Halyo_Alex

That makes sense to me.

3 hours ago, HavingTheHasHoidAPurpose? said:

So hear me out. Atium is radioactive.

Ruin represents decay, and entropy, so this would make a lot of sense thematically.

Atium is apparently soft, and breaks down very easily in your digestive tract, showing this theme. (As a converse, Lerasium might be incredibly strong)

The shard of ruin on its own is destructive to itself and others. It can only destroy, and theoretically, would come to destroy itself (Rayse expected as much)

So what if Atium leaks radiation. Both physical, and invested (probably rather slowly, think uranium length half life, otherwise the kandra would've noticed the stash shrinking) It slowly destroys itself, but also damages everything around it, with ruinous investiture, and harmful radiation.

This would be unknown in world, as era 1 has no radiometers or geiger counters, and era 2 has probably barely scratched that tech, and hasn't had atium to work with.

This could be related to atium savantism. Perhaps by filling yourself with ruin's investiture to destroy others, you are also slowly destroying yourself.

we haven't seen any really old mistborn, and the oldest (Kelsiers teacher) is probably not using much atium. (He's pretty much homeless)

Every other mistborn: Kelsier, Vin, Elend, all die young. (as a note, atium also psychologically imprints self destructive tendencies in mistborn, making them feel invincible, and pushing them into taking bigger risks with more dangerous fights, getting them killed eventually)

There's actually a very easy test for this, in the wider cosmere.

[White Sand]

2 hours ago, therunner said:

I don't think that would be possible, when Pulling or Pushing, they always 'brace' against themselves, i.e. if you pull on something much heavier than yourself, you get pulled closer not the object.
Hence flight like this would be literally like trying to lift yourself up by your bootstraps.

Yeah this is basically it. Ironpulling and Steelpushing is like if you had really long arms to pull or push stuff with. Physics applies as if you were trying to do that.

I'm still in camp Autonomy, mostly because they have a history of meddling and Bleeder making a big deal about not being controlled by Harmony (I.e. being autonomous). Those are the big 2 reasons why.

42 minutes ago, Frustration said:

If I recall correctly there is a WoB that I will try to find later, that says that something is either in the bubble or not, and there is a certain point where they simply cross over.

If you want the Realmatics of it, it's when the object's Cognitive center of "mass" aka the Center of Self is in or out of the object, I believe.

14 minutes ago, Kolten said:

Have we ever seen if spren behave differently when bonded to different people? I wonder if the human involved in the bonding can effect the personality of the spren in some ways. Not really change who they are, but maybe make them tend to think along the same lines as the human they bond to. 

Thinking through the spren we know, they all seem to compliment their human partner's personalities very well. Before I always ascribed this to the spren being attracted to a proto radiant they would get along with (as well as the out of universe reasoning that these characters spend a lot of time together, and Brandon is going to make sure they are entertaining together accordingly). But maybe there is something more to it? 

That the stormfather would have an easier time rationalizing lying and being manipulative when bonding to gavilar checks out. And then when bonding Dalinar, being stoic and reserved, and withholding information as opposed to outright lying also fits pretty well. 

Maybe it is a factor anyway. 

I mean, it is the bond with a human that gives spren the ability to think in the physical realm, so...

3 hours ago, cometaryorbit said:

I think there are 10 because they represent Sazed's 10 rings at the end of Well of Ascension, which he drew on to save his life when Marsh shot them into him.

(Presumably he had 10 because it's one for each finger.)

Yup. Human anatomy moment. Or it's the 10 "original metals".

unrelated to the subject matter but the topic title here sounds like an actual novella that brandon would write

3 hours ago, cometaryorbit said:

I think this would work - probably not automatically, but two Shards working together could probably find a way around the Connection limitation (maybe just "Cultivation/Koravellium asks Dalinar to use his Connection powers" or stealing Ishar's Honorblade).

But I don't think Taravangian will give up power. Even before being molded by the Intent of Odium, he thinks *he* can fix things better than someone else could.

So... Use Connection to forcibly glue chunks of Honor to Odium, then?

Just now, Frustration said:

I mean it's kind of like the shades on Threnody.

