Tamriel Wolfsbaine

I have been thinking about innate investiture for a bit now and found myself questioning what all has it and exactly how much you need to sense life. I know all investiture is on some sort of spectrum but I am slightly confused by it and worried I may have missed something in my warbreaker reading or even forward. Drabs don't have enough innate investiture to be sensed via life sense. How much have they lost? I imagine that a person with 1 breath would be easier to sense than a person with no breath from somewhere else but people from other planets can be sensed. Life sense is not bronze so kinetic investiture means nothing really for this. For the fauna of worlds I haven't heard much about life sense picking up animals. But lifesense seems to be able to sense spren. On Roshar you have some animals large enough to need some form of bond with spren to stop from crushing themselves or for other reasons to make their existence possible. Do you think a chasmfiend would be invested enough to be picked up by lifesense alone? Or a white spine? Or do you think that the spren an animal had to bond would be the only thing lifesense could pick up? It may be useful out in the woods to not be hunted by something if you really can sense it staring you down and watching you. Are spren being picked up from lifesense or are they being picked up from the 7th heightening bonus of recognizing invested objects? Are spren innate investiture or kinetic investiture? Do you think it would be easier to sense a ryshadium vs a normal horse on Roshar?

It is almost an icky word when you want to set up suspense for your characters. Like I have said in other posts... Healing is an awesome ability for antagonists. I don't really think it is interesting or fun to read about from a protagonists view in fantasy writing. And while I pride myself as an active member of teams trying to heal others irl... in fantasy I see it more as interesting for the fact that it needs to be overcome than anything.

I had this picture in my mind of future wars and battles become so investiture dependent that it actually flip flops and becomes battles devoid of investiture being used for anything other than to negate the other sides investiture leaving us with pretty base soldiers fighting powerless leaning on what tech they have and less about fighting with all of their powers. Perhaps mingled in. You have total dead zones where its just raw knuckle dustups and then just outside the zone it is immortals entangled in endless mortal combat. Which systems do you think would have the advantages in what scenarios? Techs being developed without investirure as their basis would likely pull ahead in some situations likewise others would struggle in spaces where investiture works. Let's look at a null magic zone created from some form or allomantic grenade or other options: What exactly does that mean and block out? Is it only blocking kinetic investiture? Would awakened objects continue to work? In my mind awakened objects and blades / plates would likely work but stormlight may not be usable (this would / could potentially cause plate lockup). Allomancy and feruchemy would be all but useless in a zone such as this. But scadrial has a large advantage in these zones with firearms. I would say if Roshars fabrial science continues to require or need stormlight to function it would be rendered usless but things like shardblades would still function well. Obvious advantages get thrown to radiants outside of these zones but are they going to be more vulnerable in more zones from allomamcers and awakeners? Antilight probably doesn't stop your allomantic powers and this would just open up more zones where we find other systems alternating which zones to control and try to focus their forces in. What zones do we know of and what zones are more hypothetically possible / hinted at with some RAFO tags...

In comparing healing I think every abilities process is slightly different. Gold is very active. You choose how much and how fast. Compounding simply let's you pull off those feats 10 fold. Stormlight is so passive. If you hold stormlight your body is trying to achieve perfection. Perhaps the most active and the type of healing that cares the least about a persons cognitive and spiritual self would be a divine breath. Taking Kaladin as our control do you think any of these would power past his issues to heal his scars? Would divine breath perfect his body to what a divinely intervened upon body would be according to cosmeric natural law? Do you think compounding gold would bypass that view? Perhaps part of a gold compounders power is the fact that A-gold keeps them closer and more intune and aware of what their spiritual has or could have been? Kaladin with the ability to see his past self or potential past selves could have a different Cognitive and spiritual view of himself? With stormlight it would appear that healing is a total byproduct of your body being constantly kept at its spiritual / cognitive peak. Again some form of emotional trauma should have more impact on stormlight than other methods just based on the passive nature of it. Perhaps not to the extent of negating it but slowing it down would certainly be enough of an added danger to the radiant to make it a viable option.

So when comparing systems would you say that the peak of radiant potential has been reached with Kaladin and Jasnah and speaking at and beyond their capabilities is an ever further stretch for some average vs average vs battles?

