Windrunner

Welcome Kheran, good to have you on the forums! As far as I can tell your English is excellent, so don't worry about that at all. I can't wait to see what new ideas you'll be bringing to the table. The Way of Kings is my favorite Cosmere book as well. When you say you've read the Mistborn trilogy, that means you haven't read Alloy of Law, correct? Because you might want to steer clear of the Mistborn boards as we're in full spoiler mode with the new characters and Feruchemical powers revealed in that book. Also if you want to read Warbreaker (The other Cosmere book it appears you haven't read) you can read it for free on Brandon's site right here. I hope you enjoy your time here. I'll see you around!

Nope you can't push or pull on Plate or Blade.

The thing about storing bronze is that it doesn't work quite that way. Lets say you started storing wakefulness right before bed until morning. All that energy would go into the metalmind, so you'd wake up the next morning feeling like you hadn't slept at all. So you'd need to sleep twice as long, one while storing and one for real rejuvenation. You'd need to do something like the other option you suggested on the weekends or holidays.

It's all good dude, about a year ago I was right where you are now. It's a lot to take in at one time, (especially without the wiki being in a particularly useful state). So that's what we're all here for, to help each other get better at this Cosmere stuff and to have a good time while we're doing it. If you've got any questions there's a topic you can ask at, or you can log into the chatroom and I can answer them there. (it's an irc channel at #cosmere)

I would like to announce that this just made my day. That show ties with the Colbert Report as a couple of my all-time favorite t.v. shows.

Well from what we've seen Shards don't really have physical bodies that can walk around and talk. While they're holding the Shard they are sort of vaporized. Unless you're talking about Ruin's illusions he creates? I don't think those were corporeal though, so Dalinar wouldn't be having kids with her. Not as far as we know.

Hi Stellgod, welcome to 17th Shard! If you get a chance you should make a topic in out New Members thread so we can all say hi. In response to your ideas, the fact is that not every Shard has an opposite. So some Shards may have opposites like you mentioned but many may not. I'll not bore you with the details of my own theory on this subject since this isn't really the place for it (if you want to see check the Shard-Complements link in my sig) Also since Harmony isn't one Shard but two separate ones held by the same man, then Odium cannot be its opposite, since its not technically a single Shard. Also for the pairs you have suggested, if those Shards (Honor, Dominion, Cultivation, and etc.) had perfect opposites they would have been attracted together like Ruin and Preservation were, and would have ended up on the same Shardworld. Since we know the intent of every Shard on all the worlds that we've seen (save for a potential Splinter on Roshar), it appears that those Shards don't exist. I think we may see variants on similar ideas, but no perfect opposites for these Shards. I like your ideas though, and I sincerely hope it doesn't seem like I'm being rude.

In my opinion Miles wasn't having any crazy supernatural visions. The biggest evidence I have for this is his cigar box. It is red and gold, just like the "men of red and gold, bearers of the final metal". Just looking at this, it appears like circumstantial evidence but there is a quote that connects them. So there is some connection between Miles and these mysterious men. So, at least in my opinion, it is easier to hypothesize that Miles knew about these men, presumably from the Southern hemisphere. Maybe he was planning on handing Elendel over to them, but that part doesn't really matter. So pretend that he new a bit about them and their goals, that they plan to take over Elendel and enslave them all. So as these people are executing him he just decides to tell them that they're all going to die anyway. He can strike fear into their hearts at least one more time. It would be interesting if Sazed was talking to Miles, but I just don't find that very likely. Firstly Miles need to have a Hemalurgic spike to communicate with Harmony. There isn't any indication that any of his metalminds are Hemalurgic, and he's a Trellist, not a Pathian, so he definitely doesn't have an earring. Also why would he tell Miles this stuff? Sazed could easily just tell Wax the same thing. Wax who is now a respected member of society and an officer of the law. Who would be able to help more at this point? Him or the guy being executed? No one, not even Wax will believe the ravings of a presumably insane man. So Sazed might as well not have said anything at all, if it was going to such an unhelpful outlet. I know some people believe that Sazed has to help both good and evil which is a sound idea. But why wouldn't he just boost Miles's health for a minute or something and give the information to Wax, to someone who can do something with it? That way he'd still be helping both good and evil. I just think that there are more likely, non-supernatural reasons for Mile's knowledge, but I respect anyone who believes differently. Edit: Sorry that I said the same thing as Odium's_Shard, somehow I missed that part when I read the topic

Well that is one good reason. I think it might be mentioned in TWoK that Jezrien is the Stormfather. Which is pretty good evidence assuming its true. I'm at the point right now when I'm having trouble distinguishing theory from fact for that book so I really need to reread it. (Having the hardcover means I can't take it to school). So if I'm totally wrong about this, my apologies.

