WandererNearby

Dragons view themselves as deities per this WOB: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/515/#e16142 Maybe what the Komashians thought were boats were reverse submarines or "supermarines" or maybe they just need something above water. I.e. maybe they like freshly grown tomatoes and need to use barges to grow them. Alternatively, their species now can go back and forth between land and water so a fleet of ships on a water world would allow the best of both ecologies. That's neat about the gills of the axolotls!! Plus they can be very pasty and have rudimentary lungs. It looks more and more like Sho Del are inspired by them. https://axolotlnerd.com/how-do-axolotls-breathe/ Edit to prevent double posting: @Pagerunner, I just realized that I forgot to respond to you. I'm sorry. The short answer is that I don't weight world building from a 20 year old, non-canon source very highly. I also don't think it's a very persuasive piece of evidence against the theory because the effectiveness of skullmoss, if anything, suggests that it could have been altered. Plus, the fact that the legend itself suggests it comes from deities which is also would make sense if the dragons made it.

You're right that a lot has been lost. However, Yumi did travel all around and, apparently, visited one village every day or so. That's a lot of villages. Plus the villagers tell her what they want and why they want it. I personally find a bit of a stretch to suggest that she wouldn't have come across something destroyed by the war with the fainlife, something to help fight the fainlife, a Sho Del asking for something, and/or a Sho Del specific item requesting by a human. Then again, maybe the Sho Del just didn't arrive until after the machine was set up and decided just avoid the planet covered in sentient nightmares in favor of sunbathing in a canoe. I don't think this is hard to explain at all. The whole premise of the conflict is two ecologies colliding so fain land based organisms would be required as a part of it and could be a result of experimentation of the dragons and/or Sho Del. We know that dragons are interested in ecology research, very powerful magically, and view themselves as deities so it seems like they have the means, opportunity, and could have the motive. . I agree that the drag is a weird thing. Maybe the hair is more of a sensory structure? I'm not sure how it would fit. The biggest question is the lack of gills mentioned. I doubt the hair would be the gills considering it would be a terrible design to have important organs just floating around outside of the body instead of in the middle with everything else.

There had to be enough of a similarity to allow for the reading of the cave graffiti. I grant that there was definitely linguistic differences due to the time passage but there must have been a bunch of similarity due to the fact that one is the source of the other.

That's right, I had forgotten about that. However, I do think it does increase the strangeness of the Sho Del never visiting the planet with out a biological/geographical reason for it to be more inhabitable to humans.

I was thinking about every single instance of fainlife given in the Cosmere since we've had three new ones recently and noticed a strong similarity in their chose inhabitations: Xisis lives under the sea on Lumar which has 12 oceans (I know that they're dust oceans. More on this later). Cultivation lives on Roshar which only has one major continent. Uli Da goes to Threnody which has two major continents. UToL is covered in oceans and has Sho Del. Notably, the Sho Del didn't go to Komashi and it has very small oceans relative to ones on Earth. Jan Ven (the Lost Metal Sho Del) was a sailor. Almost are all directly on or next to large bodies of water (or the equivalent to them). At this point, they are a little too similar to be a coincidence to me. Plus, we know that fainlife was supposed to be a "competing ecology" to the human life on Yolen which was definitely on land based on Hoid's memories of being a boy. What if fain life evolved separately in Yolish oceans then they started competing with human life on land? Some potential points of difficulty: Xisis lived under the Crimson Sea which doesn't much water hanging around. My guess is that he is exploring the deep sea ecology and comparing the other water-based ocean deep sea ecologies he's more familiar with. I know that modern day marine biologists would LOVE to able to examine an oceanic ecology that wasn't in a water based ocean. Maybe the Sho Del did come to Komashi but the Komashians forgot about it. This could be true but I strongly doubt it. If the fain life on Komashi got along with humanity, I think the yoki-hijo probably would have visited them and helped out which would have caused Yumi to hear about it. If the fain life didn't get along, then Yumi would have probably helped the villages she visited to have defenses which would have caused her to hear about them. Plus, we know that there is a lot of cultural holdover from Yumi's time to Painter's and they share a language. Based on the way that languages intermingle today, I'm guessing that there would have been an impact on the language from the Sho Del language and there's no indication of the cultural or linguistic impact of meeting the Sho Del. Some other points that I find interesting: Dragons are ageless and reading over the Wikipedia article on biological immortality I mostly see water based organisms. I know that Wikipedia isn't exactly a perfect source of all knowledge and that it also discusses very old stuff but I think you get my point that most ageless or very long lived things are water based. Sho Del are pasty white and have different hair structure than humans. They wouldn't need melanin if they evolved under the water and thus wouldn't be exposed to UV light as much. The different hair structure would make sense if they evolved in a different environment than us. The different hair could be an advantage in water compared to the air.

