Argent

It's a bit of a guilty pleasure. I can't get over how cliched everything is, and how utterly stupid the characters can act, but I am keeping up with it.

I've noticed that I am starting to refer to Brandon's endings as "appropriate" or "suitable" more and more often. They just feel right. Elantris and The Final Empire had good endings. Calamity and The Hero of Ages had the right endings. It's a good sign of growth, I think.

I like the explanation of what Splintering is. We are starting to see more into the Spiritual Realm too, which is always exciting.

Sorry for not getting back to you with feedback about the question earlier, I got busy at work and by the time I got out my mind was still in it... Still, cool questions! The Terris names question was, indeed, mine. So Aslydin would probably be Ace-lee-din or something similar. I like worldbuilding tidbits like those

I am not entirely sure what you mean here. Maybe you can explain the reasoning behind your question, and then we can rephrase it?

I am looking at the questions right now and I am itching to just go through them and answer everything I can. I just can't decide if that's a jerk move (because I am stepping in where they are hoping for Brandon) or a nice one (because I am providing answers)...

Brandon is answering Twitter questions today (Feb 16) at 4 PM EST for Barnes & Noble. Use the hashtag #NOOKTalks. Here's his announcement tweet.

Calamity <3 Though I have to say, I wasn't as hyped about this book as I have been for literally every other Brandon book. In fact, this is the first Brandon book I actually legitimately forgot to get the eBook of at midnight (I did it the next morning). And I am pretty sure it is because he's had so many released in such a short period of time. I think I need at least a month to recharge between his books

You'll find out what happened to the spikes in The Bands of Mourning. Regarding the number and type of spikes Bleeder had, she only had one (trellium) spike in her at any given time. Another one, regardless of the source metal, would've put her back under Harmony's control.

Somebody somewhere not too long ago asked a question (which I might be misremembering severely) about whether the slight resistance Shardbearers feel when they hit a living thing is a sign that the Blade is doing damage in a different Realm, and I believe Brandon confirmed it. But I am remembering it very loosely, so take with a grain of salt.

Better-than-phone audio quality would be very nice. We've had issues in the past where transcriptions are not clear, certain questions and answers being drowned in the background noise - which is one of the reasons I spend almost the entire night next to Brandon, listening in, instead of hanging out with Sharders. Video... I think it would be cool, but I think that's something you would want to check with Brandon and Anderson's. I don't anticipate problems, but who knows?

Fiiine...

I don't think the masks' descriptions match well enough, and Iyatil has the weird growth of flesh fusing with the mask, which is absent in the Hunters which we know to change their masks (albeit rarely).

