Oudeis

Mr. Ahlstrom : Do you know if Mr. Sanderson plans a Firefight tour?

Dvoraen : Hrm? How is illumination like bronze allomancy?

It's interesting how many people are answering that the best powers are the most violent, deadly ones. Are we assuming then that the powers are taking place during a desolation?

I posted here, in the Short Story forum, because these two stories don't take place on the Shardworld, they take place on world that, at most, have a Splinter... hence why I called them Splinterworlds. I've seen people use this term before and I was under the impression it was more widely used; my apologies for not defining it when I used it. I'm aware of how humans came to be on Scadrial, and I'm aware of most of the common theories of how humans came to be on Roshar. Scadrial required the presence of two Shards. We're not sure what was required for whatever turns out to be the whole truth of how humans came to be on Roshar. Tavash: Spoilers for Stormlight Archive and Mistborn.

If i were a Radiant having spoken enough oaths, could i Summon my spren as a ruler, and would he be accurately graduated?

As ever this question demands context. Are we on Roshar? Are we in our world? If we're in our world, am I the only Surgebinder, or is Surgebinding common? What's the availability of Stormlight? Since it's left open-ended, I'm going to answer assuming that I'm in the real world, I'm either the only or one of very few Surgebinders, and that, like Roshar, there's a once-a-week(ish) event which blankets the land with Stormlight, which can be saved up throughout the week, but if I use it up, that's it, it's gone. From what little I know (and from my additional speculation) I assume that my personality type would be most likely to attract the spren to make me a Willshaper. I don't see a lot of utility in Cohesion, though Transportation would likely be fun, and I'm eager to meet the personality of the type of spren that would make a Willshaper. If I actually get to pick the power I want, instead of having to earn it as a real Surgebinder does, I think I'd go Edgedancer. Possibly Truthwatcher; I basically want Progression. I would volunteer several hours a day at the emergency room healing trauma patients. It would prolly be a very good, very quick way to build up a ton of goodwill, also people would be more likely to collect Stormlight and let me use it if I'm saving lives on the regular. A few possible downsides. I would be run absolutely ragged; I imagine I could start a kickstarter or a paypal or something, or get a government grant, allowing me to quit my job and spend even more time at the hospital. If it's just me, I personally would get called in, any time of day or night, for a case that literally will not survive without magical healing. It would be difficult to have a social life; literally any time I decide to go on vacation or just hit up a party more than five miles from the hospital, I'd not only be blamed by the families of anyone who died because I wasn't there to save them, I'd also feel personally responsible. On the other hand, my healing would be limited by Stormlight. Once it runs out, there's literally nothing else I can do that week, so I'd have several days where I could prolly assuage my own guilt enough to spend a few days on a beach somewhere. Wyndle bugs me, and presumably, being a spren rather than a human, we're allowed to assume that other spren of his type are at least a little similar. Ym's spren, whom I assume is the Truthwatcher spren, annoys me much less. However, if I'm an Edgedancer, Abrasion sounds like a more-useful ability if I were to join firefighters or EMTs or something than Illumination. For personal use, the simple capacity Stormlight grants you for holding it strikes me as pretty much all the power any reasonable person could ask for. The Surges are cherries on top. Hrm. Scadrian magic is pretty unique, isn't it? Holding Breath, holding Stormlight, or being an Elantrian all grant passive bonuses just for existing. Not so for allomancy of feruchemy. Hemalurgy does for the human traits, but not when you copy powers.

...when you try to find six letter versions of the names from Stormlight Archive to make the characters in your video game. ...when your new phone doesn't yet have ask the common swear words manually added to the onboard dictionary, but has chull, anticipationspren, duraluminmind, pre-Reod, BioChroma, and worldhopped.

While Elend did end up breaking the bit of pottery, it wasn't necessary, i don't think. I'm pretty sure the bead was sitting on the dish like a pea on a plate. It's never flat out said one way or another, i don't think, but strongly implied. At the least, the bead was highly visible while the dish was intact.