Though that raises the question what happened to the Minecraft Shard?

Yeah you’ve got a fair point there. 
 

I mean, in terms of which shard, I feel like Invention’s intent tracks pretty well with the vibes of Minecraft. As for the state of it, I kinda think it could be splintered, and the EXP orbs are the pieces of it…

which kinda implies the Ender Dragon could be kind of like a Bondsmith-level invested entity, with how much EXP it has and drops.

something to note is that dropped EXP is only a fraction of what the thing actually holds, given how if a player dies and picks up their own EXP, it doesn’t even come close to their pre-death Level.

14 hours ago, Frustration said:

Could be the remains of cognitive shadows.

Well, yes. I suppose if the cognitive aspect is trapped in the sand rather than passing to the Beyond, then they would be considered cognitive shadows. I just didn’t want to assume.

Wait. That’s really weird, then. Does that mean if you died on the “Minecraft shardworld” then you’d never actually go to the Beyond (or fade from existence if it doesn’t exist)? Could you theoretically resurrect someone who died centuries ago by using investiture to reassemble the grains of their particular soul? I guess it depends on how far they disperse in the sand…

54 minutes ago, Frustration said:

What about beacons?

Well, the Nether Star inside seems to be something like an Atium Geode crystal… on steroids, and not “programmed” to precipitate solid investiture out of it.

The investiture it’s made of likely comes from the souls inside soul sand, which has interesting implications if you consider the Nether to be the overworld’s cognitive realm. Cognitive aspects of, well, I guess villagers and illagers end up shattered into minute grains and dispersed throughout the valleys and patches of sand… no wonder the place looks like hell to them.

33 minutes ago, Flaming Coinshot said:

Great theory, well put together, and now my brain is trying to figure out how mobs fit in. Are they like Therondy Shades? Or are they Invested beings? And like Frustration said, Beacons, Netherstars, Ender stuff and the like would all likely be Investiture. I think that the Nether fits nicely to the Cognitive Realm (roughly corresponding to the Overworld), while the Ender could be the Spiritual maybe? 

Oh right! Ender pearls are totally just gemhearts. Endermen even have Violet lighteyes like a Willshaper would, and can teleport, kinda like a certain Surge of Transportation guy we know… 
 

and obviously Dragons are in the cosmere so that needs no explanation

Hey all, back again with more rampant crackpot speculation. This time it's definitely something way more casual, rather than a genuine cosmere-physics theory.

What if Minecraft's Overworld (and perhaps Nether and End) were in the cosmere?

Well for one, let's look at Enchanting and Potions, the two most blatant arcana of the game. Enchanting uses EXP, but also consumes Lapis... I wonder if it's a bit like a Biochromatic Breath situation, where the EXP is the Investiture and the Lapis provides a catalyst like the Color for awakening. Lapis IS historically "the" blue dye, and you can turn it into a literal blue dye item in minecraft, so that checks out. Words are definitely also important to Enchanting though, given the whole Bookshelf thing... A bit like AonDor, then? Hmm... Well, as for Potions, the most obvious Investiture source for them is the Nether Wart that turns a water bottle into an Awkward Potion. Adding other items alters the effect, so perhaps it's like how the different Metals can focus Investiture into doing specific things. Gold actually is pretty consistent with that; even in Minecraft, gold is used for healing. Gold apples give regeneration, and Glistering Melon slices (made with gold) create Healing potions. Huh. That kinda works too well.

Alright, so we've speculated about the actual, overt magic of Minecraft. Now for the fun part.

Sculk and Redstone.

"Wait, what? How is Redstone a system of Investiture?"

Good question, I'm glad you asked, me. That one's a bit more speculative, so let me discuss Sculk first, because it'll segue nicer into Redstone.

