Oltux72

How would you introduce the process of changing forms of a Singer other than by flashbacks? The Fused are taking it for granted. But how are the supposed to understand Forms of Power unless we see how they were discovered?

So why did Odium create him? He sure is creepy, but he is actually helpful to the Rosharans. The Diagram even is running a program to use him. Why help your enemies? Does that mean that he had no choice when he made the Unmade? Were they a package deal? Or did he not know what he would create?

What allows the conclusions that they do not know? What allows the conclusion that they would not consider what their mother had done an act of treason, which ought to be punished by death?

No. But it gives a boundary for the profitability of soulcasting. If you can buy 1 ton of marble for less in the market, there will be no point in soulcasting. You should go to the market, but what you want and pocket the change. In reality you need to pay wages to the soulcaster, pay the king's share and pay for the manufacture of the soulcaster. So soulcasting will become uneconomical at an even higehr price. Likewise there is a point where manual manufacture would be stupid. However, it is not so wasy to give. There is a range in which both methods can be used with a profit. How large it is depends on how much it costs to make a soulcaster and how much you need to pay to the ardents. Within limits. I wonder actually who guarantees this. The price of food is not fixed. It depends on the weather and indeed how long the harvest is past and so on. But the price of other goods like stone is not subject to these variations. There has to be an institution that keeps the prices fixed. The problem here is that the money can be used up If you know what you are doing. The Danvars broke it the first time they exchanged the gems. Dangerous grounds to draw conclusions from. The Ardentia are a priesthood. They may not charge full rates for a funeral.

There are good geological reasons for marble being rare on Roshar. And the Ghostbloods presumably picked the most profitable material that can be made with topaz when they built the soulcaster. And the assumption that the breakage rate is independent of the quality of the soulcaster is also daring.

The Danvar family has a certain cash flow. They can simply chance it. It may go wrong of course, but the topaz may also survive. And they do not need to do this often. How long does it take to train a soulcaster user for the more advanced techniques? Years? Their aim is not economic. That much is obvious. They'd just make the transformation themselves. The soulcaster has the function of involving the Danvar family into something illegal and/or blasphemous. Blackmail essentially. Whether they lose money on the operation is a different question. The soulcasting market is not completely free. The government surely takes a hefty surcharge. Meaning that even if you could not make money by paying the official rates for soulcasting, you may still make a profit by making an illicit soulcaster. Particularly if you are particularly advanced in making fabrials. They can use off-world technology. Again, Shallan intended to operate with a stolen soulcaster. In that case she need not pay for manufacturing it. Nor would she pay the king's inflated rates. Her calculations are better than normal. You cannot draw any conclusions from that onto the normal case. Now, for the generic case, the Ghostbloods are obviously not maximizing profit. That does not tell us that they are operating at a loss. It is plausible that mining marble is cheaper than soulcasting it. That depends on a great number of factors, among them the rarity of topaz, which we know nothing about. I am repeating this just to establish the base. But can you make money anyway? In the Vorin lands at least the price of soulcasting is artificially inflated. The devices may be operated only by a subset of the population, of which only a subset is available, and they are effectively heavily taxed. We simply have no idea how much of the cost is due to gems and how much due to the soulcasters themselves. Nor do we know how much the price for manual marble is below the price for soulcasting.

Maybe. They need to train. Hence you need them to do a minimal number of transformations. This may or may not be safe. Unknown to us. The description of savantism sounded like an addiction and if there is personal variability it is possible that you need to accept a certain quota of deaths if you want to use soulcasting at all. I am afraid you are answering slightly the wrong question. How can the Danvar family make money? How can the whole operation be profitable? Distinct questions. The Danvars need not pay for the soulcaster. Yes, they need gems for the transformation. But anybody else would need to pay for gems and the device. Devices that break relatively easily and need experts to repair and maintain. And those experts will cluster where they find a legal market for their services. That would form the limit on price created by soulcasting, not just the gems. Soulcasters are rare and legally restricted, especially in rural Jah Keved, and marble is expensive to transport. The arbitrage is created by legal limitations and hence stable. How can the whole operation be profitable? It does not matter. The Ghostbloods are not doing this for money.

That would mean that the Windrunners suffer from delusions of omnipotence. It would turn an obvious fact into the fourth ideal. And remember the recording: It is about wanting to protect. Not failing or giving up at impossible odds, outright wanting. And his breakdown started when he had to pick a side and couldn't.

Shallan investigating the murders in Urithiru. She wonders why somebody would deny a second murder while even one is enough to get you hanged. Bridgemen are slaves. That isn't murder. That is property destroying property. Liek one of your dogs killing another. You should have kept them in separate cages. Adolin is a high prince. If anything, Jasnah will check that there are no witnesses and quietly make sure nobody learns anything detrimental to the family honor.

Who would judge Adolin? And they hang people for murder, so what would you charge him with? A failure to report unusual circumstances after a patrol? Indecent disposal of a corpse?

