HSuperLee

I think we overestimate soulcasting quite a bit because our main example is Jasnah, who may he about as good as you can get at soulcasting, and our largest examples are when in the presence of a perpendicularity. We tend to talk about soulcasting air like it's easy to do, but Jasnah specifically mentions that it's rather complicated. It just in general feels like we know so little about transformation that it's powers are greatly exaggerated. It's like if we hadn't seen gravitation yet, so we assumed windrunners would start casually making black holes. Or like we hadn't seen progression, so we thought edgedancers would start creating jungles with each footstep. Yeah, soulcasting is powerful, maybe even the most powerful of the surges, but I think we should try to be a bit more conservative in our estimates. Granted, I also just don't like Jasnah, so maybe I'm just biased and don't want her to be that powerful.

I am entirely serious in the silly sounding answer. Maybe, shards associate themselves with mountains, and thus perpendicularities tend to gather on mountains shards associate with themselves.

I think the Stormfather would be rather upset about a bunch of people trying to ride his storm.

Are you suggesting we make the Fused into god-kings and emperors of humanity? Because that seems like a really really bad idea.

Frankly I would like to see the ying-yang bomb that would be increasing an objects molecular bonds with tension or adhesion, then releasing the energy stored within those amplified bonds via division. I have a feeling we'd either get a big fire, or a big explosion.

Anything not written in metal, my friend.

Presumably the Cosmere exists in a universe. But the star cluster all the stories take place in is called the Cosmere as far as I understand.

Except that then, Sanderson has to deal with the implications of Earth existing in his books, which he wants to avoid. If Earth exists, he has to start answering questions like, "Is all of human history the same?" "Does Brandon Sanderson exist on Earth?" "There are all these beliefs on Earth that state different things about the beginning of the universe. Are any of them right? What impact does that have on the Cosmere?" "Why don't people on Earth have magic?" "Could they be visited by Cosmerians?" "Why are humans in the Cosmere near identical to humans on Earth?" And so on. It's just a lot easier to write fantasy by taking Earth out of the picture. You have to answer less questions and deal with less (usually unfortunate) implications.

I'm honestly not sure. If I'm indoors my eyes look brown, but if I'm in the sunlight or next to a light source they're deep green. I'm probably darkeyed though, just as they never get super bright, especially compared to my mother, who has pale green eyes and definitely would fall into the lighteye category. As would my sister, though hers are pale blue.

I'm mostly just obsessed with mixing magics and the hacks that can result from it. It was hearing about Sanderson's magic systems that got me to first start reading him, and my fascination has not faded.

It is presumably converted into investiture (which exists in all three realms) and is then stored in the metal itself like a battery. This is supported by more full metalminds being harder to affect with investiture than less full ones, as if they were merely "bridges" to wherever they stored the traits then should all be equally invested.

That has nothing to do with Sazed changing the arts. We have no clue how much he changed, other than he made Koloss able to breed and somehow (we don't know how) changed the way snapping works.

As well as the fact it's based on Jewish sabbath laws.

I do not believe this could be the case. For one, shardplate is heavy. Like, super heavy. If it was the same material as shardblades, it shouldn't weigh more than normal armor, but when the breastplate is shattered, the weight of the arms and legs prevents people from even standing. During the scene where Kaladin puts the helmet on his arm, it seems like his stormlight is drawn into the armor and strengthens it, preventing it from cracking after a hit that should have damaged it. (I believe this is stated directly in the book, but I have a physical copy and thus can't quickly look it up (Calderis, I'd appreciate some backup.)) It's been implied many times that the reason for shards resistence to the surges is a result of being heavily invested objects, such as in this WoB: From a purely engineering standpoint, aluminum simply doesn't have the properties we've seen in shards. Aluminum armor would dent when given a hard blow, not crack, and it certainly would never shatter. Aluminum also has a decent amount of give, which shardblades seem to be lacking. Granted, there was that time Adolin used one as a springboard, but even that seems to imply a good deal more elastic plasticity than I would expect from aluminum (though it is worth noting I am not a material engineer.) Finally, as you said, we've never seen aluminum actually display magical effects. Feruchemy is the only investiture that really seems to affect it at all, and even that is in a minor and low investiture way. Ultimately, while and interesting idea, I do not believe this theory is plausible.