There's a couple of different options I can think of, so there's no reason to assume every splinterworld was populated the same way. Here are my thoughts. If anyone has other thoughts, or actual citable sources, please post them! The crux is, it seems to me that the cradle of humanity was Yolen. Life could have come to be on other planets, but the odds of parellel evolution producing humans is extremely slim. I suspect the listeners are native to Roshar, for example. But why does Silence seem to be human? On some planets, like Roshar, there are suggestions that Yolish people traveled to Roshar and became the seed of humanity. On others, like Scadrial, we are more-or-less flat-out told that Ruin and Preservation simply made people as they remembered them from Yolen. How did people come to be on a planet with no Shard? 1. Adonalsium could have sent people to different worlds, or created them there, before the Shattering. 2. Mass migration via worldhopping. Nazh is confirmed to be from Threnody, so we know it's possible to worldhop back and forth. However, the only mass migration we've heard of was from Yolen to Roshar. I get the impression that this has to be Shard-assisted, that a population cannot simply choose to travel the cognitive realm. Obviously, this is just my impression. 3. A Shard could have passed by, left a population and a Splinter, and moved on. Or, one (or more, since it's implied you need two Shards to create life) could have stopped by, created a population, and left. Anyone else?

Yes, but Jasnah seemed to have no trouble convincing the cognitive aspect of a mugger to turn into fire. Shallan clearly didn't have the trick to it yet, but we've seen that for anyone other than a completely untrained Soulcaster, it doesn't seem to limit. In the second half of your comment, is this what you're talking about? A limit of how much stuff you could convince to change? I don't understand what you're referencing. Also not entirely sure why you point out that someone has to operate them. I don't know if there's something I said which indicated to you that I didn't think it would require an operator, or if there's another reason you brought up this particular point.

There seem to be two types of fabrial in the world. Maybe type is the wrong word. Broad categories. Modern fabrials seem to do... just about anything. Affect distant movement, attract smoke or water, alert you to something nearby. Ancient fabrials appear to operate on an entirely different principle; specifically, the principle of the Surges. Ancient fabrials are Regrowth and Soulcasters. The Oathgates appear to be nothing more than fabrials specifically of the Transportation Surge. This means that there doesn't seem to be anything preventing the existence of a different Surge's fabrial being that large. Is there a reason someone cannot craft an enormous fabrial, powered by several cut gemhearts, which could be directed to Soulcast an entire opposing army directly into smoke? Or, fine, let's suppose Voidbringers might be personally resistant to direct Soulcasting. So turn the very air around them into acid. Suffocate them while burning their flesh from their bones. Is the principle unsound?

Hrm... Does Snapping actually change your sDNA, or does it simply express a trait that was in your sDNA, but wasn't expressing?

That was sorta explained in text as, he'd already gotten them in shape, and they were desperate enough that everyone was 100% dedicated to the task. I just read that scene and I don't remember him thinking they were impossibly good the way Kaladin is, just extremely focused. Still, a bit of proto-squire transference of ability could have brought them from "remarkably good" to "incredibly good". If this is the case... hrm, can we look forward to Gaz the sculptor? Would he have to get Shallan's specific artistic talent, or just an artistic talent? Hrm. Lightweavers could be skilled in different arts. Is every Windrunner a combatant, like Kaladin? Is it different weapons, different styles that people can specialize in, or are they all the same? Is it possible for them to be skilled in something non-combat related? With Syl saying that no other honorspren has crossed or likely will, we'll prolly only ever get to see Kaladin as an example.

Kaladin's fighting skill comes from his bond. Syl confirms this in WoR.

