Oltux72

Why? Gavilar had spent years of his life to take over Alethkar. Why would he go to the power that wants to take it away from his family? And that is the main difficulty. Gavilar has a very high opinion of himself. And he is not a traitor. Nor anybody's servant. Why would he serve Odium like a common mercenary against his own house? The part of the theory about Gavilar's continuation are much better than those about what he wishes to do with it.

I'd say that is just common human practice going back at least to the Roman practice if giving conquered land to retired soldiers.

Raising the question why there were Shades on an uninhabitated continent.

Then "atium" and electrum Mistings need also be distinct. Which, based on the evidence in the books, they still may be even if "atium" turns out to be an alloy. If "atium" were an alloy, our and Scadrians' understanding of Allomancy is deficient. I am afraid there is no way around that. I see those options If you are a Misting of a metal, you can also burn that metal's alloy with atium If you are a Misting of pure atium, you can also burn all alloys of atium There are three levels of Allomancers, Misting of a metal, Mistings of a metal and its atium alloy and Mistborn

Well, no. The WoB tells us that the Shard influences how a magic is obtained, not that it determines how it is obtained. That is a difference. Now, if I were to give you Hemalurgy and Allomancy and ask you to associate them with Ruin and Preservation, you'd be right. However, if I gave you Hemalurgy and Feruchemy, you'd make the same associations. In fact people have always argued that Feruchemy should be Preservation's system and Allomancy the shared system. Hence you see that a Shard's Intent has no predictive power. It does, however, rule out some associations. You can make negative predictions. In that sense when we associate Shards with initiations we pick attributes of those methods. The choice among the aspects of those methods we make according to the prior knowledge of the Shards. Hence this is circular reasoning. Chronologically unlikely. The epoche of the Forests of Hell is a small episode in Threnody's history. By the time of Stormlight Archive they have already advanced considerably and by Secret History the Evil had not yet arrived. The traders in Shadesmar. In Rhythm of War they are forced to spend precious Stormlight on the basic necessity of food and water. If the caravans operated on the same principle, they would not make economic sense.

Because some people are very thorough. You have an unknown and unprecedented phenomenon, so you test everything. Or just expidiency. "You were sick by the mists?" - "Yes" - "Here's a vial with all known metals" They would not know the signalling ended at two levels. Then. The Battle of Hathsin left plenty of survivors in the caves. The story would be told. And you think nobody of the mistfallen from elsewhere would ever try something else? Like they know they have allomantic powers but cannot use them and would be just content? People are literally eating tide pods and yet nobody would ever try another harmless metal?

Because you would look for Mistborn. Indeed. No. Firstly the Mistfallen among Elend's army mostly perished. All others must have been among the surviving population at the rates the mists left them. Granted we do not know how many were exposed. But we are talking about up to 1% of the population. There were thousands of people in those caves.

Sel: There really is no initiation on Sel. If you are of a nationality, you can study and use that nation's system. AonDor is the exception. Yes, you need to learn to use that system. You can attribute it to Devotion. But that is circular reasoning. If you were told that Sel is home to the hypothetical Shard of Education, you'd attribute it to that. You can built and discover new shapes and combine them. You could conclude that Selish magic is from Invention. Scadrial: The system is genetic. You can literally breed an army of Allomancers. Going by that route, if the Shards had unknown distribution, you'd attribute Allomancy and Feruchemy to Cultivation. Ashyn: You are giving health for power. It would fit Harmony. Or even Ambition; you are ambitious enough to risk your life and health for power. Returned: No discernible pattern. If you did not know better, you'd suspect Whimsy. Roshar: The whole planet is showered with Investiture every few days. Endowment? Taldain: To raise your number of ribbons, you must go to the verge of death by overmastery. Ambition? Now, what I was trying to say here is that all those systems of initiation are compatible with their Shards, but none are dictated or even strongly encouraged by it. The only system that really fits its Shard is hemalurgy. But it has no initiation at all, not even knowledge. Millions of Pathians have proven that putting in their ear rings. About Valour we have secondary information. Hoid knows her very well, yet has not displayed any of her arts and still sought Lightweaving. that really points to combat as a method of initiation or her powers are useless to me, all being offensive with no Lightweaving or we are wrong about this and his tremendous healing ability is the pinnacle Valourian Invested Arts Indeed We can go by abilities that we can deduce from performances otherwise not explained Brandon has spoken about mercenary troops. Unless their armaments are provided by aethers, this is a potential system What do the caravaneers eat and what pack animals are they using? Again, if this is not aethers then what? Darkside magic Sixteen if he's not an Elantrian Sho-Del magic Faynlife

