Windrunner

Okay I need to rant for a minute because I am extraordinarily frustrated. I like Facebook, I like it a lot. It lets me stay in touch with all my AZ friends who I no longer get to see on a daily basis, so I can still see what they're up to and talk to them. It's really useful. But now I've just about had enough of it. I'm sure that everyone has seen these pictures on their news feed that say things like, "like if you want to see cancer cured," or "like if you know these actors," or "like if you remember this show from the 90's". I find them horribly stupid, and many of my Facebook friends seem determined to spam my news feed by liking these pictures which tell me, "Yes so-and-so does remember Ice Cube in 'Are We There Yet'". Just because I don't like this photo of this little girl with cancer doesn't mean I want the little girl to die. It means that I don't have the need to inform all my Facebook friends that, shockingly, I am against cancer, or beating children or any other obviously terrible thing. Then the people who originally post the pictures on Facebook always leave a comment on the bottom saying things like, "subscribe for 2000+ friend requests". Why would I want to do that? First of all I'd have even more of your asinine posts clogging up my news feed. Secondly I would be spamming everyone else with your stupid pictures. And thirdly, Why would I ever want 2000 friend requests from random strangers? They would just "like" more of these stupid pictures. I don't even like having my 200 or so Facebook friends because I've realized I only want to hear from less then half those people. So people who have gotten this far are undoubtedly thinking, "Silly Windrunner, just block those "subscriber-whores" (which is an amazingly good term that I did not come up with). Believe me I would do that faster then I could summon my Shardblade. But guess what? Its impossible!!! I go there and hit the block button and Facebook kindly informs me that the blocking system is overloaded and I should try again later. I've tried again and again on every one of these people I could find. And it never works. It apparently doesn't work for anyone else who hates these people either. I'm seriously considering deleting some of my friends because these pictures annoy me so much. I've known these people for longer then I can remember but if all I'm getting out of our contact on Facebook is that they remember the original Scooby-Doo tv show then its not worth it. Thank you 17th Shard, you've saved me from putting my fist through a computer screen.

But it appears that the Breaths have to draw energy from somewhere. As long as they aren't in a Lifeless (where they can't keep the body fueled as well because it is breaking down) they will follow their Command forever apparently. That's unlimited free energy right there. That power has to be coming from somewhere. If you look at Allomancy you only have a little bit of power and it doesn't last forever. Even Breaths are more powerful they should still eventually run out of power. I tend to believe that they provide an individual connection to Endowment and the more connections you have the power they can provide to the Awakened object. Hemalurgy is classified as end-negative because power when the power is taken from one person and given to another, not all the power makes it there. In Awakening this doesn't seem to happen, there's no evidence that Breath power is lost. I don't know that a magic system can be all three. It's one magic system so I don't think it can be chopped up like that. If you want though I can add this option to the poll for you.

I'd prefer Dalinar to come earlier. I really want to see more with the Nightwatcher, who fascinates me. Szeth, I'm curious about but I'd prefer to see Dalinar and Navani first. After all Navani's flashbacks probably have some insights into what was going on with Gavilar in his final days.

That makes a lot of sense actually Zas, I like it a lot. It was clear that they knew each other previously. There was also a lot of controlled tension going on there. I watched Korra with my little brother, and he wondered if Amon might be Aang's third kid Bumi. It made sense to me, a normal kid with the Avatar for his father, and benders for his mother and both his siblings could feel some serious inadequacy, which might lead to him turning his back on bending. What do you guys think? Also any ideas on how Amon is managing to steal the bending of people? Advanced chi-blocking? It doesn't appear that he's energy bending, because it looked nothing like when Aang did it.

Nice job Nya, it looks great! Also welcome to the forums I know what you mean about grammar, it seems like every time I write an article I slip from past tense to present which makes for some funky reading.

I'm curious about what people think about this. On Scadrial the Metallic Arts can be classified into end-positive, end-neutral, and end-negative. It certainly seems that the other magic systems fall into these classifications as well. Surgebinding and AonDor both seem end-positive (although if people disagree with those I'll open another question here for them to vote on them). But where should Awakening fall? Breaths never seem to grow in energy which implies neutral. But it could also be argued that they bring in energy to accomplish their Commands so it could be positive. I don't really see any way to argue for negative, but I put that option up just in case someone has a convincing argument. I've also seen some people say that they don't believe the magic systems other then the Metallic Arts can be classified this way. I haven't been able to decide for myself so I though it'd be cool to have people vote on this and give arguments for why they think the way they do. Hopefully we can come to some consensus.

Adolin may or may not get his own book, that hinges on whether Brandon decides to do another flashback book for Kaladin. Also I've never read the two romances quote, can you point me to the source?

I doubt that they do, cadmium and bendalloy bubbles are anchored and copperclouds aren't. I guess Seekers probably have bubbles too, just massive ones. Since they can move about and still sense or disguise Allomancy I don't think they are bound to the ground in any way, although I'm sure they have a bubble-like boundaries.