Are emotional attacks cognitive in nature? We know that your healing is based on your cognitive self and how you view yourself. If a mistborn were to sweep away all positive thoughts of yourself and then ramp up negativity and hopelessness do you think damage might stick to a radiant better? Kaladins scars won't heal... not because he doesn't think he wants them too... its because inside he won't let them. We know radiants are mostly broken. And I can say with a strong certainty that anyone who has watched / dealt death is going to have issues. (I remember hitting a cat with my car and it was my breaking point. All of the other crap and people I watched die but had to go help the next person over and over again boiled up in a matter of moments. I was alone and in a position where I just pulled over and had my little meltdown before getting back on the road and moving on again.) It is there for everyone of the radiants whether they appear broken or not. If a mistborn dug all of that most negative feelings out at once and stabbed a radiant while soothing away every potentially positive feeling at once do you think the stormlight would actually be able to heal them? They are healed based on their cognitive selves. And it appears that emotional allomancy is very much attacking that cognitive self. Obviously stormlight is not the only ingredient in the healing power of radiants. We know leeching works but how best do you take away the other ingredient? What is that other ingredient and which magic mashups would you use to attack it?

I am trying to understand copper allomancy better. We have seen it used to block emotional allomancy and we have seen it at least dampen rhythms. Is emotional allomancy a cognitive effect? Brandon has mentioned that spren would act weird in a copper cloud. Does that weirdness cross realms at all? Is soulcasting accomplished through rhythm changes at all? I believe a coppercloud is enough of a disruption and investiture to make it a viable defensive option vs soulcasting. Is it doing that via blocking out the rhythms being sent from a soulcaster to their intended objects of change? If it is, would the cloud prevent soulcasting things in the immediate vicinity of the coppercloud with the resistance to soulcasting weakening as the cloud gets thinner as they soulcast further away from the coppercloud? Would this be a bigger issue if the coppercloud was a savant? Do you think spren and radiant communication could be effected in a coppercloud or the ability for spren to function in the proper way may be effected? A lot of this will end up being RAFO I am sure but do you think copper is going to be able to play a larger role in the future of the cosmere?

Was the aluminum Hoid brought to Azure on Roshar all soulcast by he himself? Is this a trick he is letting out to others or is he keeping it close to himself? Was that metal known by other characters native to roshar before?

5th heightening all the way. Biggest benefit is that it seems to pause aging so you should be able to awaken temporarily losing that heightening so long as you haven't remained under that heightening for a lifespan. Lifesense would be the bees knees. I love the idea of a cloak that watches my back and leg wraps to absorb the shock of falls... seriously I would be jumping off buildings for the fun of it so fast. Arm wraps that extend as far out as they have fabric to grapple people for me. Honestly, the scenes in my mind of awakeners fighting are so much more cinematic than other systems... Vasher vs the thugs where he awakens the dead guys clothing to make a meat shield... the wrist wraps crushing and throwing people like ragdolls... At least in my mind, those are the coolest scenes in all of the cosmere. Atium would be fun to watch on the screen and Szeth vs Kaladin would be fun to watch as well but we have already seen flying immortals bash eachother around a thousand times. Whispering commands and watching the world come to life around your characters... masterpiece. Cloaks choking and pulling their owners in different directions deflecting blows and causing mass chaos. Yeah awakening is my #1 hands down. Metal eating would be next.

Which human torch burns the brightest?

Definately a huge part of the aches and pains I find while reading is that I sort of just feel like these books are a chore. And they become more of a chore the further I get into them. I truly hope the last 30 hours of oathbringer are just an unfortunately dull point in the story. Kind of feels like Brandon perhaps wanted this epic thriller mashing up all the good stuff from his other stories but has 100% missed on any jaw dropping moments. Spoilers aside, when a certain returned met an unfortunate end my jaw hit the floor. That was so out of left field and highlighted beautifully just how mortal they were. I haven't had any of that yet in stormlight. The most significant death so far was Sadeas and I almost miss him as a villain because in 32 hours of listening I have yet to see a comparable obstacle pop up. Sure there is this whole thing with the dawnchant happening and the big reveal that Taravangian just dropped but the loss of armies to back up the war effort just doesn't hit you in the feels when Superman is fighting Goku. I am glad to hear that Brandon has realized the corner he is in and things have changed. I would love to see some non Roshar specific counters introduced in book 5 as well to level the field a bit. Its like going from wrath of the lichking to Cata in world of warcraft.

