bridge7

18 hours ago, EvenCaktus said:

Bendalloy because theoretically you could save up nutrients/energy for a fight or long run for example and then you would easily have more stamina than your opponent.

You'd need to be a subsumer and a cadmium gasper to get true stamina from nothing, otherwise your muscles would eat themselves too much. You wouldn't get tired, but your lungs would probably be dying and your muscles would rusting hurt

I read them all. It was a cool magic system, but after the first book the plot was somewhat confusing

When your parents threaten to take away the copy of rhythm of war they bought if you don't do your chores

On 11/5/2020 at 9:34 AM, Rushu42 said:

I had always interpreted both of those rattles as references to Taravangian. He's made a deal with Odium that essentially sacrifices the world for his own city (which I'm pretty sure is going to backfire in some way), so he could easily be watching his homeland (meaning the world) fall to dust. Plus the "child crying" bit could be referencing the way that he's far more empathetic when he's less intelligent.

As for the second one, the parallel seems even more obvious to me. He's been systematically draining people of blood to further his goal of preserving humanity. 

I think the second might actually refer to Taravangian, but in a different way. It says that all who live want him to let the blade slip and spill it's blood, so could it be referring to kharbranth. His city is crying, because everyone wants to trade them for the world? It made more sense in my head

3 hours ago, Wulfhere said:

Thanks for compiling those quotes. That is quite a geometrical quandary, and you've got me thinking about math now...

In spherical geometry, we often imagine that a person on the sphere perceives their space as locally linear (i.e. flat) even if an external observer sees the true shape of the space. That's why you can walk in a "straight line" on Earth and have it make sense to you. 

Since Shadesmar is the cognitive realm and everything there exists based on the perceptions of thinking entities, perhaps "locations" in the cognitive realm don't really have a distance apart but more of a connected relationship. I'm thinking of how you might connect nodes in a drawing of a graph or a social network (image 1.) In such a mapping, the nodes (circles) are important, and the edges show the connections between, but they don't express measurable distance.

Perhaps as you get to the "edge" of the known Roshar in Shadesmar, "space" starts to warp and you can only travel to places that are cognitively "linked' to you. This reminds me of how distance and direction get strange at the edge of a hyperbolic disc. (image 2)

A worldhopper, however, knows that other places exist, so perhaps they are able to perceive and travel on the connections between the worlds, whereas a native Rosharan (etc.) would not. And then as the connections become more traveled, more entities know about them and the paths between worlds become highways.

As to fall damage? No idea. Maybe if you fall from height you perceive yourself as having died, so then you die?

 

image credits:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/graph-theory-and-cocktail-parties/

https://www.reddit.com/r/GeometryIsNeat/comments/95au4r/sunflower_spirals_in_the_hyperbolic_plane/

Wow. Those are way more in-depth than I thought it would be. It would've been a lot more helpful if he just said that it was flat, and that's what 2d meant, but that's very interesting. I didn't realize that the people's thoughts would have that much effect on the cognitive realm in that way but I guess that's literally how/why the cognitive realm exists.

Would it be different in places with less people, or in placed like silverlight, with way more realmatically educated people?

2 hours ago, Use the Falchion said:

My take on it: 

Worldhoppers are usually trying to blend in and/or amass power secretly (either as individuals or in groups). Spreading the knowledge of firearms and gunpowder stands in direct opposition of those goals, as it announces you as a foreigner and potentially gives your enemies the chance to replicate a weapon.

As a meta-reason? That's no fun, and erring on the side of awesome is far more fun. Technology in Sanderson's works function for the story and the setting. If guns don't help those two things, then they won't be developed. Just because something can be developed and reach a logical conclusion doesn't mean it should. 

But honestly I don't really care enough to think about it more than this post. 

Yeah, like chekhov's gun.

Also, early guns were called flintlocks because when you pulled the trigger, it would strike flint and steel which would send lots of sparks

On 11/5/2020 at 5:34 PM, Leuthie said:

I'm having a hard time coming up with positive versions of these. Mixing hate with things doesn't lend itself well to positive interpretations (for me).

Odium + Devotion = Stalker (can't think of a better word for it)

Odium + Dominion = Persecution

Odium + Ambition = Antagony (One of my favorite)

Odium + Cultivation = Malignance (Another good one) or Invidious

Odium + Honor = Vengeance (A pact of hatred) or Nemesis

 

Wow. I was to lazy to pull out a dictionary.

