SingleSoul

I just finished a reread of Edgdancer and came across the passage where Wyndle talks about spren taking the form of bows. Rather a fun coincidence. As to damage, I don't think we really know what it takes for a shardblade to kill or disable an organ. Dalinar thinks of this possibility when Elhokar is attacking the Chasmfiend. If it's the same principle as for limbs, then the "core" of the organ (whatever that is) would have to be cut. To me it seems reasonable that a glancing cut don't kill the organ. But if it's pierced straight through with flat arrowhead, it would probably cut the core in many cases. And then what? We know that feeling and movement is lost (that's obviously a problem if the heart is hit). But there is still blood flow, so could something like the liver stil function? Also there will be no bleeding or arrow stuck in body, so in some ways at least a shardarrow would be less efficient than a normal one. As I understand it these are basically huge steel? bows, drawn using the strength of shardplate. If you have a shard-arrow you probably don't need all that power, and a regular bow might be enough. Of course range, and speed are factors as well. And since you don't have to worry about loss of penetration with a shard-arrow, you should probably shape the arrowhead as wide as possible, to increase the chance of a killing or disabling wound. I wonder what effect a volley of shardarrows would have on something like a thunderclast.

Would a shard arrow be very effective? If it goes straight through without resistance there won't be much stopping power. Do you have to hit the spine for a killing shot? Or if you pierce a lung, will that lung stop working? Will a limb die if just pierced and not cut through?

I don't think it would be much trouble for a skybreaker to mimic the flying path of a coinshot. Another point is that I don't think it is ever mentioned how they managed to scuttle the ships. It's said that sinking the ships is more complicated that Steris thinks. It's supposed to take hours. Then these guys fly out the problem is apparently solved in no time. Also there is no mention of dropping a coin to push against.

I always imagined this meant that Honor's perpendicularity was close to Urithiru - before it went haywire and started moving about. It is strange not only that the Valley seem to be at the same longitude, but also that they are so close. I just started wondering if the Nightwatcher set up shop where Honor's perpendicularity used to be?

So... I was at the bus station yesterday. There's a sign saying Customer Service Center. For a split second I read that as Cosmere Service Center and almost had a stroke.

We know that Kelsier couldn't hold Preservation for long. That don't necessarily mean he couldn't hold on to both shards. He certainly wouldn't be Harmony, but probably more towards Ruin and much more erratic. In my mind Kel fits very well with how I think of Discord, but I don't think this will actually happen. My take on this now is that Harmony is the current configuration of the shards where Sazed keeps Ruin in a slightly subservient position. If the positions were reversed - if Ruin was dominant - I think the combination could be called something like Decay maybe. Discord I believe is a state where the dominant shard keeps shifting, perhaps erratically. This could start out from Sazed trying to take a more active role, but at the same time both preserve and ruin in equal measure. Once he starts swinging it will be hard to regain balance, and things could quickly spiral out of control.

Welcome! Very cool story and very cool cat picture.

Not knowing what the heck you're doing is the default state of all human existence. Embrace this simple philosophy, and things will become a lot easier.

I think it's not at all unlikely that the moons could be some kind of artificial megastructure.

Hoid made a deal with the sorceress where she got to curse him in exchange of "membership" if he could break the curse. He speaks of this in ch. 64.

Got to join the club. I love cats! My profile pic is of Lady Noir (AKA Demon Kitty, AKA Midnight Essence)

Hello! I play the baritone or euphonium depending on circumstances. Haven't seen many brass players. Are they all hiding somewhere?

Yes, of course. Don't know how I forgot that scene But what got me going on this was Wayne saying that Wax crouches to get lift on his pushes. But I guess this just means that Wax has less practice with that kind of push.

So a thing that has been bothering me. We see several times that Wax pushes on the bullets he fires to give extra speed and penetration. As I understand it you can only push away in straight lines from your center of self. In AoL it’s described that the blue lines extend from Wax’s chest. But that would be a very different line from the aiming line of a gun (assuming a normal gun design and firing stance). If you shoot straight ahead the barrel would probably be about level with your nose. But the steel push would come from your chest pushing the bullet upwards. Why is this not an issue for Wax?

I think the outcome would depend on the distance of the engagement. How much incoming fire would the radiants have do dodge (or avoid in other ways) before they could close to striking distance? Any order of radiants would have trouble getting through air strikes and artillery barrages before being met with direct fire from tanks and machine guns. But if we are talking a radiant / tank duel at 20 paces – then most orders of radiant would probably win. In a “real” conflict one of the biggest risks for Earth would probably be radiant spies, assassins and saboteurs. Imagine strike teams of radiants targeting key installations. And if Scadrial has access to Kandra… Imagine replacing some of Earth’s leaders with access to nuclear weapons.