How in the heck do the radiants suck so bad at eliminating their targets and vanquishing their foes? From my understanding browsing these forums I am led to believe that: Nothing can penetrate living plate. Everything short of gold compounding or being a radiant will die instantly to zigzaging magical blades of death. Elsecallers and Lightweavers can turn the floor into lava and the air into poisonus vapor around battle fields. Skybreakers and Dustbringers can fly and skate in circles through enemy ranks incinerating everything that they pass... while being invunlerable in plate and having a self thinking buzz saw of a weapon to sever any obsticle in their way or instantly healing any damage they take including but not limited to having their entire head turned into ground beef and scattered behind them. Bondsmiths... well they just open a perpendicularity and drain the entire enemy army of all of their innate investiture killing them at a spiritual level while sticking them to the ground so they cant even jump before being sapped of all life. Literally don't have to go into mass rez abilities or the field of choke roots grabbing / grappling and suffocating vines from truthwatchers and edge dancers. Nor do I have to start with the quicksand, earth opens up and swallows the enemy whole that is possible from stonewards and willshapers. Stormlight as a resource is a lie. Because stormlight exists in precisely the amount needed at the push of a button. How then is there a story? How have radiants failed so miserably to win? You have demigods with weapons and armor shaped from smaller parts of gods. These demigods have the ability to turn their entire planet to dust and then grow it back again. The people who are supposed to be protecting others get into 1v1s and watch armies die below them while the people who should where and when they are needed havent shown up yet. If this power set hasn't won the war yet it never will. Okay okay okay. Perhaps I am being to harsh on the system here and I admit 100% that I have a bias that will and has shone through here. I have been trying to make it through stormlight hard but in the last 4 months still havent finished Oathbringer. SO I know that some of what I have said and am going to say may not be accurate for those who are finished with the series up till now and I am totally open to hearing any spoilers about my future readings anyways. So I welcome spoilers here. Don't worry about ruining the book for me. Now that the disclosure is finished here is my thought process both of what we see in the books and my reasoning for why I just can't get into Stormlight archives. #1: Power creep is boring... Superman is boring. I know that is only an opinion but where is the danger? That his city might crumble and even if the world was destroyed he would just be floating there in space alone? Emotionally traumatic sure but armies can fight and die underneath him having an epic fight in the skies and it wouldn't be spooky for the viewer or reader. When every season of dragon ball is "WOAH that guys power level 9000! I guess I need to quickly level up to 9001 so I can save the world again" it is just dry. Likewise, I stopped putting any validity in MMO races and ranking because the power creep of gear farming just got way to out of hand (I wouldn't know where that is now as my only gaming in the last 2 years is boardgames with the wife and kid but that is why I started to shift away from everything anyway). I feel like the protagonists in stormlight are like my 11 year old when he says "whatever you say plus one." It makes for cute fantasy but not really great story telling. #2: Healing everything is just a boring as power creep... My buddy is an author and we just discussed one of his books and how I enjoyed reading the characters thought process and angle of attacks. The character never brute forced anything and even though she had access to healing magic we were shown in the first scenes of his series that it was tuned back away from gold compounding which was nice. I LOVED Miles and the way gold compounding was demonstrated to be imba beyond belief in AoL but I would have hated reading about him as a protagonist. Working in trauma centers ramps up the costs for me. I have seen and worked on the broken and bloodied. It is hard for me to picture certain traumas as being brushed away as easily as others. There needs to be a point where you can die. Again power creep and the impossible balancing act of keeping your characters human dont really work well together. There is a limit to stormlight healing but we are just waiting to see it and truly digest it. #3: Stormlight is Brandon's Harry Potter... As I watched Brandon's creative writing class I remember parts talking about hard systems vs soft systems. How it bothers me when hand waiving and "because magic" is used to overcome obstacles. I feel like Stormlight has SOOOO much of that. Unlike other cosmere books I feel like there is a lot more "discovering" new powers at the very last moment. That digging down out of deep desperation knowing that this is the end and then suddenly power explodes out of your body and the bad guy loses. This is totally not limited to just the stormlight archives. It was a big issue I had with mistborn as well and I think Vin had both the best examples of how to introduce magic and the worst of unexplained previously undiscovered power level achievments as well, but stormlight takes the cake. I like bridge 4 and their constant practice and limit testing. That is fun discovery that doesn't take away from the risks when in those high risk situations. Again maybe this is engrained in my thought process as a result in my work but who wants to be taken care of by the person who, rather than drilling and proficiency, is just waiting for that eurika moment to have some magical hand waiving save their patient? I thought that warbreaker was a softer system but I actually think that stormlight while potentially having more rules attached, is written in a way that it feels like the softest system yet. You might not be able to do everything but it's okay because your immortality will make up for it anyways. In summary: I know not everyone has the same taste and I get that Brandon has said he doesn't intend for the cosmere magic systems to be balanced against one another but I figure Roshar deserves to lose because even though they have seemingly everything they can't win a fight. For the 126 hours or so I have listened to so far the side with the most powerful being in the cosmere short of shards have lost miserably. If Stormlight has anything going for it I would say that is it. Even through all of the power creep and infinity healing they can't win a battle. Stormlight is like the exact opposite of most D&D campaigns. The big bad guy loses and runs and loses and runs and loses and runs until a final fight when he finally loses or wins for good. Except in this case it is what we are reading as the protagonists. Maybe Brandon will shock us all and we will find out that Odium's forces were the good guys and we were reading from the bad guys POV for a change. I have been wondering why I have such a hard time making it through all of my families and friends favorite cosmere books and I think this sums it up pretty well.

