darniil

So many questions. o.o; I can't answer them all, so I'll hit one that jumped out at me - #3. Shins don't dislike stone, they think very highly of it. Why they do so, I'm not sure, but one of the reasons why they might find it disrespectful to walk on stone is because Shinovar is the only place on Roshar that has a proper regolith, including soil. This may also be why they don't use the term "stormward" and use "east" instead. They get rain, not storms.

I'm still curious about the timing with the consumption of Breaths by Returned. Do you have any theories on that? That is, does a Returned devour a Breath instantly, powering it for one week, or is it a slow, week-long consumption? If the latter, does their Divine Breath regenerate as a "regular" one is consumed (since initially they'd only have the Divine Breath to power them, regardless of how quickly they'd get a "regular" one), and if the former, how do they retain their "divinity" (because of the same reason)?

A pact to make war? >_>

Heh. Iron ferring spren.

That's greatly appreciated. Does he ever ask you to give some feedback on his behalf?

Because Link gets tossed into a lot of Rule 34? >_>

I don't remember the term "Vengeance War", but admittedly I've only read WoK once, so I may have missed it. I figured the ensuing war was a part of the pact, so there wasn't a reason to give the war its own name.

I'll preface this by saying I haven't read anywhere near as much of the blog posts as you have, so my assessment may be way off. That said, I wouldn't say he's being aloof; rather, he just doesn't have as much free time as he used to. My first encounter with Brandon was at Dragon*Con 2010 in the Wheel of Time track's room. Was it for an official Q&A? Was he explaining writing styles? No, he was there to play Magic: The Gathering with people. Now, I haven't played M:TG since high school, but I thought it was cool that an author would just hang out with his fans like that, and that made me want to hang out, too. So I did. Brandon wanted to do a draft, which I'd never heard of. Apparently a few of the other players hadn't, either, so he explained it for everyone. (Essentially, everyone brings an unopened new box, and a systematic randomness is used to build your decks for the tourney.) But since not everyone knew this was going to be a draft, Brandon bought all the boxes himself. (All he asked for was a little reimbursement from the players, since buying that many boxes is kind of expensive, y'know?) During the draft, he chatted with people about different things, and even signed some books that people had brought. It was just a very chill, relaxed time. The year before that (or was it two?), he was also at Dragon*Con. The WoT track folks have a game they'll play called Darkfriends, which is essentially a WoT-themed version of Mafia. The way the story was recounted to me by a friend of mine, it was getting closer to the end of a match that Brandon was in, and people started wondering if he was a darkfriend, since he hadn't been hit. He told the townsfolk that if they killed him, he'd kill them all off in the last WoT book. (This was before he realized it would have to be three, IIRC.) Naturally, the townsfolk couldn't resist, and they lynched him. (He wasn't a darkfriend.) This, to me, doesn't feel like an author who's being aloof. It seems like he still enjoys interacting with his fans. Consequently, if there was a decrease in his "public appearances", I'd probably chalk it up to lack of time more than anything else. You bring up an interesting angle, the evolution of a writer. I'll have to make sure to check out all the blog posts. That sounds like an interesting read. (Edit: Put a paragraph in the wrong spot. >.< )

I just figured you were the official cookie-giver, and I didn't want to step on your toes.

Genius. Pure genius.

Ye be most welcome, Joe. Have some rum!

Great thread, isn't it? Welcome aboard!

Don't worry, Thorontir, I've heard of MM. Got him to sign one of the Champion Eternal books I had, too, many years ago. (It was one of the Corum compilations; Corum was the first Champion I read about, as that just happened to be laying around my parents' library when I was looking for something to read as a kid.) I never made that connection until you mentioned it. Who's the stupidest person on Roshar, that would follow Kaladin out of choice? That person would probably end up being Moonglum. And for the others, yes, Moorcock was a massive influence. I'm convinced, too, that the Eye and Hand of Vecna were inspired by artifacts in the Corum books - the Eye of Rhynn and the Hand of Kwll. If any of you are looking for some classic fantasy stories, go check out the Elric books - or any of the Champion Eternal books. I won't say you'll enjoy them - they're certainly different than Brandon's stuff, and perhaps a bit dated by today's standards - but they're definitely fantasy classics.