True, but your job is not only to explain why Elend Venture did not discover the truth about what atium and by implication the Mistfallen were. Mistfallen and the other mistsnapped Allomancers survived the Catacendre. They were all over the northern continent. Some were in those shelters that survived, whether they knew it at the time they went in or not does not really matter. Then. Demoux survived. Some of his men must have also survived. After the reemergence after the Catacendre they had all the time in the world to test people. Yomen at least definitely survived the Catacendre and he definitely knew about electrum. You need to explain why all people after the Catacendre turned into fools and did not do experiments. And they surely looked for the allomancers among the rest of the mistsnapped. Where were the electrum Mistings? It seems to me that the retcon may be seen to raise three related but distinct facts to explain the atium as produced in the Pits of Hathsin was an alloy. That is trivial. Preservation was cautious, did not want pure atium be around in any quantities and used Fortune to determine what to alloy it with. Done. The Mistfallen should be able to burn electrum. There are no electrum mistings among the other mistsnapped But is this necessary? The WoB only states that the atium was an alloy. The thing about the Mistings comes from the WoP. And the latter part causes all those problems. So how about this: The geodes in the Pits held an alloy of atium and electrum Seers still exist. A Seer can burn pure atium and its alloys. That's the deep reason they take longer to make. They are a part of the way to Mistborn.

Yes. The worst outcome is a failure without further consequences. Wax asked the question why the Lord Ruler would make the Bands and hence doubted their existence. As the Survivor made them, that question is wide open and, the Bands being usable as a potent weapon, potentially vital. We have no idea of the full content of the coin Wax got from Hoid, nor do we know what Wax determined about the reason he got it. That contains an assumption about Kelsier being free in his actions. Given the state of relations between Waxillium and Harmony I am not sure that Wax would make that assumption. That is a potential reason Harmony was not keen on the idea.

I guess it is a show piece made to be seen, hence it is made out of extra shiny silver. It does not need to be the genuine thing. It does its job even if some people see that it is a replica. It does remind the other senators what is at stake in the sense of what an armed conflict within the Basin would mean now. His colleagues are selfish, shortsighted and corrupt, but not actually stupid. They wish to ignore reality. They are not incapable of understanding it. It raises one extremely big question. He must now suspect that Kelsier left more records or artifacts or may have survived to the present day. So this suggest an obvious task: contact Kelsier

Why? They descend from feruchemists and had no mundane population to breed into them.

And one thing more the affair between MeLaan and Wayne has been ongoing Something that requires MeLaan's prolonged absence is suspected to soon come up

Debatable. They may just have deputized the forces of the Great Houses. Tensions with the Malwish. That is not synonyms with "The Southerners". The North Scadrians are not stupid and six years is long enough to discover and exploit divisions among the other side. We have learned: Waxillium did not start a war in the Basin But relations within the Basin have not improved much either There is trade between the North and the South (many people have medaillions) There are diplomatic relations between the North and the South (ambassadors kind of imply that) The Set has not gone public The political structure of Elendel has not fundamentally changed Elendel has developed technologically (electricity is now ubiquitous) You can build a subway system under Elendel with explosives, hence bedrock is unusually shallow

It is They are behaving like a coppermind in principle. Why would that be unusual? It makes me wonder what would happen if you were unintentionally separated from one, though.

These questions suffer from a lack of context. Are we talking about an empty desert or an urban environment of an advanced civilization? Who can afford to wait? Do you care about bystanders or collateral damage? The environment most advantageous to the Radiant: open ocean on wooden ships - a Skybreaker would win, just attacking the ship An urban environment wit a lot of steel frame buildings: the Radiant is dead

The huge problem is taking away the "swap". After the fall of the Lord Ruler, Vin and Elend routinely used electrum. They also had enough aluminium for Vin and Elend to use it at multiple times. If they figured that the Mistfallen are allomancers, they must have also used those metals to test some of them. Why did that not work?