Sculk is most likely a collection of Investiture-fed organisms similar to the Lichen of White Sand, except they feed on EXP instead of invested Sunlight. The Sculk Catalyst takes EXP from killed mobs nearby and uses it to grow new Sculk, overtaking blocks and even growing new Sculk Sensors, which are VERY, VERY interesting. Sensors detect different frequencies of vibrations and output a Redstone signal. If you use a Comparator, they even output a signal from 1-16. Hmm. Very nice number, that. Suspiciously nice. The Warden also might be an example of the Sculk acting like the worms that Aviar eat in order to gain their invested powers. An invested symbiote. Of course, it could also just be something that the Sculk creates to defend itself... But there's a few subtle details about the Warden that make me believe it's a symbiotic defender of the Sculk, primarily the "soul" particles we see in the chest, that beat at different rhythms when it gets agitated or when it's calm. Even if the entire Physical form is Sculk-generated, I believe at least the core of its Spiritweb would be taken from something else. As to what, I have no clue.

Anyway, back to the Sensor and its curious behavior. I find it very convenient that it interacts with Redstone in such a specific way. Almost as if they shared a common link. Almost as if Redstone Signals are a form of Investiture...

Wouldn't that sort of explain how you can just put a stick on a block of cobblestone to make a lever that can cause a piston to lift, what, 16 blocks of solid iron a meter upwards? Where the hell is that energy coming from? Well, how about the Spiritual Realm? What if Redstone is Corrupted Investiture manifested in a physical form, growing underground like an Atium Geode? That begs the question then, which shard is corrupting which other shard? I propose that it's Autonomy corrupting Invention. It just seems like it makes sense. Redstone fits both of those shards' Intent quite well, and ties back into the Sculk because Autonomy seems to have a thing for invested lifeforms like the Sand Lichen and the Aviar. But Invention... I mean... Isn't that just the essence of Minecraft? I would almost expect Invention's actual Shardworld to feel kinda like modded Minecraft.

Wait, the essence of minecraft... EXP? Well that would tie things together nicely. After all, it seems to be actions that involve invention that produce EXP. Gathering resources and changing them into new forms, like mining iron ore and turning it into ingots, or cooking food, or killing mobs for resources. Crafting doesn't give EXP, but that's probably just because it's so common and easy to access, both from a game-development perspective and from an invested art one.

Another thought one of my friends had is that Glowstone might be uncorrupted Redstone, which... Actually kinda works, it's a crystal that gives off light, in this case it would be due to containing Inventionlight, which ties back into Potions. Glowstone boosts the potency of potions, while Redstone makes them last longer. Also, that would make Redstone Lamps related to sphere lanterns and that makes me happy for no particular reason.

So what do you guys think? Did I miss any obvious Cosmere-like aspects of minecraft? Do you think I'm just crazy? Are Vexes just corrupted Allays which are basically just Windspren?

3 hours ago, HOID WANTS INSTANT NOODLES said:

I thought of this too instantly. Just wait til the next update lets us summon them as a special sword.

I mean, with mods, anything's possible

3 hours ago, EmulatonStromenkiin said:

many of the shards, either when combined or when you seek their base intent, seem to fit the title of Unity.

It's almost as if they all used to be United in one single entity...

Just now, Weltall said:

Maybe the Skybreakers have been hogging them all for the past few thousand years and that's why they're so rare. Selfish chulls...

Okay, that's actually a good point and one I don't have a real answer for.

You can still have my upvote for that one, it's a funny thought.

On 5/21/2022 at 2:39 PM, Weltall said:

based on some similarities to Highspren I'm thinking that Starspren are the ones who make Skybreaker Plate.

I both love this idea and am extremely skeptical of it.

I love it because imagine if they could call a Starspren over in Shadesmar for transportation without needing Stormlight for gravitation, or to ration it if there's a big group travelling with them. Badass.

I'm skeptical because of how effective it would be, and how rare Starspren supposedly are. How the storms are you gonna gather enough to make Plate out of??

2 hours ago, Marabout said:

Keepers of Warblade Truth

Warlight-related shardblade, anyone?

(i know, probably not the intended interpretation, but it's a tantalizing subversion of expectations)

1 minute ago, HSuperLee said:

This comment made me realize that in the far future of the Cosmere, there might be whole medical textbooks dedicated to Hemalurgy and how the bind points interact with different metals, as well as information such as how to find the bind points on bodies of different proportions and possible even things like using hemalurgic needles to provide short micro-boosts to different traits, such as using hemalurgic needles during surgery to provide specific parts of the body with strength or healing. Basically, magic acupuncture taken to an extreme.

