Phantom Monstrosity

Apparently the Alethi have already captured some parshendi blades. They didn't notice anything different. I believe Word of Brandon is that honorblades are shardblades.

Inquisitors actually *can* burn their eyespikes. It would just be incredibly painful

I have a few that seem interesting "Are there any magic systems in the cosmere that aren't shard based?" (We have an earlier quote of: "In all of the cosmere's Shard-based magics, the greater portion of a bisected body regrows the lesser portion". That *might* imply that there's other magics about, and I'd like to clarify that) "Would it have been theoretically possible to create sapient ilfe by adding excess Ruin instead of excess Preservation?" "We know Hoid stopped by the Well of Ascension. Would it have been possible for him to take up the power while he was there?" "Would giving a Lifeless a pair of Kandra Blessings make it more intelligent? Similarly, could Blessings make a Parshman more parshendi-like?"

Take it to a signing, get it personalized with 'To Be Continued' on the last page. It won't help anything, but it'll be funny.

Well, I really don't think honorspren like Syl are divisible. From reddit, we know that there are different kinds of spren:

I asked if non-scandriel people could implant spikes at a signing earlier, and got RAFOed (The exact words were along the lines of "you know, I don't think I've revealed that yet".) I figure putting that on the list isn't going to be particualrly helpful. anyway http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=689

It's interview info. Lemme see if I can pull a quote up. EDIT: Unless you want me to add that to the questions?

Yeah, it was just a quick first pass on the given list. Lemme edit those out as well. If you have any suggestions for rephrasing, fire away. I just want to get this reference page back up to date. Brandon mentioned that the people on the southern continent use the metallic arts in an unusual way. Aside from that, hemalurgy technically isn't always fatal, though ripping a chunk of your soul off always has consequences.

