Oltux72

On Sel answers to that question are subject to experimental verification. The landscape does not answer the question how an Aon should look like fully. In particular, how far should it extend? Why is the Duladen Republic not a part of it? The defintion is not legal. Teod people can become Elantrians. It is also not linguistic. Nobody from Jin Do, even those who speak the language perfectly, becomes an Elantrian. The Dor also does not believe in birthright citizenship. Even if your family settled in Arelon a century ago, you count as Jin Do. Shuden can do ChayShan. It looks like to the Dor ethnicity is by descent. So what is the end goal of teh Fjordell Empire? Is it political only? Or do they want to develop ScylaDor? SelDor?

True. Yet at that point, the Singers were the underdogs. And the Windrunners kept fighting. The visions showed that they are sent on missions. It is unclear who picks them, but they do go on missions. The Knights Radiant had a central organization. A headquarter, leaders (the Bondsmiths), a centralized transport network, archives, training centers ... That was not an objection made on a whim. Whoever recorded that had to go to a deicated facility for recording and he chose to preserve these specific words for the records. That very much indicates a choice with care. the visions showed a Knight dedicated to fighting and finding fighters an association with ancient Alethela ( The "Windrunner River") a herald of leadership as a patronontrary, an abundance of squires subordinate to a knight I am sorry, but on the contrary, the Windrunners are closest to what we would call field-grade officers among the Knights Radiant. No. He had no problem fighting people even before he became Radiant. Sure, he prefered to fight the oathbreakers. Not the Parshendi as a species, but those who had killed his king by treachery. When Kaladin exercised moral judgement, he felt that Elhokar deserved death. The point can be reasonably made, even if it is contested. Kaladin was honest in his belief that Elhokar deserved death. Point is that Kaladin did not do this out of personal antipathy. A Windrunner will protect even the guilty if that is his mission. Promising to protect Elhokar, he had made it his mission. Elhokar had murdered his best friend's grandparents, yet he protected him. Yes, they protect. But nevertheless by protecting you pick a side. Not as obviously as a Skybreaker or a Dustbringer would, but you do. Hence it comes up only in the later oaths. This is precisely what they do not do. Look at his reaction to Jasnah's plans. And, again, Elhokar. Killing the bad king is taboo, even if that would reduce overall suffering. The Windrunners will offer an option to surrender. They will not drop incendiaries on a city just because it harbors enemy soldiers alongside civilians, but, yes, enemy combatants are to be killed. No. The Windrunners are the order with the most squires and emulate the herald of leadership.Nor is a dedication to mission not the same as a dedication to orders. The Windrunners kill enemy combatants because they are enemy combatants, as opposed because their orders tell them to do so. That would be Skybreakers. Besides, a Windrunner, if we are talking about a full Knight Radiant, is an officer: an abundance of squires and missions out of communication with HQ. A naval officer in the age of sail would be the best analogy. Clearly not somebody who just follows orders. Are the Fused evil? They are fighting to get their planet back. And if you wish we can discuss the ethics of Honor who was ready to throw a whole world into a cycle of eternal genocidal wars without asking its people. We would talk till 2020. It isn't the greatest. For that you would follow Jasnah's line of thought. But they still have to take a side and understand that you kill the enemy because he is the enemy. No further justification needed.

Best for whom? At the risk of sounding like a broken parrot, people have conflicting interests. There are surely those who do not want to send away their children and those who would rather enjoy free food, housing and running hot water rather than a purpose in life. Yes, if we are talking about the first spouse. Given human, specifically male, nature, it would surprise me if there weren't a migration of young, nubile women to Elantris.

Three Kholins out of a population of dozens(?) of millions is a statistical impossibility. It means that the spren chose by political power. That is kind of violation of the principle of going by moral qualities. Whether it bothers you is a quesyion of personal preference I suppose, but the point can be made.

Depends on the armor. The holes necessary led to the late medieval/renaissance Swiss tactics of going for the groin, which in turn led to the development of the armored and decorated cod piece.

But not necessarily an effect by itself. Sure something like 'south' has a meaning. It does the obvious if you combine with, for example, Tia. But on its own? But all of them? That is, is the set of Aons knowable by collecting all possible Seons, or are they a subset? If the latter, what does that mean? Is the set of Aons closed at all?

They woud still make a triific dart. Plate still makes you strong and heavy. You could bear a 20mm hand cannon and wear a lot of ballistic armor over the plate.