Probably yes, but that is a false contradiction. Nobody is proposing enslaving all low ranked people. The data used to show that a group consisting only of slaves would be worse than a group without slaves cannot be used to exclude that a mixed group would work even better. Thaidakar may be more ruthless than Jasnah, but he is also more romantic. And his ruthlessness is focused on killing enemies or collateral damage. He would not have suggested asking the Heralds to let themselves be killed, but he would have proposed exterminating the Parshendi.

And so do Survivorist priests. But that is in Era 2. There are no actual Mistborn (save for Marsh) around. During Era 1 the Mistcloak allowed Mistborn to operate unbothered by third parties. That is an advantage Mistborn want and need, but which depends on them not allowing anybody else to be a free rider. They'd kill kill you because they'd have to.

What is her family? Obviously she is ready to sacrifice a member. So is it the concept of her family? Or is she just ready to work for the majority? Exactly therefore it is a bad idea. The work does not go away. And it will necessarily end up with the lowest class. If you are 10th rank without slavery, that's you. If slaves exist, that's not you. And what will they do with their criminals? They are in the middle of a planetary war. You can draft them and send them on suicide missions, but their loyalty will be dubious. Locking them up, guard them and feed them, however, is not a good option. You can of course hang them. But then they are lost to the war effort. And you are depriving the economy of capital. Slaves could be turned into a collateral. No longer. And just releasing slaves if employment is low is also a bad option. Jasnah may see freeing the slaves as a logical extension of abolishing lighteye priviledge. She is mistaken. You are referring to a man who (Scadrial) as utilitarian?

That has already happened. Abolishing slavery is a bad move economically speaking. There is no such thing as pure utility. Utility implies a goal.

No, that is just factually wrong. Shallan still manifested the Testament-Blade. The bond is persisting. The oaths have been broken. And of course dead Blades can still be bonded. Breaking the oaths and breaking the bond itself are distinct phenomena. Well, the Knights Radiant are not immortal. And quite a lot of them were to be found on battlefields. The conclusion to any reader that bonds must have been broken is unavoidable. That is just not true. She started out as a kind of stupid pseudo-windspren. After breaking the bond with her previous knight at least in Sylphrena's case. Sorry, not that kind of care. The kind of feeling bad of harm happening to them. There is no reason his eyes burning out would bother her. Yes, telling her that she will kill him. But that is not one of those hints. Indeed. She just knows that Pattern needs a bond to stay sapient in the Physical Realm.

I am afraid there is a contradiction. Treason can be the rational choice. If you look at it from an abstract view point, treason is the cessation of cooperation with allies in such a manner that you get the best deal out of an enemy. Jasnah is perfectly willing and able to understand that. Nor is she going to assume that people who do not share her goals can be trusted beyond a certain point. And neither would she refrain from preemptive action against people on herside, if goals were to diverge. The next obvious target would be Hoid. They are on the same side for now, but they do not share goals. Hoid is fighting Odium. Jasnah is defending Roshar. That is not the same thing.

Reckoners is, if you will, a story about magic or super powers arising anew in a multiversal setting. The core addition is that those powers do something to your psyche. Is that because he dared not face the bleakness and uncomfortable questions the alternative would have brought? In other series we praise Brandon for complex believable characters. In Reckoners the superpowered are essentially victims of an extraterrestial influence. They do bad things because they are made to be evil. Is that because the alternative would have been to wonder what would have happened the first time a superpowered male teenager would not have taken "no" for an answer after a date and when the cops arrived told them to get lost or else and implemented the or else? Did Brandon think that the X-Men had already been made and he took the easy way of finding an alternative?

Traitor for whom against whom? As far as I can tell there is nobody left she could betray anybody she owes loyalty to to. OK, I think your premise is wrong. She is Alethi and Rosharan. Her supreme loyalty must be to either of them. If she decided that defeating Odium could only be had at the price of sacrificing Roshar and that is not worth it, that is not treason but nationalism. She was taken seriously. Why else would have Dalinar promised to negotiate? Because he knew what it would take to win. Not only was she taken seriously, but Dalinar agreed with her that genocide was a realistic option. She is the Queen of Alethkar. If she thinks that Alethkar's existance requires that she break an alliance, she is not a traitor, but a monarch doing her duty. It is only treason if she decieves the other members. She does not do so. Nor does she owe Hoid complete honesty. He is not completely honest to her either. Nor do their interests perfectly align. They are allies not sworn blood brothers.