In light of the upcoming Reddit AMA (april 15th) I made an updated version of the list from the first post. Basically I just removed things we already know the answers to. There are currently a lot of outstanding questions UPDATED 2013.05.08 Cosmere Questions (43 Questions) Characters (4 questions) Confirm genders for us for the sake of clarity. Aona is a girl, Skai is a boy, and Endowment's Shardholder is a girl, Right? Unless Hoid is a bad guy, why doesn't he realize what a powerful ally he would have in Sazed as the first person to gain hold of two shards and the only one to gain control since the splitting of Adonalsium? Hoid was uninterested in taking up the power in the Well of Ascension, at least in the state it was in. If Hoid were interested in taking up the power of a Shard, which one would be his most likely pick? Does Hoid ever show up somewhere, stand around for a while, realize that there isn't a novel-worthy plot going on, and leave? Shards & Magic (27 questions)Have we seen any end-negative systems besides hemalurgy? Is bringing people back to life possible? Ruin and Preservation were often represented in the Mistborn trilogy in terms of black and white. Is this imagery limited to that series, or do other Shards also have an associated hue? Do two Shards exist on Taldain? Does only one Shard exist on the world of The Silence Divine? Do you prefer "foci" or "focuses" as the plural of focus? Feruchemy is the “balance” between Ruin and Preservation. Would any combination of Shards create a “balance” magic, so to speak, or are only certain Shards compatible? What makes certain Shards share certain foci? In Mistborn, all magic systems seem to have the same focus (metal). Is it so for every planet? As in, does all magic used on Sel has the same or very similar focus? How is it that Nightblood, who is merely a near-sentient awakened object, was able to read minds, something a Shard like Ruin was unable to do? What combinations of magic would arise if a Feruchemist ate some lerasium, bought enough BioChromatic breath to reach the 10th heightening, then acted very honorably and swore all ten of the Windrunner oaths? Can Shards travel in time? The Well of Ascension regenerates every 1024 years. Does using a Shard's power always cause downtime before it can be used again? Could a Seeker who was properly trained and experienced detect AonDor or Awakening? Similarly, does a coppercloud block an awakener's life sense? What is the definition of a focus? Can Hemalurgy steal ANY spiritual DNA? Are there uses that require non-allomantic metals? Is the bond between a Seon and its master similar to the Nahel bond between a Surgebinder and his spren? Can the same trick that allows a Feruchemist to access another’s metal minds be used for one Awakener (who was also the right type of Feruchemist) to steal Breaths that a different Awakener had invested in something? Can Shards manifest in a humanoid, body that exists in the Physical Realm (other than visions like Ruin gives Vin)? If so would this body look like the Shardholder’s former body? Would it be more vulnerable to being Splintered if it was in this form? Is the 1024 years of refill time a trait of all Shardpools or did Leras do that on purpose as another mathematical sign? What affects does being a Sliver have on a person? Can Galladon use AonDor on Roshar or did traveling to Roshar cause him to physically revert from his Elantrian form to his Dula form since he was far from the magics that make him Elantrian? Does the intent/personality of the Shard affect the personalities of the humans they create? Is spiritual DNA inherited the same as regular DNA? If you were to measure how much energy the Reod-Elantrians got from the Dor, would it be equivalent to a Breath a week? Can a kandra duplicate a parshendi carapace? Why can lerasium be burned by anyone in the Cosmere, while atium is restricted to a small portion of the population of one planet? Realmatics(4 questions)You mentioned that the souls that chose to stay in the Cognitive Realm are those with some strong ties to the Physical Realm. "Generally, you have to be tied to the Physical Realm in specific ways to not pass on." What tied Kelsier? What are some of the "specific ways" in which an individual can be tied? Are the Returned bound to the Physical Realm in such a way? If not, does Endowment know a hack (for lack of a better word); a way of bringing them back from the Beyond that is even apart from all three Realms? Or does each Shard have a different avenue of bringing someone back? How was Sazed able to talk to Vin and Elendel and know they are happy now if he hasn't been able to access the ultimate afterlife that exists beyond the three realms? Do the Spiritual and Physical Realms have names, like Shadesmar is the Cognitive Realm? Worlds (7 questions)Did Sel's early magic users have Aona's help building Elantris? Shards can talk to dead people. Are the Tranquiline Halls where everyone who dies in the Cosmere goes when they die? or does each world have its own heaven? Can Sazed communicate with Leras or Ati? Can you give us any hints about the Cosmere timeline, like events on different Shardworlds that occurred concurrently? About how many years occur between Elantris and the end of Hero of Ages? Is gunpowder going to be featured in the Cosmere other than on Scadrial? Now that you have altered your timeline somewhat to solve a scheduling conflict, does Warbreaker still occur approximately at the same time as Alloy of Law or has it been moved? If so when does it occur now? Stormlight Archive (47 Questions) Characters (10 questions) Are there "special appearances" (aka World Hoppers) from anyone in the prologue? Is Baxil's mistress Shalash? Are the Arch-people (the assumed Heralds in the epigraph arches) representing people? Or magics? Are all of the Heralds who gave up their Honorblades still alive? How long has Szeth had his powers? When did Szeth start learning to fight? Is there a significant difference between black-red Parshendi and white-red ones? Did Gavilar get the mysterious sphere from Jasnah? Is Thaidakar the leader of the Ghostbloods? (let him answer, and if no, or RAFO then ask: ) Did Thaidakar provoke the Ghostbloods then? Are Renarin and Adolin Dalinar's legitimate children? Shards & Magic (17 questions)Is Cultivation's Shardholder still alive? Has her Shard been Splintered? What happened to the Heralds’ Honorblades? Fabrials replicate Soulcasting abilities. Is it possible for fabrials to replicate all such Surgebinding abilities? Are Honorspren Splinters, or do they hold Splinters? Are the Worldsingers an order of Radiants? Like the Windrunner River, is the Deathbend River also named after an order of Knights Radiant? Does Shardplate interfere with Szeth's Windrunning because he isn't a Knight Radiant or is there some other reason? What is Stormlight? Is Stormlight a focus? Is the Nightwatcher Cultivation or of Cultivation