You and I seem to think same about the Lord Ruler. I think Sazed says it best, “He suffered much beneath Ruin's hand, but he was a good man, who ultimately had honorable intentions.” As for the announcer question, here's a quote for you. If you follow that link it'll take you to the interview database, where we keep all our Brandon interviews (We share it with theoryland, so there's Robert Jordan stuff too). You should look around there if you want to see more of just about every Brandon interview ever. Also welcome to the forums! You should make a topic in the Introduce Yourself thread, when you get a chance, so everyone here can say hi. I hope you enjoy your time here!

Random idea, semi-related to the OP. Farmers are the Stone Shaman. Then there wouldn't have to be two top-tier groups in Shinovar. I definitely agree that Szeth believed in Stone Shamanism, but I'm not entirely convinced that he was one. I like the idea though, no one has ever proposed it before

I'm afraid I'm not following here. They were still free to make choices no matter what Sazed did. As a matter of fact they may have been more able to make their own choices if Sazed hadn't gotten involved. He'd be constraining their options if he was driving them toward a conflict. What am I missing?

If I'm not mistaken it hasn't really been "defined". But a safe but would be of or pertaining to the Three Realms of the Cosmere.

We actually do know when Honor died in relation to the Aharietiam, if not the Recreance.

Well, at the end of Hero of Ages Vin powers Elend directly. Elend is out metals and about to be overrun with koloss when he looks up and thinks about how he has faith that Vin will save him, when his stomach is suddenly full of metals (except atium) that cannot be burned away, and he can feel the power and see Vin in the clouds. As a matter of fact Brandon talks about this a little bit. To me at least, it seems the "rarely" in the books happens when Vin powers Elend. (and possibly when the power at the Well is expended. She wasn't devoting all of her power to it though, it was just one Allomancer. Although I suspect this might possibly be one of the ways that Shards would expend power in "ways they were hesitant to". I wouldn't say that the energy from Allomancy collects at a Shardpool though, as far as I know, there isn't anything in books or interviews that suggests this to be the case. Just because the Shards don't purposely design magic systems, doesn't mean they can't power them directly. Elend never became any more powerful just he had unlimited power but he could only draw so much through his body at once, just like any Allomancer. That's why I mentioned the possibility of Sazed temporarily making Waxes pewter Allomancy stronger. It's not fact but I suspect that using the power of Preservation and Ruin he could either increase the power of the spike with Ruin, or increase the amount of Preservation inside with Preservation, both amounting to the same thing. If he increases that power enough, not the amount flowing through but Wax's connection to Preservation through the spike, he could use pewter more effectively. I'm not saying it could happen for sure but I think it's a possibility. But the fact is, he already got involved. He apparently manipulated events so Wax's guns and mistcoat ended up in the underground tunnel, and he takes credit for it too with his, "You're welcome". So he's already involved and on Wax's side. I'm sure he doesn't want the government his friends created to collapse. And Sazed himself said that he want the most possible to make their own choices which implies to me that he is not above altering events directly, he just wants to keep it to a minimum. There is no temporal Feruchemy. It was originally divided into four quadrants. Two physical ones, a cognitive, and a spiritual. Brandon made a mistake though. He put warmth, an obviously physical power, in a quadrant full of cognitive abilities. What was actually supposed to be there was determination that was in the other physical quadrant, with breath, health, and the food/water one. Brandon has decided that it works differently now. The RPG has at least one error on it's table but from the way he's talked about it, the problem has been solved. My point is though, if Sazed was going to help both of them, he might as well help neither of them, save himself some trouble, and let events run their course. As I mentioned above Sazed says as many as possible can make their own choices. But I think that means, and is shown in the book, that Sazed isn't above helping the right side. He has the kandra to alter the world as well, so to me, it seems clear that he does his best to let the world run itself but he won't just let good things fall apart.