Is Shaq closer to Kaladin or Rock in stature? I picture Kal as more of a Kobe sized guy vs Rock as a Shaq.

Does that put it taller than Kaladin or less so? 7 feet by our standards or Roshars? I assume they weigh far more than a person on Roshar and thus would be pushing even more than a normal sized human from Scadrial? So a larger axehound could come in at couple hundred pounds likely in Roshar weight standards.

Does anyone know if there are WoB or any references to how big some of the animals on roshar are? Mostly interested in size and weights of whitespines and the bigger axehounds. Also how heavy do you think sky eels are? How fast are great shells and what is their weight and dimensions?

I think of most orders it is a matter of the mistborn avoiding AoE snares. I think that is everyones best win con. Snare the mistborn and then kill the mistborn. Mistborn has no CC at all outside of emotional allomancy (which I still think is viable in combat). Radiants have adhesion, progression (basically vinewraps), cohesion and illusion magic. I think that illusions will be the easiest one for the mistborn to deal with as they have magical sensory overload. They smell better, they see better, they hear rhythms and magic usage as well as steel sight or spiritual sight if they are burning gold. Copper has so many unknown effects it isnt funny. We have WoB saying spren act weird in a coppercloud. Who is to say the sprenblade mechanics are going to stay the same inside of a coppercloud anyways. It likely interferes with illusions and soulcasting as well. Progression seed bombs are a legit option but pewter might be better at breaking those wraps and speed of progression may chew through stormlight way quick. I think cohesion making quicksand the arena would do the best at stopping the mistborn from flight. And for all of the other Radiants it is flight vs no flight. Depending on what we see division do later it could change but lazers and cannons are beyond the era for the fight. You could build walls out of earth and organic plant life to help vs mistborn range and force them to fight down low. I think your illusions have to have substance to be of use and I believe that is a benefit of being a lightweaver more than just illusion magic in general.

My worry is that we just dont have quite enough concrete info on a lot of the other surges. I think division could well be be a deathsentence for everyone at range. I think abrasion would be the easiest one to work around but if it means slipping cuts and punches that land square just to slip off causing no damage that would be difficult. I think we have established that progression is more support for others and not a supercharged self heal beyond what stormlight is so that wouldn't make a difference. Illumination in truthwatchers won't be too much of an issue other than potentially screwing with atium shadows. In lightweavers with substance behind illusions it could be a lot more difficult. Fighting against shadowclone jutsu. I think copperclouds would be a large protector against being soulcast but then chimes in "make a block of aluminum around their head" which is what is used in TLR vs radiant arguments. Transportation probably wouldn't be too difficult to counter other than blade appears right above you turning the willshaper into a 1 shot assassin from halfway across the map. Cohesion and tension we just dont have a ton of answers on. Vs stonesinew how would a pewter enhanced punch fare? Its plate without being plate and we still don't have magic swords on the mistborn.... but leeching becomes a lot more feasible with less mobility than other orders. Letting the ground swallow up anchors or the mistborns feet works too. Adhesion... well bondsmith is about as close to leeching as you get with a radiant and it would still be a leeching vs perpendicularity issue. Best bet is to pop head and then continue bashing until there is a pile of person pulp on the ground but according to some trains of thought that radiant could still passively grow back in the background over the next days or weeks. I honestly think if I was a mistborn I would pray to fight in order... Truthwatcher Edgedancer Lightweaver Willshaper Stoneward Elsecaller Windrunner Dustbringer Skybreaker Bondsmith