in some respect? Is there a spren inside Szeth’s Oathstone? If so is Szeth's Oathstone a fabrial? Are spren the focus for Surgebinding? Are Shallan's "Memories" a form of Surgebinding? Did Axies the Collector imagine alespren, or are they real? What happens to a Surgebinder and his spren during the Weeping? Are they affected by the lack of Stormlight? Is the rate at which Soulcasting happens fixed regardless of size and composition of the item being Soulcasted? Are highstorms visible in Shadesmar, and if so what do they look like? World (12 questions)Did all orders of Knights Radiants use Shardplate? Where is the continent located on the planet in latitude? Why are the people on Roshar so cosmere-conscious? They seem to know an awful lot about Shadesmar and the Three Realms compared to the other worlds. Jasnah even used the word "cosmere" once! Did members of the Hierocracy see visions like Dalinar's? What are the exchange rates of gems on Roshar? Does the Roshar year (defined by Weepings) have anything to do with planet orbiting the star (the astronomical year)? In those weird, random seasons - only temperature and weather changes, or does length of day change too? Do parshmen have kids, or they just spawn somehow? Do Parshendi have gemhearts (in the way as chasmfiends have them, not as Alethi highprinces--inside their bodies, not in their treasury)? Are spren less common/less active during the Weeping? Did Weepings still occur before the Last Desolation? How many (approximately) languages there are on Roshar and where are they used? Books (8 questions)Will we see more notes from the person who wrote the letter in the Part Two epigraphs? Why does Nalan's (the guy in the hood, suppose it's Nalan) portrait in a chapter's heading mean "someone will suffer terribly in this chapter"? Why not Talanel - he's the betrayed one, after all? Is Jasnah's name taken from Polish or similar language ("jasna" means "bright (female)" in Polish, but the "j" is pronounced like English "y"), or just a coincidence? How many Heralds and ex-Heralds have we seen in the Way of Kings personally (not as pictures)? Will Wit be a bigger viewpoint character as the series progresses? Will there be a lots of scenes with Shallan and Hoid (I mean both of them at once, talking with each other), pretty, pretty please..? One of the early typos that was mentioned in the Way of King ARC was the numbering (changing from three to 3) in the chapter-header-death-quotes. Peter said he and the editor saw that too, but then you explained something to them, and they understood why you did it. Why did you do it? Will we have more viewpoints from before the Last Desolation in future books? Mistborn (30 Questions) Characters (7 questions) Where do Kelsier and Marsh get their nobility from? I know that Marsh snapped after obligators got their mom, so I assume it's from their father? Or are they second generation? Is there some reason that both Vin and Kelsier are half-skaa, half-nobleman, both are quite skilled at Allomancy, both end up overthrowing the Lord Ruler, and have siblings that are Seekers? Was Kelsier Ruin's 'back-up' plan? Or was he Preservation's? Is this related to why he snapped so late? Will Kelsier have another role in any series, or is he dead for good? Is Allriane really Cett's daughter? Skaa have to have Allomancy in the past six generations to get Allomancy and Cett says that she is the first person in their family to get Allomancy for centuries. Why did OreSeur sign up for Kelsier's plan? Was he forced to because of his contract? Or did he actually want to? - Status: Brandon did say that he wanted to write a short story dealing with this. Did Alendi have a Hemalurgic spike to enhance his bronze Allomancy so he could detect the Well refilling early like Vin? What event between WoA and HoA gave Demoux the scar on his head? Magic & Shards (17 questions)Lerasium alloys with normal metals make mistings. Would lerasium alloys with feruchemically charged metals make ferrings? If two Allomantic Savants had children, would the offspring be affected by that in any way? Can compounders become savants in feruchemically charged version of metals? Did Miles become a 'health savant'? Why does atium relate to temporal and mental properties, and lerasium relate to Physical and Enhancement properties? Are there varying power levels in Feruchemists too? Would weaker Feruchemists be unable to tap or store as much power as strong Feruchemists? What effects, if any, would an electrical current have on metals being Ironpulled or Steelpushed? What would happen if a Kandra ingested and burned lerasium? Especially since they require Hemalurgy to have sentience. Demoux preaches of the world before the Ascension even though he never heard Kelsier speak of it. Did Kelsier whisper these things to him from the beyond? How does impure metal or alloys with the wrong metal ratios affect Feruchemy and Hemalurgy? If Sazed had been unable to control Ruin and Preservation when he took them up, would they have Splintered each other? Are there still no Splinters on Scadrial? (After the events of the first trilogy) What are the percentages on the other seven Allomantic alloys? Is it possible to spike Allomancy from a person before they snap? Does a Lerasium mistborn have an enhanced life-sense relative to a non-Allomancer? If Preservation's Mind (Leras) wasn't broken/damaged, would the mist spirit have been more corporeal? Is the mist spirit a Physical manifestation of Preservation’s Mind? What would happen if you attempted to use a nicrosilmind to fuel a coppermind? Are atium and malatium mistings still being born during Alloy of Law? Can a combined feruchemist/mistborn fuel allomancy by tapping a nicrosilmind? Would it be theoretically possible to fuel allomancy without ingesting any metals at all? Is it possible for an Allomancer to push or pull on metals inside his or her own body, even if other Allomancers can't? How come you never had Elend burn Gold? Would being a lerasium-Mistborn cause any differences in how his past selves are presented? World (4 questions)Does the Central Dominance have a regional ruler like the other Dominances, or is that one of the Lord Ruler's responsibilities? If it is not the Lord Ruler, who was it during the time of the Mistborn: The Final Empire? You've mentioned that there was no fruit in the Final Empire, yet there were multiple mentions of it in the first book of the trilogy (summerfruit in the prologue) Is this an error or are "fruit" on Scadrial not something we would view as being fruit? Would it be possible to get a general timeline of the following events, in relation to the time of the Lord Ruler’s Ascension and to each other: the birth of the Second Generation, the time period when kandra were hunted down and killed by Mistborn, the creation of the contract system and of the creation of the latter generations? How much do the Terris people in the breeding programs