Are we really sure about Trell? (Elantris spoilers)

They need to own at least as many as are discharged between highstorms to power your transformations. A dun gem is useless for soulcasting. Stormlight is free in terms of running cost, but it still has a cost in terms of capital. Secondly, your ardents eat even while you have no need for soulcasters. Worse, they eat in training. Lastly, for marble your quality requirements are much lower. If a block is bad, you throw it away. If some grain is poisonous, soldiers get sick or die. Furthermore, you are doing stone into stone. That looks like an easy transformation.

Why not an Elantrian then? Your spren will bind you to a solar system anyway. And you are master of your own decisions.

Do they have to? Does Forgery use MaiPon as a symbol because it happened to be developed there or is there an internal connection? That is could you forge with Aons while in Arelon and consequently develop a MaiPonDor working best in MaiPon as an Elantrian?

Likely part of their own image of self and connected to a hair folicle, so it would be the same as awakening a living body. Very hard to do as investiture resists investiture. Cut hair would work, though.

Taravangian would require exactly that what he did in "Inglorious Basterds". You need somebody who can credibly do the well-intentioned mass murderer. Michael Fassbender might also do it. Odium does not need creepiness. He needs passion and understanding, a man with fire and compassion. Waltz could do it, but so could others. How about Sean Bean? He would even survive. Sadeas needs somebody who can give the role an afterglow of glorious times and a certain physicality: Hugh Jackman

Increased body mass and the ability to vary it can be an advantage in battle.

"I love my mommy more than anything else" - The truth has to be true and fundamental, not fascinating to anybody else.

The Fused are not doing as they were doing in life, though. They are becoming demigods effectively and are reborn, as opposed doing this in an afterlife.

Nor would the other highprinces stand for that. At the very least it would take an official inquiry and so on. Either they were victims of the Thrill or not.

There is no need for that. The people reading his report will try to find it out. Kaladin did notice the military significance. Now of course the metal could come from an unknown source for all the Rosharans know. But then it might not. Finding out is easy and they have research teams. Taln was in custody for many days. How could the wardens fail to notice that? Hoid technically. The Nightwatcher, in contrast to most spren, already is sentient in the Physical Realm. While that is true, there is also a need for logical consistency in the plot. Hence I see no way they haven't discovered aluminium. Though the idea of cutting it with a Shard Blade may or may not have occured. The same is true about perfect gems. If this is truly a matter of geometry only, they should have done it by now. They have a large team of dedicated scholars. That is plausible looking at the Knights Radiant themselves. It is not plausible for the supporting forces. If you have a team of researchers they won't sit on their hands for a year. If they have been disbanded, you need to find a reason for that. Dalinar saw the need for research in Oathbringer. He more or less ordered it to be done. He won't change his mind without a good reason. That raises another point. Even if Shallan hasn't talked, Amaram's connections to shady organizations will be investigated. Are the Sons of Honor on the run?

They have soulcasters. Enough of them to dispose of feces. And Kaladin noticed that the metal is not steel. And Shallan's jewelery shows that they can make alumium. They are led by a man who faced an Unmade with just a gem stone and a book. All of them, no way. Some of them, most likely. Some Radiants will be ignorant or want to hide, but not all of them, especially the Azish. Seeing no new Radiants would mean that nobody makes it to Urithiru. There are not that many silvery metals that are not steel and are known to Rosharan science. They can test with a spanreed. The tests can even be done by ardents and scholars. No Radiant needed. Not really available for capture A whole year? And not die? In a preindustrial civilization? Post signs in the major cities. Some Skybreakers will want to talk to Dalinar. They are Knights Radiant. There must be a faction that wants to stand with the other knights. Some must be sworn to the law codes of nations in the coalition and want to defend Roshar's human population while considering themselves bound by human law.

Exactly. It may have failed. But why did they not try? These people forged a coalition in a few months, figured out the gem archive, found mythical figures and drove off an Unmade. And then, a year of just routine activity Why? Theologically you may see it that way. And the map is cool. But compare that to the ability to switch Urithiru back on. The Sibling is quite important. They woud have to trickle in. Or can you give a reason they would all arrive only after a year has elapsed? And now thw cat is out of the bag. Governments will actively search for them. And so will the Fused with even less benign intentions. They must flee. And a few things more: Kaladin has reported that aluminium has magic properties. Has someone tried to hit it with a Shard Blade? They know that Odium's forces corrupt spren. Have they caught any? Odium's forces have an edge in investiture detection. Any counter research? Or at least an attempt to level the field? Aluminium suits and helmets for Radiants? How far have they debriefed/interrogated the Heralds? Has there been a mission to contact the Skybreakers? Now I could accept that the military situation has made many of this options infeasible. But then something dire must have happened on the battle field. I just cannot see so little happening in a year during a Desolation.

That begs the question what would happen if you healed somebody high on magic mushrooms or LSD.

They would most likely try to study it. If they found a way to mass produce Shard Weapons, that could be victory. He can summon a living Shard Blade. He is a Knight Radiant. They know about the oath stone from Taravangian If he hadn't shown up, Odium would have won Then they could send him on a dangerous mission to a remote place. But putting a Radiant into jail is a gigantic waste. Even sending him to a lab for scholars to study Division would make more sense.