I thought I saw a WoB about Kaladin being as near a stormlight savant as Vin was to pewter. Anyways that aside I always assumed savantism was a warping of the spiritweb and the damage or consequences of that manifest differently depending on what the magic is or who the person is. I would almost say that every person born on Nalthis is a savant as the magic is always with them and being drab is simply the consequence of that... in that their world is suddenly darker and less bright. All of their movements are just a little bit less from others. For someone like the godking to turn off 50000 breaths suddenly I am sure he felt it. We know they feel it turn back on otherwise we would have Denth instead of Vasher as a recurring character. Mostly I was thinking down the road of 5th heightening lessens alcohol and poison effects but would it also lessen the dramatic on off switch that would exist after savantism levels of time burning allomantic metals or using savant levels of stormlight.

In no particular order Breeze Ham Vasher (both worlds) Vivenna (both worlds) Pattern Denth

I need to reread the entities and types. Can you put so much breath into a cloth that it speaks back or are awakened strips of cloth able to move so easily that they are too efficient to ever need enough investiture to make them speak back?

It is interesting that aluminum sheath with nightblood can warp and kill the way it does while aluminum anywhere else in the cosmere would just act as an aluminum sheath. Nightblood seems to have effect on the sheath or simply he effects the world around the sheath in such a way that a blunt aluminum sheath can stab right through a person.

I believe I saw something on how Nightblood kills people even if the hilt hits them while he is partly drawn. I can't remember if that is because he simply eats investuture at a rate based on how much he is drawn or what. But those wounds, if memory serves correctly, were all battered bones and normal physical injuries not magical soul sucking injuries. But it was enough to kill everytime I saw it happen. Why then did Vasher feel the need to draw him fully at all? Couldn't the lifeless have all been killed that way or is it precisely that they were lifeless and couldn't be killed by simply hitting them with the hilt? How would a person with healing abilities fare against a hit from Nightblood sheathed. It is usually a kill on a human with no healing abilities but would it require the same amount of healing to heal a normal broken back or what have you?

Honestly, maybe awakening without healing is better for story but I worry about it in the cosmere wide conflicts. It is arguably the strongest of the arts but without healing it is also the highest risk reward strat out there... Granted, does gold compounding help you that much if Miles were to be wrapped up in a constrictor of death? Could Jasnah actually soulcast an awakener or soulcast the weapons an awakener carries? How long would stormlight keep a radiant going when being crushed into goo by their own clothing. Depending on what heightening Vasher is on Roshar he could well be the most dangerous man on the planet even without Nightblood. New question. If you dosed up a body suit with a bunch of breaths how long do you think it could last while weilding nightblood on its own? If you wove a bunch of gems into the suit would it feed off of the light in the gems at all? Can you command a persons clothing to rip them in half?

I like the idea of floating material through a chain or the like. Aluminum, on scadrial at least, is going to be become ever more popular as it is easier and easier to manufacture. But I totally agree it is rare and hard to get now (curious how much aluminum needs to be in an alloy to keep its ability to resist a shardblade). Awakening totally brings me back to the first time I saw this guy doing rope dart with a sash that was loaded with steel ball bearings. Awakeners could go ham with the right tools and they won't be nearly as hamstrung by aluminum as others (at least in my opinion). If only they could heal....

Perhaps awakening clothing with a person inside would work better in the case of making soldiers. You get structure and avoid the chances of it bleeding out to a point of not being able to be used. Then deck it out in aluminum chain mail with aluminum weapons and make yourself an army of aluminum... But it would be way more economical to just make lifeless and dress them in aluminum armor. This brings up another potential scenario. Which would be better at picking a fight vs shardbearers... Kalad's phantoms (being made up of highly invested stones), or lifeless with the skills of a soldier dressed in awakened clothing for strength and speed and given aluminum weapons and armor? Do you think it is less breaths to make a lifeless and dress it up with Vasher's garb (at least you could retrieve a bunch as the lifeless looses its ichor alcohol), or to create a phantom where the breaths are very most likely irretrievable all together? Well this is a perfect answer to that question. As far as what a thing can do does anyone know of a WoB where he discusses breaths making anything stronger or supporting their ability to do their job? Can a rope restrain a shardplate user or a thug? Would that rope ever get tired of wrestling with them or once it has a hold it wont let go until told to do so or it gets shredded up?