My guess is that the reason that they were uncontacted by the Sho Del could be because the Sho Del need (or greatly desire) some ocean or similar to sail on. UToL is covered in oceans and the only other Sho Del "on screen" was a sailor in the Lost Metal. Plus, the other two sentient fain life we've met have both been near oceans: the dragon in Tress and Cultivation on Roshar. Originally, Komashi was super hot and Yumi was unaware of any oceans. I'm guessing she would have at least come in contact with any large body of water sometime in her wandering before the machine comes online because cities are traditionally started near bodies of water. Later on, Painter talks about oceans being so "huge" that they took a day to sail across which isn't that big considering modern cruise ships sail at 20-25 mph. That's an ocean approximately 225 miles across. The reason that they weren't uncontacted by anyone else could be that fain life scared away everything else away. Based on the planetary temperature differences, we can assume that Komashi is closer to the sun than UToL so anybody from outside the system coming in would have to pass by them.

Plus, there’s the fact that it might actually be too much damage. If I remember correctly, compounding works as a trick to make more Feruchemical healing. There’s a real possibility that nuclear explosion would require more healing than is possible to store in 50 metal minds plus the idea that it might destroy the metal minds before they were used.

I personally think that Atium is scattered as a trace mineral in the Elendel Basin all through the dirt. Here’s my theory: 1. Atium already has appeared in the ground in the pits. This would be just a spin on that 2. It encourages people to violence per the notes on Hero of Ages which Harmony wouldn’t like. He has this incentive to keep it out of people’s hands 3. ROW Spoiler: 4. I don’t think that Harmony would want an imbalance toward Ruin and putting into the ground would keep it out of his “body”. 5. The Set does a lot of white collar, broad criminal activity (their first action on screen was insurance fraud), we know that they have holdings out in the Outer parts, and Atium would be incredibly valuable. They would comb through the dirt to get trace amounts of it. 6. Them getting it would qualify as the Lost Metal. 7. Wax currently has access to Harmonium and Trellium. He’s using them to try to get Lerasium and it’d be a fun twist if they found Atium instead. 8. Maybe Trellium attracts or repels Atium like it repels Harmonium. The Set just getting access to Trellium and using it to efficiently harvest Atium would explain why no one else harvested/noticed it before.

I’m not sure if this is place for it but how do you feel about Dan Wells coming on board at Dragonsteel? I’m not sure how J feel but am glad he can compliment Brandon skills wise.

This isn’t technically tech but I want someone with the surge of Gravitation and Feruchemical Iron to just run into things. Like, they store up 1/4 of their weight for years then use it all as they quintuple lash themselves into a spaceship or something. I just really really love it when someone use something really advanced/high tech to just hit things.

I picked up the second mistborn book because it was near Jim Butcher's stuff in my library and the cover looked cool. I hated and was very confused for the first 80 pages before I realized it was the second book. I started again with Elantris because it was his first book and definitely didn't have any other books I needed to read first. I loved it.

@Spren of Kindness That is absolutely what I mean. I want Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, Chris Pine, and Chris Hemsworth to do that scene. It would be fantastic from a Doylist and Watsonian perspective. I'd probably cast Chris Hemsworth as Lightsong because I think he would kill at that role.

I'm not sure if the artist intended it to look like a rainbow version of the Angel of Death from the Prince of Egypt with some mildly rapey vibes going on with Vivenna's but I really approve. @Argent, are we able to ask these artists questions about what they were thinking on the forums or is that a Patreon only thing? I'd really love to hear their answers.