and the obligators who work with them know about Feruchemy? Books(2 question)Gemmel is the one who helped Kelsier escape the Pits of Hathsim, right? Did he complete Kelsier's training by attacking him in a fight to the death? Will we ever get to see additional god metal alloys? You know, sometime. Warbreaker (15 Questions) Characters (3 questions) Is Nightblood really alive? Does Nightblood need to sleep? If so, why? Will Llarimar become Susebron’s head priest? Magic & Shards (11 questions)How does one erase/alter memories using Breath? Does it just require loads of Breaths to make something like Nightblood, or is there something else involved? Why do Returned need to sleep? Has Endowment been passing the Shard onto new people after a certain period of time has passed, to ensure that the power/nature of the Shard doesn't have enough time to completely consume and corrupt her/him? When a drab dies, can they pass onto the Cognitive or Spiritual Realms, or are they doomed? Do Breaths lose power over time? If so, do they have a minimum power level they will reach, similar to Hemaulurgic decay? So do Returned eat their own Breath for the first week? Is that why Drab can't return? If two Drabs have a kid, will their child be a Drab? Doesn’t the command that wipes your memory use your own color as fuel, like Breath transferring does? World (1 question)Are the lands that were formerly Huth and Kuth controlled by another nation on Nalthis?Books (1 question)Now for a question you will be able to answer. I finally realized what (really) makes the mistborn books different from Warbreaker. Mistborn almost always has a enemy. First it's Lord Ruler, then its the armies, and then it is Ruin. Warbreaker, on the other hand, never has a super strong enemy that the heroes are working together to defeat. Was this intentional?Elantris (23 Questions) Characters (2 questions) What happened to Iadon "over the last few years" (p. 151) that made him less of a man? Was it just the pressure of his duties, his paranoia, the Mysteries? If the Mysteries: was it just the act of killing people, or was it something Dor-ish about the Mysteries? Ashe says “We had nothing to do with the fall of the city. There is nothing to fear from a Seon. I wish… But , well, that is irrelevant.” What was he going to say? What does he wish? Magic & Shards (12 questions)Regarding Dilaf's flashback: Did the 'spell' that messed his wife up go wrong because of human error? Or was it because Dilaf was, in some way, inadvertently interfering? If a Dhakor (Dilaf) could erase a symbol written by an Elantrian (Raoden), could an Elantrian erase/heal a Dhakor bone-symbol? Why do some Aons (Rao & Ien) appear to have a minimal function when drawn missing a line, but other Aons don't appear to function at all? Does every different race have a magic system on Sel? Can the Jesker religion or the Jesker Mysteries cult access AonDor and use it? What is the other oval on the mural supposed to depict? (not the blue lake oval, but the second, white sphere). If it's a Realm, which is it? Why can Elantrians heal while Dakhor can't? Does this conflict with the fact that FjorDor is able to keep Hrathen alive past when he should be dead (p. 609)? Why is the pool located outside of the city (over an hour away), which is presumably the center of AonDor’s power? Is of a different essence than AonDor or is the pool the real center of the power and the city a red herring? Why did Ien hang around Raoden when, typically, Reod-ed Seons avoid people? If it's the same reason that the Dor decided to build a 'bridge' through Raoden, then why weren't all Seons drawn to him? What was different about Ien? It's said that the Shaod usually comes at night. Does it always come at night? If so, why? Elantrians more flammable than the average person (p. 258). Is this more related to the Shaod or the Reod (i.e. - is this a symptom of being an Elantrian or a symptom of being half-transformed)? If Shai were to gain a Shardblade, but then gave it up, could she create an essence mark that represented the history where she still had the blade? If she then applied the essence mark could she summon the Shardblade or a copy of it? World (6 questions)Ashe says to Sarene "your god" (emphasis added). Do Seons have a religion/god? How many monastaries are there in Fjordell empire? Are there any specialty monasteries other than the 3 mentioned? What happened 300-ish years ago in Fjorden? The empire collapsed and they adopted Shu-Dereth (42, 487): was this natural or somehow Shard/Splinter-related? What happened 100-ish years ago in Fjorden? Why does no one have any info on Fjorden in the past century? (p. 476) What happened in Teod 50 years ago that made them banish Derethi priests? Did the Elantrians worship anything in secret? Books (3 questions)Aon Ien is referred to as the Aon of Healing throughout Elantris, yet in the glossary of Aons it is labeled Wisdom. Is it both or is "Wisdom" an error? Were mistcloaks inspired by the funeral shrouds in Elantris? A few years ago, you talked about making a 10th anniversery edition of Elantris, revised and updated. What sort of things would you revise? Would it include Raoden putting the Chasm line in Kae instead of Elantris? General Questions (9 Questions)Why (from a writer's perspective) are the gods in your novels are gods instead of Gods? Do you like YouTube? Have any favorite YouTubers? You've got a bunch of symbols on Brandonsanderson.com that look like Aons or bits of the allomantic alphabet. What do they mean? Or are they just there to look cool? Have you done the Scribbler revisions yet, or is that something still on your plate? Do you have a particular, canonical term for a person who holds a Shard, other than Shardholder (which 17th Shard currently uses)? You've said that a person who holds a Shard actually becomes a Shard. We get that. But what would you call someone like Sazed? How do you decide what to name the Shardworlds? Is there any other canonical way to refer to a set of Shardplate and a Shardblade other than Shards, so as to not confuse them with the Shards of Andonalsium? What do you call a human from each Shardworld (demonyms like Scadrialeese)? Do you view the Force as a well thought out and logical magic system? Silly (10 Questions)If Hoid and Carmen Sandiego got into a stealing contest, who would win? What would be the best stolen item? Are there waffles in the Final Empire? Status- Yes If the Skaze are evil seons, does that mean they have mustaches and goatees? Sazed, after taking both shards of Ruin and Preservation, was able to bring people back to life, fix the world, and make Spook a full Mistborn. Was he able to un-eunich himself? Can you eat cognitive waffles? How much bacon could be produces from a fabrial powered by one gemheart? Did that last question make sense? Can I have a cookie? Is scalzibane really a Hemalurgic spike disguised as a pen? Silus asks: Can I hang out with you?