Hatspren. The spren of hats. They are not, in fact, attracted to anything, but are generated in the cognitive realm every time a hat is made. They look like floating auroras; the specific color depends on the hat whose creation spawned them (Though they are not simply the same color as the hat. The rules are esoteric and poorly understood). Do not appear naturally in the physical realm, instead requiring a Radiant to travel at least partially into Shadesmar to retrieve the hat. May be worn by other spren, which means they meld with the substance of that spren and grant it a halo's light, as though a tiny invisible spotlight were shining on the spren from above. ((Yes, it's a silly one, I add it because I just read the scene where Lopen suggests that Kaladin buy Syl the spren of a hat in an attempt to un-kill her, because it would probably be pretty cheap.))

The first epigraph didn't have the most important meaning in Mistborn, it simply held one clue to the final act of the climax. Other epigraphs were equally, if not more, important. This isn't necessarily to take away from you base point. It doesn't even prove that this epigraph isn't important for being in the prologue. It simply isn't proof that being in the prologue makes it important. Speaking of, I calculated, and as far as the actual timing was concerned, it was off by 229 days, almost half a year.

But he HAS to know that the Skybreaker raisin of the day is to kill Surgebinders. I guess there's the generic "but not my own sister" but that feels... I dunno. Trite. EDIT: Also, not buying that Nale would allow Surgebinders, as he seems to think they will bring the end of the world. Also, not buying that Skybreakers necessarily know a lot about how to train someone in Surgebinding. Learning how to hunt bears teaches you VERY little about how to raise bears, especially when the point is to hunt bears into extinction.

Does the advent of the Weeping travel across the continent like a very weak Highstorm? Or does it simply appear at more-or-less once like the Mists? Or a different pattern?

From Taravangian's interlude in Words of Radiance. They are discussing who might be a Surgebinder, and consider Shallan. "They had been startled when that one arrived on the Shattered Plains. Already they hypothesized that the girl had been trained. If not by Jasnah, then by the girl's brother, before his death." Shallan's only dead brother is Helaran. Jasnah has no dead brothers that we know of. This line must refer to Helaran, yes? Even though the Diagram, and particularly the Diagramists, can be wrong, this sentence means that Taravangian strongly suspects that Helaran is a Surgebinder. This seems not to scan. His Blade did not disappear with his death, so it was a typical deadblade. Did he, like Renarin, simply get used to bearing it? Was it his own Blade and he just Recreated? Was he actually a Skybreaker? He truthfully didn't seem to care much about laws. The only law we ever saw him care about was bringing his father in for his mother's murder... yet he abandoned that before bringing the heterochromatic guy the final proof. He seems to care more about his own personal vendetta which happened to coincide a little bit with the law. He traveled. Maybe he was a Willshaper? They were said to be the "uncut gems" of the Orders. Could explain why he was able to attract a spren after abandoning his entire family. He certainly didn't seem to care about protecting his siblings, so I'd guess not Windrunner. This really only raises more questions. I had been pretty certain Helaran was not a Surgebinder. If he had been, couldn't he have simply healed the knifewound, even if it meant sucking the Stormlight from his armor itself? So then why do the Diagrammers think he is one? I really, really wish they would explain why they believe this. Do they think he could have trained her in Surgebinding without being a Surgebinder? Wouldn't they have trouble believing that someone workin with Nale would train a Surgebinder, even his own sister? This muddles up a great deal of what I thought I knew.

You're slightly missing the point of my joke, which is that whatever his reason, if he'd randomly selected someone near him instead of picking Amaram specifically, he'd've had a decent chance of promoting an actual Radiant. You're also sorta missing the point of my serious point, which is that at the time Dalinar was at least willing to entertain the possibility that Amaram was a liar who would slaughter his own loyal guards, as evidenced by the fact that he'd set a plan in motion long since to test Amaram's loyalty. It was only a few weeks from fruition at that point. I don't see the rush. Dalinar has stated many, many times that he's given up on "unity" with Sadeas; at that point they are a few days away from a plan that will bring about Sadeas's death. What does he gain from appointing Amaram now? And why isn't it ever said, or even implied in the slightest, what he hopes to get out of it? We can speculate on a dozen different reasons, but they have no more factual basis than if I were to speculate the exact opposite, like, "Dalinar might have a tumor pressing against the judgement centers of his brain causing him to make absolutely terrible choices." Actually, yeah, I wonder if this is what's been bothering me about this all this time. Why isn't it ever said, anywhere (unless I've missed it? If someone has a quote from the text where it's flat-out said, "this is why he does it," please post it. Please also note I am not asking for your own speculations or assumptions, I want to know if it's ever said in the book, or in WoB, why this happened.) why Dalinar felt it needed to happen now? It seems shoehorned into the plot, like a lazy writing trick. Don't get me wrong. As far as I'm concerned, most other books are built entirely from lazy writing tricks. The fact that there are one or two in his book is why he's simply the most amazing author I have ever read or could imagine, rather than a truly perfect being I worship as literally divine. I think I'll feel better about this whole aspect, now that I've potentially recognized the source of why it's been bothering me so, all this time.