I believe you just have Arcanum Unbounded, which collects all the novellas, and then White Sand Vol. 2, and you'll be good. Good on you for reading it all that fast. I'm also somewhat new, in that I started in November of last year.

I believe singer's form changes are a specific lesser spren + a specific mindset. I don't have a reference, but I believe that dull form is received by being exposed to a highstorm without a specific mindset and bonding with a random spren. We know that to enter art form, the listeners were trying to attract creationspren, indicating that it is specific as to what lesser spren grants what. Granted, then there's a question of couldn't they find new forms by experimenting with taking new spren into storms with them, but that's where I believe the mindset comes in. If you don't have idea of what form the spren creates, it will just place you in dull form.

I'm not sure that it's fully comparable to color blindness, as that just is an inability to differentiate certain colors from others. Amusia would probably more closely compared with true blindness, where there would be no noticeable affect on hearing at all. Your brain would just lack the structure necessary for the breaths to amplify your tone perception.

This is an absurd question. There cannot be only one.

Returning seems to happen at the most a few hours after a person's death. While it's theoretically possible, I would highly doubt he returned.

Yes, being a drab on Warbreaker Nalthian would be substantially less than pleasant. However, as medicines improve, drabs will likely have to deal with less sickness. I will continue to admit that creating drabs is not good, but I don't think it's unforgivable. But then again, if I was dropped into the Cosmere, one, I would want to he dropped into Nalthis, two, I would try to research ways to artificially create breath. Beyond drabs, there's not much unethical about awakening. Even with the lifeless, we get used to thinking about necromancy as evil, but to me it really just seems more like creating biological robots (which makes me wonder if you could 3d print cells and then turn them into a lifeless....that's another thread though.) Sure, it might be creepy to know your grandfather's corpse is now a member of the lifeless military, but I don't think it's evil.

We also have to consider that the average Nalthian might have an enhanced immune system and slightly extended life on account of their breath. So while drabs might have weakened immune systems, it's probably less drastic than we think, and Nalthian pathogens are probably substantially stronger than average to compensate. While I agree that there are some ethical questions in making someone into a drab, it's also worth noting that the only perspective we really get is Vivenna's, who both comes from a culture where it's seen as a horrible thing, and was basically starving and homeless during that time which made it seem far worse. People like Jewels seem to cope with it, and the citizens of T'Telir generally seem to see it as an unfortunate thing that can happen, but that is by no means the end of the world.

It is unfortunate, but Parlin is very much dead.

If Secret History has taught me anything, it's that Kell himself doesn't know if he's a hero or a villain. Franky, I think he's tried to dodge the philosophical implications introspection would bring. The Lord Ruler gave his wife a death sentence. So, did Kell seek to overthrow him because it's the right thing, or because of revenge? Kell doesn't know. He did what he felt was right, but he never stopped to ask if he felt it was right for selfish or selfless reasons. And I think that really is the best way to look at Kelsier. While I think he considers the morals of his actions I don't think he considers why he's doing them. I also think he tends to justify things under the big picture. He didn't make a to do about killing killing people because in his mind it was a step towards taking down the Lord Ruler. In his mind it was just a step towards the net good. In other words, he seems to have an end justifies the means outlook. If I really had to pin down Kelsier's morals, I'd actually resort to the D&D system and put him in chaotic neutral. Now, normally I dislike the neutral alignments. I see good = selfless and evil = selfish and very very few people are able to exist in between that. Kell is one of those people. If we ever get a clear and decisive answer on his motives, I would reclassify him, but for now, I'm sticking with Kell being one of fiction's best example of a chaotic neutral character.

Pretty much all those effects fade when you get far from Elantris. Your immortality would only persist if you kept feeding on investiture and your skin and aura would fade until you look normal.

Confirmed. Feruchemists should be able to pull off insect feats via careful management of their strength in weigh. Such as weighing so little and having enough finger strength that they can grip on to brick walls and then climb up, or jump several times their height. Basically, every feruchemist should be able to be like Spider-man.