Seems there really could be two slightly different imbalances. The first is the conflict between the old shards where Ruin is stronger than Preservation. This I think could cause the Intent of the new shard Harmony to shift over time. The second is that Sazed's personal Intent is not (never was?) in complete accordance with his shard. This would create an imbalance even if the shard itself wasn’t also shifting. This imbalance could increase If Sazed lets himself be pushed to more action - by Wax or Kelsier. So now we could have the situation where the shard's intent shift in one direction and Sazed's actions in the other. I agree that it’s Sazed’s own personal Intent that has been holding Ruin in this subservient role. I’ve also been wondering what Sazed's inability to act really means. Does it mean that he really can’t act in any way? Or is it more that he can’t act in the way he wants to? Could there be ruinous actions open to Sazed that he chooses not to take? Yeah, when first reading the book it felt like Wax really was more Preservation's sword. I also think the whole manipulating others to act in his place-thing is not a viable solution over time. I guess it could be a way to get something done in the short term, but I don’t think it will help with the imbalance in the long run. It seems to simple imo.

Thank you! So Kelsier thinks it's Ruin being the stronger shard that cause the imbalance. That's pretty much the opposite of what I'm thinking - that Sazed leaning too much towards preservation causes imbalance. Guess we'll se eventually. Another random thought on population. What happens when scadrians start leaving the planet in later Eras? Will they take part of Preservation with them away from Scadrial? Are those pieces lost forever if scadrians die offworld? Or is it all connected on the spiritual level regardless of physical location?

That’s a very good point. I’d forgotten about that, and will have to look back into this. Do you by any chance remember where this is from? Anyway it fits well with my overall impression of Sazed, both as we know him from Era 1 and what we see on page of his actions as Harmony. He has always seemed to lean towards preservation. (Saving a lot of people is basically the first thing he does as a new Vessel.) Then there is this WOB saying the intents match very well. So I guess that Sazed intellectually understands the need for a balance, and he has enough of an intent to keep this balance that he was able to pick up and merge the shards into Harmony. But his personality and morals (if that is a valid term for a Vessel) leads him to preserve more over time, even as he understands the need for destruction and decay. The imbalance grows because what little actions Sazed actually takes are generally towards protecting and preserving.

Yeah, it’s worrying that Telsin/Autonomy knows about Discord. I’m not sure they know the meaning of it though. (Neither do we...) I also think it’s interesting that Khriss don’t seem to mention the conflict of balance. She only states that Ruin currently is subservient (as if that’s not an issue at all...) I agree that Discord probaly isn’t on/off. But I do think that Sazed could be a lot further down along this path than I (at least) thought prior to TLM.

I don't think this is too much of a stretch given that there very well could be aethers on Roshar. Midnight essence, as mentioned in another thread If Odium has managed to control aeters/aetherbound it would make sense for Foil/Xisis to be on Roshar to study this before moving to Lumar for even better access to aethers. And if underwater dwellings are your preferred choice... I guess it makes a lot of sense to set up your nefarious activities in an underwater base if you have the magical power to do so. Even with modern technology it would be difficult to detect.

There could of course be two cosmere aware beeings who both like to dwell under oceans and research aethers. This would seem a little sloppy on Brandons part though. It is more likely that they are the same. The timeline could also work if Xisis/Foil has been based on other worlds prior to making his base on Lumar.

From what I gather, Sazed has been keeping some kind of balance between the shards through nonintervention. Brandon has said that maintaining this balance over the centuries will be difficult. I guess the shards will not remain content with this nonintervention for ever. They will want to take action to preserve or to destroy. Khriss says in the Ars Arcanum that Ruin is subservient to Preservation in the current vessel (Harmony). This seems to mean that the shards currently isn't in balance. How can there be true harmony if one shard is subservient to the other? In TLM ch. 15 VenDell remarks that Harmonium cannot be divided. “Not so long as Harmony remains Harmony…” Wax then proceeds to split Harmonium. Shouldn't this mean that Sazed is no longer Harmony at this point. Perhaps he has not been for some time?

I really loved this book. It was great having a full length Hoid story. The worldbuilding and magic was fascinating, and the characters worked very well. Tress is a great main character and fits the story like a glove. I absolutely got the fairy tale feeling that Brandon wished to convey. I also think it shines through that he had lots of fun writing this book. The wider Cosmere-stuff was great. I liked this way of doing it better than what was done in TLM. There the crossovers felt a little brutal or forced. I think TotES was more elegant with this. I also had a lot of the ...wait... what...? - moments, like others here have mentioned. I was not at all annoyed by the reference to laptops and such. "Mystical card game" - that's just great. A thing I noticed. Hoid refers to Kelsier by saying “a push for every pull an old adversary of mine always says.” Does the use of present tense “says” mean that Kelsier is still around at this point in time? (I am not a native English speaker, so I may misinterpret the significance.)

Thank you, all! The profile pic is Lady Noir (aka Demon Kitty) in the process of disembaubling the christmas tree. Also I have really enjoyed Shardcast. The people seem really cool, and I love the sheer nerdiness of it. I figured if that crew is running a forum, it's got to be good. But I must say... the amount of content here is slightly overwhelming.

OK… So I’ve been reading (or really listening to) the Cosmere for ten years or so. I have browsed the Coppermind from time to time, but never been to the forums. Then I started listening to Shardcast, and well… Who am I to pass up an offer of all the fun I could ever want…? Hoping to find and join in some good cosmere discussions.