Elantrians and their power are interesting. But it seems to me that Elantris cannot stay a city of Elantrians exclusively. There will be visitors, ambassadors and traders domestic servants (I have not seen an Aon for tidy up this room or clean this toilet) companions, not necessarily of the paid kind, although they will exist. Now that Elantris is fixed I doubt every married new Elantrian will seek a divorce. children. Elantrians can reproduce and their children will in general not be Elantrians How do these people live? They will have food and clothing provided to them. That much is clear. But how do they spend their days and how will they find a place in live? While we have seen a street sweeper becoming an Elantrian, I doubt he would keep working as such. Even a stupid person could copy Aons and activate them. It would be a waste to use Elantrians for mundane tasks. Yet, if you are an Elantrian and have been for centuries, would you really like to see your children go into domestic service? So what are the alternatives? They can leave Elantris and take up a normal job They can serve Elantris outside Arelon. The new king strikes me as somebody who would go exploring and sending out embassaries Elantris may create Janissaries. If you can create enchanted weapons, armor and other gear with Aons, Elantris will not be in a position to forgo the possibility. More so if they want a navy and marines. They may become artisans or artists or traders within Elantris. It is unclear to me how such a community will develop over many centuries. But in the short and medium term I see conflict. Parents will bury children and grand children. Repeatedly. Children will age and parents stay young (classical vampire tropes will be appropriate) Children will never be equal to their parent or parents Marriages will fray city born muggles will dislike newcomer Elantrians, but will be unable to do anything about it Elantrians may set up harems - the family is not the basic building block of society in Elantris. The immigrant is.

Mass issues. The arrow would be too light. You'd waste the increased strength stormlight gives you. An arrow has a fairly large surface area compared to a bullet. If you make it very fast, as you would, if you went to maximum draw weight, you will fire an extremely fast arrow. Friction goes up with the square of velocity. You'd end up with a missile that is extremely lethal at short range, which is useless because it pretty much cuts through everything anyway, but rather short range. Hence a javelin may be a better use of a live spren blade.

Each Seon carries an Aon. Unless the Elantrians are incredibly stupid, they have made a catalog of Aons to be found on Seons. So what determines which Aons are to be found on Seons? Do they have a specific meaning? Are they a subset of all Aons or is it possible to make a list of all Aons this way?

OK, so is this person a squire during that time?

That would raise the question why Elantris does not have the teleport equivalent of an airport and a warehouse of stuff from potential destinations. Generally AonDor is 'stupider' and less perceptive than other usages of Investiture. You may notice that there is no (easy) way to say: heal him where he has been wounded. You have to say literally which part of the body you want to heal. Input of information is hard in AonDor.

Use a solid fin like on an aircraft. Although I wonder whether with a spren which can change its shape you should not just go with a homing missile. Would you rather use a shard arrow or a shard javelin propelled with some kind of woomera?

If you see elasticy as a constant of material. Which it usually is. For a monocrystalline material for example it is not; it depends on direction. You would need to use vectors to fully describe an object. If you have full control about these vectors, you should be able to make an object deform within the limits of elastic deformation. In other words, it moves.

To whom? That explains that they bond people. But why stay in the family and which child do they go with?

Very well, then the elephant in the room: Can you make it negative? This may seem a stupid question, but if you can it looks to me like you have a material that will move against external pressures, which under gravity and in air, means more or less that it can deform elastically at will. (Nalthis)

Well, Moash's grandparents didn't need protection anymore. The other victims of a bad king still would need it. As would the new bridgeman in the Sadeas armies. And the Windrunners were fighting Singers in all the desolations. They helped execute the plan that lobotomized and enslaved them. You cannot just protect. People have conflicting interests. The idea of pre protection is a delusion. So the humans should now enjoy the fruits of their ancestors' betrayal and aggression? The discussion between Kaladin and the Singers is enlightening. People will not willingly share the land with the Parshendi. They are his enemies. They are fighting in the armies that occupy his homeland. They are taking humans as slaves. They are also good people fighting for their freedom. That all nice people will always be friends is fantasy. People have conflicting and incompatible interests. The only other order whose full ideals we know does exactly that. They dedicate themselves to 'the law', only to find out that law is not a uniform thing and you have to pick whose law to follow. As their ideals require an object, they find out that applying it universally is impossible. The same logic quandry Windrunners find themselves in. And we have the recording: 'not want to protect everybody' ... want, not try or seek. No, they make good policemen. The first virtue of a soldier, before obidience, is loyalty. Again, Windrunners do not care about crimes. Kaladin had to protect Elhokar, who was a murderer. Justice is for Skybreakers. Granted somebody like Jasnah is not fit for them. But nevertheless they are soldier. Sylphrena picked a soldier. The other spren pick soldiers, not clerks or Rock. Fighting soldiers. Well, which battle? This is a logical trap. The world does not neatkly divide into attackers and defenders.