I love this idea. I especially want some of the Chris's to be the gods in the game of tarachin with Lightsong.

I say that we have Hoid be the seeker. He has enough experience with most magic systems to be able to intuit what the other players could do but he also isn't a shard so he doesn't have omnipotence. Plus, he has my vote on winning if he's hiding by a long shot so I think the game is more fun with him as a seeker.

Dalinar with his Radiant Plate, Stormlight, and Bondsmith powers vs Szeth with the Jezrien blade or with his Radiant powers would be a dope fight and probably a close one. Szeth with Nightblood would probably win if the fight was less than a minute but, if Dalinar lasts longer than that, I would start to bet that Nightblood killing Szeth is as likely as Dalinar doing it.

@Rg2045 that's certainly a good idea. If it is possible to do that, I bet Ishar would know how to do it.

My personal theory is that it is because they are in a religious cult. We've heard from Brandon that people who are in the know can intuit important things about you from how you look in Shadesmar (can't find the WOB, sorry). My speculation is that being in the cult has overridden enough of their personality to make them look shadowy.

This is why I think Brandon might have Mercy be one of the shards that could smite people with lightning but have it have an interesting limitation. I.e. Mercy can kill anyone if they're already dying or in great pain.

I was thinking about kandra spikes and how we don’t know how they are made. I have a pretty disturbing idea about how they are made but first want to assemble the facts we know about them: 1. They come in pairs. 2. They are small. 3. There are a few basic options for the Blessings: Presence, Potency, and two others. 4. Only the Lord Ruler knew how to make them and the kandra have an “inkling”. What we don’t know: 1. Why have the kandra pursued how to kill themselves and not how make more of them? 2. What attributes did the Blessing take from the humans? 3. Why are they small? 4. Why do they come in pairs? 5. Why is every other hemalurgy creation is fixed in shape but kandra are inherently fluid? I have a theory that solves all of this: Kandra blessings come from killing infants who would have become allomancers. My main pieces of evidence are: It’s foreshadowed by the fact that they’re smaller than the others. Infants don’t have a set identity and can theoretically become anyone. Kandra can literally become anyone. The attribute that kandra spikes take is their fluid destiny/identity. They come in pairs because infants don’t have enough of a spirit web to make a full “adult” being. So, the Lord Ruler used two. Kandra would be disturbed by killing any human to make more kandra. If they could use adults, they could maybe ethically get around this by killing murderers, serial rapists or something. They do not (to me) seem capable of killing infants due to their species wide identification with Preservation. It would explain what the Set were doing with the women they captured. They were literally making their own Faceless Immortals. Different powers cause different Blessings. We know there 16 main allomancy powers split into 4 quadrants. The physical powers become the Blessing of Potency and similar.

Wit is now a Lightweaver and we have a pretty decent idea of his limits with harming other people/animals. He can't really eat meat or hurt/kill living people or animals. So, does that apply to spren? Could he potentially break his oaths and make Design a deadeyed spren? I think yes because he can beat up Kelsier, a Cognitive Shadow, in Mistborn Secret History. However, we know that spren and Cognitive Shadows are not identical so maybe he can't do it.

He shoots someone with a bow. Oathbringer spoilers:

Honor or Dominion are definitely the ones for me. Mostly because if I hear someone break their word for any reason (even good ones), I immediately assume that they were in the wrong to break their word. I have virtually no forgiveness for it as a reader. I also really appreciate an ordered civilization that stays stable.

My biggest issue is that they disagree on a fundamental level and it can't be a casual thing because of Jasnah's personalities and sexuality. We know that Hoid would let Roshar be destroyed while Jasnah absolutely would not. That kind of disagreement can't really be compromised nor could of them just go along with the other's preferences. Plus, I think Brandon intentionally wrote the Jasnah POV scene to feel off because he's foreshadowing that they will break off resulting in Hoid taking over the hole filled by T's crew.

I think you should change the name of the topic. I believe that Brandon has asked all info about the project be kept from people who don't want to know it and technically the planet's name counts and I saw the planet's name from the general page listing all of the forums.