Edit: I feel like Cancer would be the perfect name for Odium and Cultivation(hasn't happened yet) For an Odium Ambition mix, maybe Envy? Odium and Devotion could be Ardent(means intense emotion). Odium and Dominion could be Subjugation.

Beyond just ruthlessness, he's insanely powerful and genius even with Wax's advantages (weight change, experience/savant, guns (hazekiller)) so I guess...

I think Wax might actually be able to out think him though, what with his criminal catching experience, both in how they think and fight.

I was really curious about this, and so I found some WOB-

Question

We've had great topics and discussions about this. If all of your characters were in a death match, who would win?

Brandon Sanderson

Honest truth is Kelsier. This is because of most of the characters, Kelsier is the one that is ruthless enough to get what he wants. Others would not be as ruthless. Kelsier as a character is very interesting to me. My kind of pitch on him to myself was he would be the villain in most stories. Kelsier in a lot of stories being told, in a lot of books that I would write, he's the villain but in this world, at this time, it is what the world needs and he is the hero. That's why I say Kelsier.

Arcanum Unbounded Seattle signing (Dec. 1, 2016)

So yeah. He'll do anything to win. A surprise could mess him up in the beginning, though

1 hour ago, Chasmgoat said:

that makes sense, it is the most explicit book.

Yep. Still far cleaner than almost any other adult book though. I've never understood how he separated teen and adult.

Edit: Wait nvm I think there's WOB that says his multi-perspective stuff is always adult.

5 hours ago, Somebody from Sel said:

Censoring what? Stormlight isn't that bad and you say they've only read stormlight so why did they censor it

He's 10 and wanted to read war breaker and they looked through it and decided nope

I don't think that Kelsier would be anywhere near a bronze savant. Wax could follow any coinshot or lurcher, but he might get messed up by both at once, especially in kredik shaw. But... Wax had practice fighting every individual type of misting (that Kelsier would have at least) and he could destroy Kelsier in a push match, especially with a bullet, and especially with his special ones.

Dare a spinner to store all day and see how messed up their life could be(store everything, similar to wax storing so much that he's weightless)

See what you could get away with by tapping atium( how would you be treated as an adult?)

Tin (there are many times where enhanced senses would be great, and many times when you wonder why we have a sense of smell) or bendalloy(literally easiest diet ever )

On 10/18/2020 at 11:59 AM, Koloss17 said:

Well nalthis is under some mastermind plan by endowment that might not involve guns. Roshar is a bit held up with all the

  Reveal hidden contents

desolations. Besides, they are figuring out some fabrial tech.

 

Also, this is rather important, couldn't really find the coppermind quote but roshar has a very high oxygen concentration compared to earth which is (part of) the reason they use spheres, so combustion and gunpowder... Huge problem, a bit could be the equivalent of a bomb.

1 hour ago, Chasmgoat said:

Don't worry, my parents, 1/5 of my siblings, and my grandparents are all sanderfans so my life wasn't in any real threat.

My parents started becoming sanderfans(actually just stormlight archive) and now my younger brother got cut off from everything sanderson related when they started censoring material

8 hours ago, Frustration said:

Well, he uses a substance to feel things he normally wouldn't and can't function normally without it... so, I guess it counts.

Well... It's magic not a hallocinogen and I guess he can't function without it, and ruined his body with it so he needs it... Dunno I thought an addiction was mostly mental, and your brain causes the physical aspect. This is a physical need caused by an overused substance so maybe? Like Teft, that's a normal addiction. He gets highs and lows based off a substance (there's more to the definition than that but he fits everything). Spook is more sketchy.

12 minutes ago, Ghanderflaffle said:

Well I am white, so I would hope I look white. 

Hopefully

Same as @Matrim's DiceAnd for some reason I always thought of shin as being more Asian, I think I just saw stuff about the eyes and "child like stature"(alethi are tall) and thought Asian, which is weird because I am  half asian. Stereotypes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And i totally agree with @Ghanderflaffle
because I look white

Just spent the last 20 minutes reading the thread- gotta admit, never noticed most of this, though, I have noticed how often blind people get some super ability that completely makes up for it. I like how mental illnesses aren't the sort of thing you can just wave away though, because I know a lot of people think you can do that, but I've heard several of my friends talking about this and they're really not.