There is no subforum where Dragonsteel or any other unpublished works are discussed. From what I understand, the policy is that any unpublished work discussions should be carried out over PM with others who have read the book(s).

Okay I'll start off with some canon to help you base it, and you can decide which facts you want to use or ignore. Well one thing to consider is the time period. Unless I'm mistaken by the second century the Lord Ruler has completely conquered the entire Final Empire, there would be no resistance. If you move the time period up earlier then it could work. You could set part of the story in the nation of King Wednegon, the last king to give the Lord Ruler military trouble. It doesn't say when he lived but it was fairly close to the Ascension because his armies starved due to a loss of food to the Deepness, which would have stopped pretty soon after the power was taken from the Well. He lost a serious battle at a place called FellSpire. The Lord Ruler attacked him with koloss. I'd imagine it was somewhere in the outer Dominances, the places that were hardest hit by the Deepness. So that's all I've got there, except that the religions of the world lasted into the 5th century, so there would definitely be religions still resisting the Steel Ministry. Lets see, I've got a couple fiction suggestions to make it canonical as possible. Brandon hinted that the people before the Ascension might have had some knowledge of the other metals so you probably need a rational for how this knowledge survived. Perhaps in a library of one of the surviving religions? Their knowledge would have eventually been destroyed by the Lord Ruler. If you want to be really realistic, you'll work with limited amounts of the metals since they are extremely difficult to obtain at this time. Are there going to be two separate campaigns? One with the Lord Ruler and one with this rebel Mistborn Feruchemist? If so the secret Mistborn Feruchemist could have a friend who was the last person preserving his religion. He could be trying to save it, or get it to a Keeper. You'll need a rationale for how this girl isn't able to challenge the Lord Ruler. Perhaps some mental problem like a fear of the Lord Ruler, or limited knowledge of how the magic she's using works? The magic still would have been very unknown just after the Ascension. Lets see what else... Okay one interesting idea could be a freak Misting or Ferring character. Surrounded by full Mistborn and Feruchemists they could feel some serious inadequacy. The kandra would have to be before the First Contract. He could be attempting to take control of human empires with some kind of kandra coup or something. One last question you need to figure out for canon reasons. What happened to the Steel Asserters? Why did the Lord Ruler stop using them? Did their increased number of spikes allow Allomancers to take control of them sometimes if they had the right knowledge, So TLR discontinued them? (or are you planning on making them have the same number but different types of spike?) Hopefully these facts and ideas help you!

Well it kind of depends. Are you going for canonical or fun here?

Brandon read a preview o the first two chapters at LTUE. Peter has said they will eventually put the preview on Brandon's site in a few months, but this was said a few months ago, so it could be any day or still months away.

I always figured that having lighteyes lead was tied to the fact that Shardblades lightened the eyes of the Nights Radiant who were leaders in their time. So even after the Radiants left the people were more comfortable following someone with lighteyes similar to Mistborn WoA Spoilers It's interesting to note that having lighteyes is actually a genetic mutation so if Roshar worked in any way like Earth does, at one point there would have been no lighteyes, just people with brown eyes. On Earth a genetic mutation changed this but on Roshar the Knights Radiant could have changed this. If holding a Shardblade changes your eyecolor and DNA permanently then the lighteyes could all be descended from the Knights.

I'm pretty sure that Brandon has said that removing her metals was unnecessary. I'll try to dig up the quote if I can and post it here. The Well was just rejecting the Ruin in the spike which was pain Vin felt. She didn't understand that it was a spike at the time so she thought it didn't like metal, thus she removed her vials as well.

He could just hold a regular piece of Feruchemically charged atium that wasn't Hemalurgically charged. Vin didn't have to remove her regular metals just the spike. I also don't think he would have had trouble removing his atium spikes because they didn't pierce anything vital.

I remember reading it specifically fits him but I can't find it. It's been at least 6 months since I gave it a real read-through so I could be wrong. (I need to buy a paperback so I don't mess up my hard copy) What I was saying is, yes it is a short sword, probably too short to have been built for Jezrien who was of normal or higher height. But that is not to say that the length of Szeth's sword is unique. There are other shorter Shardblades out there which would be even more the wrong size. Does that make sense? Too short for Jezrien but not the only blade that would have been too short for him. Well the fact that Heralds believed that they had to give them up to escape the Oathpact is enough evidence for me. They would be the best informed after all. If I was one of them I wouldn't have given up my awesome unique weapon. I'll admit though that escaping the Oathpact doesn't have to be the only reason. Maybe they didn't want to be reminded of their treachery. I'm just throwing out potential problems here. As far as I can remember every Shardblade is unique. So that doesn't mean that Szeth's sword is strange, just that most of the blades we have seen are one-sided. I personally feel that this is Szeth's Shardblade, and it was specifically tailored to his size and fighting style. Can you imagine this 5 foot (or so) tall man trying to efficiently use a sword that was at least 6 feet long? I don't remember where it says in the book that your eyes would become permanently lightened with another Blade, can you point me to a quote? I always assumed it always worked just like Szeth's did. Also how do you make a dark brown eyed man a lighteye without changing the eye color? Brown is a dark color isn't it? Maybe this is explained elsewhere, I really need to read that book again. Also it's not that incredible that his eyes become blue. There's only so many eye colors out there. Blue is one of the three (I think it was 3 or so) lighteyes colors. If his eyes had turned red or gold I might suspect something was up.