A squire is somebody who gets powers from a bond between two other partners, which creates powers for them. As a consequence those powers require physical proximity to at least one of those original partners. Knights Radiant (except maybe for Bondsmiths) have them. The visions Vathi got were of her death, not Dusk's death. She didn't merely see what he saw, she got the power itself. So can Voidbinders do it, too? Were the members of the Queen's Guard in Kholinar in fact squires of Aesudan and Yelig-Nar?

But what makes them? You cannot stop a Seon if it just floated away.

In a world with fabrials of Cohesion a railway in a tunnel looks quite feasible, provide you find an engine without combustion.

They involve no bond. So let me rephrase: Is squirehood the universal consequence of a bond? Is that the reason Seons stay in the family? You inherit the bond as a squire?

At first glance the phenomenon seems limited to the Knights Radiant. But there is one clear case where a power was shared outside them: Sixth of the Dusk told Sak to share his power with Vathi. Was she his squire? And what about the Queen's Guard. Those soldiers did not really act like they were under the influence of Ashertmarn. So were they Aesudan's squires with Yelig-Nar?

Yes, but it is a far more basic problem Kaladin is facing. The ideal amount of own losses is always zero.Fighting to protect implies that you will risk your life. Your men have made the same oath. But you need to be willing to kill the enemy. That is your objective. That is a military objective That is a delusion. Both sides wish to protect their own people. And that is the point Kaladin understood during the battle of Kholinar. That is exactly the discussion Lirin had with Kaladin. And Lirin was right. You cannot protect all people because people have conflicting interests. But you can protect some people. But that means taking sides. "Am I not supposed to want to protect everybody". The Windrunner ideal is not simple protection and benevolence. “I will protect those who cannot protect themselves.” - not everybody Yes, their own side. Good soldiers? A force that splits in the middle and is happy to fight each other on a battlefield? A force whose leader defects to the enemy? A force that will blindly adhere to the law even when practicality demands something else? A force willing to eliminate on pretenses their developing brother knights? Blind obedience rarely gets good results. The Skybreakers are the greatest failure of the Knights Radiant.

Partially. The Skybreakers are for one thing the order whose oaths we know most about. Yet there is the recording "Am I not supposed to want to protect everybody?" 'Want', not 'try'. Pure protection has the same problem the Skybreakers face? Whom? Interests conflict. Do you protect the lions or the zebras? You cannot do both, not just because your powers are limited, but because the implied goals are contradictory. Now, you might think the question can be answered by whether you are a lion or a zebra. Or by considering which species is closer to extinction. Yet the aspect of justice comes from Kaladin They do not 'deserve' it. Sounds like justice to me. How he saw his attitude not in conflict with the third oath is also unclear to me, but that's a separate issue. No. Emphatically not. That is exactly what I protested against. The death of an enemy is not acceptable. It is desirable. You should not want to protect them. To protect means to kill. And the Windrunners are fighters, not combat medics. That's the Edgedancers. Yes, but Kaladin is failing with the 4th oath. So his failure is to overcome justice. And the eventual answer will be different. But it will be about picking sides.

At the risk of stating the obvious, to be directly opposed you need to ask the same question. Look at the Lightweavers. They seek honesty, not justification. "I fight the Parshendi because they are destroying the social order I hold dear", "Odium must be stopped at all cost." or even "Roshar is for humans and they ain't" are all good and sufficient answers for a Lightweaver, provided they are deeply down true to the individual giving them. And indeed the answer these two orders give are different. The Skybreakers' answer boils down to "I have my orders". Yet the thought process behind it is anything but simplistic. They acknowledge that there is no universal justice. Hence they pick a law to follow. Every choice is equally good. Windrunners answer this based on loyalty presumably. They do not leave people behind even if ordered to do so and they do not let anybody be killed even if common sense says that they deserve death and almost everybody would be better off if that person were killed. The question of the ethics of war are indeed ancient. Hence if you choose to care at all, you will think about similar issues, namely that the enemy is not guilty, yet you are supposed to do him harm. Something beyond justice needs to be found, lest you want to be a pacifist.