Started: Ring-Out Boss To Nigh-Invulnerability To Healing Factor To Miles Hundrelives of Alloy of Law.

I just read that whole scene and now I'm trying to parse it... The Unkalaki were being persecuted for something, and had to flee somewhere. We know that the Unkalaki have listener blood. (Question 9). They see spren as gods, and Rock's myth (Oof. True story! I mean true story! Now Rock, put that log away...) mentions that they went to the greatest of the gods for help. So they... went to the greatest of the spren, asking for a boon... I think that originally, the horneaters were simply listeners. I think after they were defeated, several pockets of them suffered different fates. The Last Legion lived in the Shattered Plains, and became the listeners as we know them. I think another group sought the Nightwatcher and the Old Magic. I think what they wanted was to survive. What she gave them was to make them human. Part of the definition of two things being different species is that they cannot mate and produce fertile offspring (typically). We know that unlike the difference between Alethi and Makabaki, which is simply racial, listeners are an entirely non-human species. Maybe the Rosharan defintion/understanding of species is simply different, maybe Mr. Sanderson was just using a shorthand when he said they weren't human, and meant that they were the same species, just very very different... but if he meant exactly what he said, then there should not be Unkalaki or Veden families with listener blood, because that should be impossible. Unless the Shard responsible for deciding how and when things grow and reproduce took a direct hand to things... So yeah, that's basically my theory and my interpretation.A bunch of listeners used the Old Magic to turn human enough to avoid the real human persecution for the crimes of the Voidforms, and as a side effect gained the ability to interbreed with humankind. Their Curse, I would suppose, was to lose their Songs, their Forms, their ability to attract and bond Spren. This also explains how they are "not originally" of Cultivation.

Eh... remember that while Allomancer Jak is a canon work, it's a canon fictional work. At the least, fictionalized. It's not impossible that "Allomancer Jak" is some dude who's never left Luthadel, writing stories about people and places he's never seen. Such things happened all the time in our world, and it's not impossible to imagine that it happened on Scadrial. ((Okay truth be told that's not the best link ever... I can't seem to find a place that explains it well. Basically, during the Alaskan Gold Rush, people in the Big Cities were fascinated with what was happening out there, so a whole bunch of reporters got as far as the edge of the frontier... and then sat there in comfort, writing utterly fictional tales of "personal accounts", which were published in every major newspaper across the United States as fact. The truth may be out there, but lies are in your head.)) This could be an accurate, or mostly, or at least partially accurate account. Or, it's a complete fabrication. One of the two.

I love your methodology and your format, and I hope that theories are formatted in a similar way going forward. I certainly intend to give it a try going forward. I see a number of assumptions and interpretations in your takeaway that I do not happen to agree with, and I dispute your conclusion. However, it was incredibly well-presented! Prolly the best presentation of a theory I have ever seen on these forums.

Yeah... I don't see how adding "cancer," "in front of parents," or even making it a child to begin with, added to the "humor" without being purposefully mean. I'm not sure how you can make those decisions without knowing that you're just trying to say the most shocking, borderline offensive thing you can think of in the belief that this will make the joke funnier.