So what you're saying is that the language split into two branches before the Ascension and developed separately, one in the Final Empire and the other, perhaps more traditional script kept alive by the Synod? I think that makes sense. They don't really seem all that similar but a thousand years of development can change something a lot. It makes sense to me, thanks!

Topic necroing to say that I found another mention of fruit in TFE: So it appears whatever fruit they have isn't anything we'd know as fruit considering it doesn't have an equivalent Earth name. This could mean that fruit is just a translation quirk like the "mooning over her" or "hat trick" phrases and that fruit is just the closest word we have for whatever Kelsier stole. Either that or this is an incidence of early installment weirdness.

I also disagree with the idea that Szeth is using the Honorblade of a Herald. Firstly, I believe it's mentioned that the blade fit him, which wouldn't be the case if it had been made for Jezrien who I doubt was the same height as any of the Shin. Also I don't think the Honorblades work in the same way as Shardblades do and aside from its length Szeth's seems typical. In fact Szeth's Shardblade is described only as, "shorter then most others" not unnaturally short. Also who knows what kind of affects wielding an Honorblade would have on the person. The Heralds apparently couldn't keep them and break the Oathpact at the same time. Perhaps even holding one would bind the person to the Oathpact but it doesn't appear anything unusual has happened to Szeth because of the Shardblade. Although the name Lifebrother is interesting, I wonder what it refers too.

That's a tough call you're right. I'm not sure that the Makabaki and Shin traits count as odd. Also I'm thinking that Axies might not be the best representation of his whole race. He's got this weird curse of kind thing acting on him and he's immortal. Could he be a Herald? It sure is mysterious. I tend to disagree here. The Heralds could simply predate whatever caused the changes to the people of Roshar. Roshar's mythology seems to indicate that the Heralds were chosen from among its peoples so I think its the people who have changed, not the Heralds. I think it just makes more sense if its Shallash herself. We know for sure that Shallash was in the Way of Kings somewhere and it just makes the most sense to me if it were her. If these were her descendants it would be pretty unlikely that they would have her eye color let alone that their hair would become completely Alethi. It's an interesting idea but I hope you don't mind that I disagree. I think this is actually the city of Sesemalex Dar. Its located in the land of Emul and has the stone around the city cut into particular ribbed shapes which shield the city from the Highstorms. Now that you mention it, this is really strange. There are a couple of possibilites for why this is, other then author error, which seems unlikely to me considering infrequency of errors in the past. One is that Dalinar doesn't find these people odd, so he doesn't remark on it at all. However if he saw that all the people were Natanese then he probably could have figured out for himself that he was in Natanatan. Another one is that for some reason there is a population of Alethi living there which is also kind of strange. The last idea I have is that during the time of this vision, the racial changes have not yet occurred leaving the people appearing more traditionally human. Do they mention Nohadon in this vision? If not then there's probably not much of an indication of when it occurred so it could have been millenia.

This is fascinating Peter, thank you for sharing. I do have one curiosity though for either you or if you are too busy for anyone who wishes to speculate. I read this today in my Mistobrn reread So why don't the people use the Terris symbols as well? When did this change occur and how and why did the Lord Ruler make this so?

I'll admit that the gibberish point is convincing. I'm curious about why everyone seems to peg this man for Ishar though. Is there a point I missed? Also @Sunblesser, who is Niter? Edit: Figured it out, it helps to read the posts above me I don't really understand what a Herald would stand to gain from being Dalinar's guard or even what he'd be interested in. If he wanted to see Dalinar's Radiant powers progress you think he might have stepped up to the plate a little bit to stop the slaughter of Dalinar's armies or to save the highprince at least. I wouldn't read too much into the Heralds' appearance in the arches, I think Brandon has implied that those aren't so much an accurate representation as an in-world image. I kind of disagree with the idea that the man having no accent is an indication he's a Herald. I don't think they would have no accent, just a different accent. Of course if they are worldhoppers they would also have a different accent as well. I don't real have an explanation of how someone would end up with no accent.

As far as I can tell from the interview database Brandon has never mentioned Cusicesh in an interview, however this comes from TWoK So the foremost expert of spren in the world seems to think its the only one of its kind. He could be wrong however. Its interesting to note that it seems there are other spren with only one member.