Exhibit D for why I rusting love Brandon's magic systems.

Just now, ShardlessVessel said:

I was thinking of the process they use in airships. They seem to somehow consume ettmetal in place of steel for flying, so I imagine you may be able to rig it to fill spikes with the Investiture from ettmetal.

True! After all, Scadrian souls are entirely made out of Preservation & Ruin's investitures, as is Ettmetal, so... solidified human-Soul-substitute!

Just now, ShardlessVessel said:

Your ideas are interesting, but hear me out: duplicating spikes.

Instead of using ettmetal to boost a single spike, use it to charge extra spikes using the first one as a blueprint. Multiple spikings for the price of one death - and that's assuming they haven't figured out how to do hemalurgy without killing yet, which IIRC is possible.

Perhaps! How do you suppose it would work, though? My thought was that the ettmetal would replicate the act of ripping the pieces of spiritweb off and storing them in the metal spike, thus killing multiple people for one super-spike.

16 hours ago, ShardlessVessel said:

Ooh. That's an even more interesting idea than my idea of spiking a metalmind.

I mean, we've seen the Primer cubes interact with allomancy, and the really big airships presumably use mechanical iron feruchemy to store the ship's weight, so why wouldn't ettmetal also have an interaction with hemalurgic spikes?

I can see a few features of an Ettcharged Spike (tm):

- Vastly stronger than normal IF you can spike a large group all in one go (human attributes would be much easier).

- But also vastly more warping than normal. Like if you make a single Iron spike with this method and it has 4+ humans' worth of Strength stored in it, that single spike will warp you into a Koloss.

- Maybe that's an upside though, and you can make single-spike Blessings for Kandra that still offer the full power to them without opening their minds to control.

- And maybe with just one Koloss-ing spike, you can retain more of your intellect (think Professor Hulk).

2 hours ago, Frustration said:

Sir, I want to impress upon you the magnitude of what you just said did to me.

I have lived in a three dimensional world my whole life, you just pulled me up into the fourth dimension. I am forced to see things I cannot possibly hope to understand, I cannot even begin to comprehend the vastness of the change your words have wrote upon me. And I realize I will never see the world the same way again.

Take all of my upvotes good sir.

I mean, i can extrapolate a rough hypothesis given how Primer Cubes interact with other forms of allomancy: Leeching, a contact-needing external metal becomes an AoE, so perhaps the contact-needing act of Spiking suddenly becomes an AoE...

The problem there becomes suddenly if you're melee-spiking, you're in the "blast zone..."

Ettmetal spike-gun, perhaps? silent steelpushing mechanism?

Crackpot theory: Someone is going to make a hemalurgic spike using ettmetal. and I don't mean stabbing someone with ettmetal, I mean using the charging of a spike as the priming use of Metallic Arts to prime a primer cube.

What will that do? I have no rusting clue, but I want to know.

1 hour ago, Marabout said:

After another read through, I’ve modified my theory…. 

My theory of how Heralds return is that they enter an undifferentiated chrysalis and then pupate and emerge with a fully grown body.

I started this theory because I believe that Shallan has a gemheart containing her mother or an Unmade.

So consider…. The Herald returns to Roshar and enters the gemheart of a fetal state chrysalis then pupates.  The process takes roughly a year (there seems to be a gap between Taln returning to Roshar and his appearance).

To reproduce, a Herald imbues or creates a chrysalis (it has been confirmed that they can have children but not in a normal way).

If Shallan is the daughter of a Herald, she would therefore have a gemheart.

That gemheart likely contains her mother’s investiture (manifesting as Radiant) or one of the Unmade.

I think that the chrysalis theory makes sense given how “Roshar” it all is.  There has been a lot of discussion about chrysalis and pupation in the books including drawings.

Plus I think it would be funny if the Heralds and Shallan are glorified chulls.

I'm not sure i buy it, but take my storming upvote for the comedy of the thought.