Hmm... chasmfiends have some unique spren. Parshdudes have symbiotic bonds with spren. I'm going to speculate that stormform involves bonding with chasmfiend spren.

I dunno, I'm having trouble with the idea of spren teleporting.

But then how could you steal a shardplate by feeding a glove?

I dunno, it kinda seems to me that it's self balancing. I mean, he uses some ruin, that weakens his ruinyness, so he's more likely to use more preservation next, bringing him back to balance.

Sazed is managing to remain mostly uneffected, if I recall correctly.

The other two quotes about the topic are kinda amusing, I guess. http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/18u4tg/i_got_a_chance_to_chat_with_my_favorite_author/c8veqx3?context=3 Anyway, the interesting thing about shardplate regrowth is that you can fight over which portion is the 'superior' one if you apply stormlight to both of them. At least, that's the impression I seemed to get.

Vasher mentions in the last(?) chapter that he's consumed almost all of his vast hoard of Breath over the years.

Yeah, but I'm still confused about a mistborn burning the lerasium+aluminium alloy. The precendent set with mistings seems to be 'sorry, thug, you lose your old powers and gain SUPER ALUMINUM', but mistborn are kinda different. They might just gain SUPER ALUMINUM and keep their old steel and iron, or they might become a lean mean sodacan snarfing machine.

It doesn't really seem like you should lose your ability to burn steel and iron, even if you gain super aluminum burning skills in the process. On further investigation, though, it doesn't actually settle what happens if a mistborn burns the alloy - just what happens if the wrong kind of misting does. That said, anyone know what's up with the RPG calling it 'larasium' instead of 'lerasium'?

The heralds are going to have to have subordinates anyway. It doesn't seem likely there'd be a need for them to talk in multiple languages at once.

If she doesn't have a blade, then what she's counting heartbeats to summon is an even bigger mystery.

Hmm... not sure air resistance would be that significant a factor for so short a distance. At t= 12 seconds, things in earth's atmosphere reach terminal velocity (which is proportional to sqrt(g). But at the initial dropoff, there's no air resistance, and velocity is proportional to g. Kinetic energy, on the other hand, is proportional to v^2, and that's the real killer as far as I understand. So if we go with 170 ft, high end calculations put 'survivable' at 170 ft* (1 g /(0.7g))^2 = 346 feetish. Basically, it seems you can dive about twice as high as you could on earth.

That's how it works in the rpg, but that doesn't really make sense.

"The deal was to GIVE ME THE SCEPTER, you jerk!"

I think it's more complicated than just being 'truth' spren. At least, that's the impression I got when seeing the Brandon quote that gave them the name. Can anyone dig that up?

The mistwraiths info we got from this this makes an interesting parallel to the parshmen. Is it possible that they originally didn't need spren at all?