Never thought of spook as being disabled, though, since he always referred to it as a penance. I suppose you could call it an addiction, though that has connotations that don't quite seem to fit.

18 minutes ago, Weltall said:

Honor's a case that needs to be taken with some caution because as far as he's concerned, he didn't break any oath at all. Per Brandon, there was a suggestion that the Shards should all separate but it wasn't done in the form of an oath that actually would have bound the sixteen. So you have some of the Shards that think they had a binding oath that almost half of them reneged on (plus Odium, who's using the perception of an oath for his own benefit) while Honor and Cultivation apparently recognized that the suggestion was non-binding so they didn't need to follow it. Whether this makes Tanavast a hypocrite for not following the spirit of the agreement turns on how many of the sixteen think the same way that Edgli does (that there was an agreement) and where you come down on the spirit vs letter of the law question. But in his own mind he's not one....

I know there was either a Syl or Stormfather quote about how honor used to care about the spirit of the oath (leaning towards Stormfather, think it was after the vision with the cultivation quote), so to him it was less of a promise you make to do your chores(made to be broken) and more of a "bye I hope I never see you again"?

Didn't realize the cultivation line was a Odium quote, that's like trusting a politician

Questioner 1

You said that moving people like that [Cognitive Shadows] or spren off-world, from Roshar is difficult.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner 1

What about physically, say the Ones Above visit them, and they fly away?

Brandon Sanderson

So one of the things you'll have to be asking questions and theorizing on is what happens if you try to carry a spren around the planet. What happens to their Cognitive sense, right? So you're on Roshar, right? So on the Physical Realm what would happen-- Because on Shadesmar, you have a flattened version. So there are questions for you to be theorizing implicit in that.  And one of them is, what happens, you cross a threshold circling the globe, your spren, what happens to them? Because-- Okay? This relates to the question you’re asking.

Questioner 2

Wait wait, you have a three dimensional plane coexisting with a two dimensional plane?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, two dimensional is the wrong term, but basically...

Questioner 3

Can you specify the mathematically projection used to create this? *laughter*

Brandon Sanderson

We'll try to give it to you eventually, but this is the sort of stuff that I do that Peter's like "Oh man..." *laughter* "Alright give me the math Peter." "Ahhh what do you mean? I'm not a mathematician." "Eh, y'know. You're close." It is very convenient to have a physicist and a mathematician in my writing group.

Arcanum Unbounded Chicago signing (Dec. 6, 2016)

I know that there's gravity and whatnot because when people jump into the bead ocean they fall, and I'm 99% sure you can die in shadesmar (I mean, what's the point of weapons), so with those bases covered, is it possible to die from falling in shadesmar? I think you could, but there are problems with that.

It's 2D(somehow, "not exactly") so maybe a different dimension is missing? Maybe assuming that height is the missing one is wrong, but.... I dunno. There's depth to the oceans, height to fly, so maybe length and width are more like one dimension? He says it's flat so... This paragraph was kinda a waste off time?

Does anyone see Autonomy as a mini-God? Created children (patji, trell?, sand lord), then lets them go, with complete agency? As well as what I mentioned earlier, possibly?

On 10/29/2020 at 1:41 AM, ftl said:

My take was that Autonomy is interfering in the places where the planets are advancing too fast, and might then start conquering each other. E.g. Taldain is technologically super-advanced - they had guns way back before everyone else - but then Autonomy blocked travel to/from there. Now Scadrial is advancing super-fast, building ships and guns and having no sense of keeping to themselves and leavine well enough alone, so Autonomy's trying to stop them. Could also be tied in to how the Ones Above in Sixth of the Dusk aren't supposed to interfere.

Basically, Autonomy want each society to develop independently, autonomously.

I'm going to guess that ftl might have read defending elysium(just the name), so would you see autonomy as similar to PC operative Jason Write? See themselves as defending the cosmere/ universe from the barbarians, or just the most technologically advanced?

You know about how Odium shattered Devotion, Ambition, Dominion and Honor and how he didn't want to absorb them. Say though, if Rayse was like Sazed, and did get two shards, what would the mix name be?

(Ruin and Preservation = Harmony)