While I do agree that Harmony probably wasn't helping Miles in any way, Sazed is already different as a person. The Shards don't influence him toward one of their intents since they are so evenly matched but they are altering him still. I think you can already see this in the end of AoL when Harmony talks to Wax. He explains that his goal is harmony, and allowing people to make their own choices. He's become an almost passive deity working mostly through his kandra servants but with occasional direct interference. Also if he was supporting both Wax and Miles to make it "even" why would he bother supporting either of them at all if he has to support the other one. If that's the case I think he'd be better off leaving them both alone. I think he's able to side with Wax on this one because their is such an imbalance between his and Miles's powers that Sazed is just leveling the playing field. This is what I think too, Harmony is probably powering Wax's pewter Allomancy without him realizing it. An interesting thing to not is that Sazed, also holding Ruin, could probably power Wax's Hemalurgy as well. This could have the effect of allowing him to use more power than would be typical through such a small and weak spike.

The number one copy of the Table of Allomantic Metals deserves a nice frame in a place of honor Or maybe "the place closest to Honor" but I guess no one knows where that is. Did you not have it hung up in your old place or is it being hung back up?

I realize this is a bit of topic necromancy but it wasn't worth starting a new one. Brandon answered my questions about when Warbreaker (who's time period shifted due to behind the scenes plots) and Emperor's Soul are chronologically.

Double post! New information has come to light about Emperor's Soul, including an insight into Emperor Ashravan's condition: A bit about allusions to Elantris and Hoid Also we now have a time period! So it's definitely not some place that is now being subjugated by the Fjordell Empire! Arelon and Teod may have some potential allies here. I'm so excited for this Brandon's still answering some questions about his new short literature being published this year (Emperor's Soul, Legion and a new dual volume of Defending Elysium and Firstborn). Check it out at Fantasy Faction.

Good for you! Having had multiple family members as smokers who quit and/or tried to quit I know its no easy thing. I hope it works out for you! I would like to announce that 45 minutes into a Skype video chat I discovered that my camera had been off the whole time. Somehow I didn't figure that out

My parents tell me that in Nebraska when I was young we got baseball sized hail one year. It was so big that they could only fit three on one big-gulp cup. Now our old car has dents all over the hood, thus its nickname, "Dimples".

I'm not sure why you added Shardpools into the definition, are you including the possibility of someone using the power of a Shardpool into the definition? But anyway, Investiture just seems like spiritual energy to me for one reason. In Feruchemy you store investiture by moving attributes from one metalmind to another. So what you stored originally wasn't a connection to the Shard just spiritual energy. If you are "Invested" like an Elantrian, I think you have a permanent amount of spiritual energy inside of you, and for an Elantrian it is the result of a permanent connection to the Shard. It would be interesting if Investiture was your connection to the Shard though. You could tap it and become a more powerful Mistborn.

I can't speak for all of them but there are a couple things I know. Odium will not take up any other Shards. Brandon says that he could but it would alter Odium's intent which is very well matched with Rayse's personality. Here's the relevant quote Also if you want to subtract the Shards we know of aside from Odium there are Honor, Cultivation, Ruin, Preservation, Endowment, Devotion, Dominion, and Bavadin's Shard. (Which Brandon spoke of him currently holding). So that leaves 7 which when combined with Odium means he could only be holding 8 Shards total which doesn't match the 9 mentioned. So I'm fairly certain it's Taln who's speaking. Not well I think. We know that there were 341 years between HoA and AoL which happens around the same time as TWoK. Then there are probably multiple centuries between HoA and the rest of the Cosmere books. So there's no way that Elhokar could remember events that far back. Hoid may be going to other Shardworlds during his disappearances, but definitely not for any appearance we've seen. (With the possible exception of AoL which happens a little after TWoK so it could be where he's heading when he leaves Elhokar)

I would like to announce that the Ultimate List of Questions for Brandon is now updated, cleaned up, and subdivided.