hardly know how feruchemical duralumin works, but that might be useful. When you're writing a character for a story, when you're able to take someone not only with a drive to accomplish some goal, but both the natural talents and metaphysical wherewithal to capitalize, it's simple enough to just build that together. However, such protagonists are interesting in part because they are extremely unlikely. Actual merchant families who survive long enough for generations to be a thing are not historically ones that gamble on such impossible odds. Someone could totally write a story about one and it might be a fascinating read, but it's hardly the sort of thing that would be commonplace enough to impact society in the manner you're suggesting.

Kurk: Partially, but in other part, the possibility also just made me wonder. Presumably, when in human form, they are in fully human form, and thus have a brain where people have brains. I know they still have to have the spikes, but besides that, they take on the sensory organs and pigmentation of the being being mimicked. They are biologically human-enough that there's not a Scadrian medical test to see if someone is a kandra. I allow that it was speculation on my part that they actually form a human brain to go along with their human body. You raise another good question. Would a kandra be able to pass a modern-day medical exam? x-ray and whatnot? (I realize that MRIs are an odd duck, since the presence of metal would give them away and when the spikes get magnetically ripped from their bodies and they revert to mistwraiths that would also be what we in the deduction business refer to as a 'clue'.)

Well, an issue with star charts is that stars move, yes? Two stars will not remain the same distance from each other forever. Or do I not understand astronomy at all? That's wholly possible. ((shh, don't answer, Peter is good at astonomy, let's see if we can get him to respond)).

Keep in mind, it was as difficult as it was ever gonna get for Preservation to destroy himself, and he was still able to sacrifice the vast majority of his own mind. Evidence shows that Shards can choose to act opposite to their Intents, it simply has to be for something of superlative importance.

There's a WoB somewhere about it definitely being post-That Night. Which means that one epigraph where he talks about making a Truthless is weird, since he presumably realizes that Szeth is already a factor.

Does a Kandra's shapeshifting ability allow it to mimic a dead human? As in, pretend to be dead? We know they can bleed, be tortured, I think we've even got WoB that they can be bifurcated and perhaps turn out okay. Clearly, the body they pretend to be need not be one a human could live in for a kandra to be able to survive. Could a kandra stop the heart, cease breathing, suspend all life functions, and look dead to every test except for a brain scan?

Hrm... so, if I'm reading you correctly, you posit the following scenario: A man has a Shardblade. He bets it in a Duel, and loses. He later faces another man in a Duel (perhaps this time paying the fee to rent a King's Blade) and wins THIS Blade. Is that the scenario you suggest?

There seems to be some confusion about what exactly happened at that period in history. Does anyone have a WoB we can fall back on? Maybe something along these lines should be asked next time he's got an event.

Well, remember that Preservation and Ruin specifically created life on Scadrial. So, it stops being a matter of chance, so much as the 500 pound gorilla sitting where he wants.

What are we calling people from Threnody? Threnodans? Threns? Threnodians is simply too long. I'm going with Threns for now.

Peter, you never come to the Out East signings, or I'd say hi to you. I still remember the time I met an attractive woman at a signing, she was impressed that my friend and I made our own Seons, and when I asked her if she was a fan of Mr. Sanderson, she replied, "Well, I married him, so yes?"

I vaguely recall something similar... but that doesn't jive with what actually happened. He didn't decide which nine people he'd make the first Allomancers until he started conquering the world, all of which happened after his Ascension. The people who chose to support him became Noble, the people who chose to oppose him became Skaa, if I'm remembering correctly. By then, he had used up all the power. How is this possible?

Well, since there are only 16 Shards, and Shards are a. a brand new phenomenon and b. functionally omnipotent, it's not totally out of the ballpark that he'd be less than expert at killing something nigh-unkillable the first time he killed it. Mistakes and poor decisions could have been made. That said, I'm simply spitballing. Maybe he tried to splinter it, but failed? Maybe the Intent of that Shard made it harder to Splinter? Maybe someone or something opposed him and he was unable to finish the job? Or, of course, he did actually kill AND Splinter the Shard. Man. Odium killed at least a quarter of God. This is starting to get serious.

Sidenote: Do you plan Eva to be from an allomantically powerful family? Does she have a lot of Misting relatives? EDIT: There's a flip side to all the things I point out. If we consider my factors, "any random person" is less likely to be a Compounder. However... if you make Eva from a line of decent allomantic potential, and make her someone with Terris blood... this makes the chances of her being at least Twinborn barely "unlikely". At that point, it's simply a 1/16 chance of your powers matching up to be a Compounder. If you go that route, she was as likely as about 1/16th of "Unlikely".