Here's how I see things: Ruin and Preservation start off with equal power levels after the Shattering Ruin and Preservation create Scadrial and everything on it, making a deal that allows Preservation to Invest the people there more than Ruin does. Both Shards lose power, but Preservation loses more, leaving Ruin marginally more powerful. As a part of the deal, he doesn't use this advantage to destroy the world because an additional clause he gets to destroy it in the end Preservation backs off from the Deal, sacrificing a significant portion of his power (and mind) to imprison Ruin into the Well, a prison made of Preservation's sacrificed power. Since Ruin was stronger at this point, Preservation had to weaken him somehow - trapping a portion of his power in a physical form, as atium. I can't guess whether Preservation forced this power to instantly materialize in the Pits (effectively saturating them fully), or he simply kept it away from Ruin, in the Spiritual Realm, letting it slowly trickle into the Physical Realm in the form of atium. I don't think it makes any difference. When Rashek Ascended, he immediately used the power of the Well - the power Preservation allocated to be a prison - to renew the prison before Ruin could find his body, reabsorb the power, and become stronger than the Well. Over the years, the fraction of Ruin's power Preservation locked away from him in the physical world, the atium, would cycle through the Realms; Allomancers would burn its physical manifestation, sending it back to the Spiritual Realm, where it would seep back into the Pits over time. Meanwhile, the significant portion of Preservation's power that formed the Well / Ruin's prison would also cycle - only it would manifest as a liquid, and kind of all at once for some reason. The beads of lerasium, I suspect, were created by the Lord Ruler in the moments of his Ascension, forcing a small fraction of the Well's power to solidify. I do not believe any more lerasium would form after that, not without somebody Ascending to Preservation and doing the same thing. So the "extra Ruin" we keep talking about is the atium, but for different reasons I think. At the moment of Sazed's Ascension, he had access to all of Ruin's power that wasn't locked in atium, and all of Preservation's power (sans the tiny bit he sacrificed to ensure humanity is imbalanced in terms of innate Investiture). To put it in a crude equation:Ruin's total power = Ruin(humanity) + Ruin(atium) + Ruin(imprisoned/released) Preservation's total power = Preservation(humanity) + Preservation(Well + lerasium) + Preservation(free) Ruin(imprisoned/released) would equal Preservation(Well + lerasium), so those would cancel out in Harmony. Ruin(humanity) is less than Preservation(humanity) For Harmony to be balanced, Ruin(atium) at the moment of Sazed's Ascension would have to be less than Preservation(free), a difference to offset Ruin(humanity) being less than Preservation(humanity). We cannot know exact numbers, but just jotting down some percentages on paper make it look it's possible. So, the way I see it, the "extra Ruin" is all the atium left in the world after Sazed's Ascension. Alternatively, if there wasn't enough atium left to offset Preservation's initial investment in humanity (less atium ==> more "raw" Ruin), then Sazed could've dumped it somewhere - in the form of more atium, or a Splinter, or whatever else - in order to be balanced when he became Harmony. I think this is the theory - or assumption - I've seen 'round these parts. You'll notice I am ignoring the mists. That's because I am working under the assumptions that they are the "free Preservation" in the world, plus Leras' mind. I think this is a decent assumption, since we don't see Preservation's power acting anywhere outside the mists.

I acknowledge the possibility, but don't personally believe it to be true.

I know somebody has asked the hair question. I don't remember the answer though, you'll have to search the forums and/or Theoryland or wait for someone who actually remembers.

I don't think there is enough evidence to support the claim that there exists a Southerner worldhopper. I stand by my suggestions from before - Shardpools tend to be in interesting places, so it's very possible for a Southerner explorer (and we know they have been exploring) to have stumbled upon the pool and decided to investigate.

As I understand it, Shardpools don't actually have to be, well, pools. They are simply locations where a Shard's power seeps into the Physical (and possibly the Cognitive) Realm from the Spiritual. So, if I am correct, asking why lerasium doesn't replenish is an invalid question - it's not lerasium that should be replenishing, it's Preservation's power, and that one is cycling back into the Physical Realm, that's what the Well of Ascension is. Similarly, it's not that atium replenishes in the Pits - Ruins power just continuously gathers there, in the form of atium.

Somebody on Twitter confirmed that metal glows on Scadrial because of the power seeking to come through it. I think it's very reasonable to assume that all (pure/free?) Investiture manifests as glow in the other Realms, especially given the Aons' glow.

Haven't decided yet, work has been crushing me all week, and I've been too drained after to think about questions. I'll try to put a preliminary list together... hopefully this weekend. Maybe next one. My personal policy is to get this list up early so people can look it over, inform me if I am asking stupid or unclear questions, and suggest some of their own questions instead (which I try to squeeze in if I like them well enough). There is a thread in the Cosmere Theories forum, Ultimate Questions Thread or something like that. I usually pull most of mine from there. Be wary of spoilers though, everything is fair game in Cosmere Theories.

They also can't, not unless they have their own Blessing. ReLuur was apparently in great pain when TenSoon donated one of his in an attempt to restore his mind at least temporarily.

I believe the proper handling would be hide your post behind a spoiler tag. Like such: [spoiler] Spoilery text goes here [/spoiler]

A bit offtopic, but reading that broadsheet ad still cracks me up. Really, every time somebody quotes something in High Imperial, Spook's wonky dialect, I have to fight back the chuckles because of how solemn they often make it sound. Like, if "veni, vidi, vici" actually meant something like "get rekt, m8" but we treat it as this serious and powerful "I came, I saw, I conquered".

That's a good catch, I had forgotten that the Lord Ruler had a bead.

For consistency, you can update the OP with a link to my Chicago thread: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/52790-calamity-tour-chicago-naperville/