Well, Wax did switch between tapping and filling pretty quickly while he was flying through the air, off of the balcony.

Hmm. Tribble chest-bursters...

Such as, say, steelpushing?

I imagine the climbing/jumping is much easier. Didn't Wax say it's easier for him to Push himself when he's filling his ironmind?

It probably would be more damaging to have the chasmfiend hit me, rather than a person, but possibly because of trampling - which isn't a factor in the current discussion, I know - or because of its larger size (volume). So, instead of a chasmfiend, maybe a 5' tall schoolkid and a 7' tall pro wrestler? (Would that be a better ratio?) (More thinking out loud follows.) 100 pounds of pressure can be damaging or not damaging, depending on the surface area over which it's spread. That's how people can lay down on a bed of nails without being punctured - 100 pounds over a large area, versus 100 pounds over the area of the point of a single nail. 3 m/s. Okay. Over the area of a nail, I'm pretty sure it would puncture my skin. Over the area of a 5' schoolkid, assuming I've done my math right, that kid might knock me over if I'm not bracing for it. Likewise, the wrestler. All three are traveling the same speed, of course, but the wrestler takes up the most volume, so he hits me over a much larger area. What about a 5' tall adult male professional bodybuilder? Same height as the schoolkid, but larger volume (more muscle), and also more dense. He very likely would knock me over at that speed, maybe even if I were bracing for it. This comparison is a little closer to the differences between an iron ferring when s/he is tapping an ironmind or not. Admittedly, it's not perfect; in his heyday was considerably stronger than my nephew. Let's get back to that gate. How was the scene set up? The gate swung in, towards Sazed? Let's use that setup, even if I'm remembering the scene wrong. So we've got a gate. It's not locked, but there's something blocking it from the other side, and we want to push the gate open. Someone on the other side has two options for obstructing the gate: one is a block of standard concrete that's 24 ft3 in volume (6'x2'x2'). The other option is a block of aerated concrete of the same volume. The first is more dense than the other, and would be more difficult to move out of the way by pushing against the gate. You're right, though, that Sazed was more forceful when tapping his ironmind than he was not tapping it; his acceleration may have remained the same, but his mass increased with the tapping.

This one seems to support momentum, but it could just as easily have been attempted to be used for grip (which wouldn't work, as the coefficient of friction would be unchanged). That's the one I was looking for. I thought it was in chapter 6, but now I see why I missed it when I was looking for it - I was only looking for "tapped" and "tapping", which weren't used in that passage. Despite that, though, I'm leaning towards the conservation of velocity. IANAPhysicist, so I can't refute your arguments against conservation of momentum. (So I'm hoping you're being honest and accurate, and not a clever troll. ) Also, your comment on that passage reminded me of a joke one of my physics professors told us. Q: Two cats are on a roof. One fell off. Which one stayed on? A: The one with the greater μ. @Musicspren: Keep in mind, "strength" is the wrong term to use. Strength is the purview of pewter. Regardless of how Wax uses the term, he's not making himself stronger. (Nor is anyone else who only taps an ironmind.)

Well, these things are written from the perspectives of the characters, and Wax isn't a physicist. As regards the strength, I think the key part of that first quote is "or so he'd guessed". I think strength is the wrong word for him to be using, as it's pewter that deals with strength. (Both for allomancy and feruchemy.) Case in point, Sazed during the defense of Luthadel. I'm thinking that, in addition to making himself heavier, it's also making himself more dense. After all, his volume isn't increasing, and feruchemy doesn't affect the planet's pull on him, so the only other option that I can immediately see is an increase of density. (A cubic inch of iron is heavier than a cubic inch of tin, after all.) If we ever see an iron ferring in a body of water, this would help verify this theory. Increased density would probably add to his durability, which would coincide with his comment about not crushing himself with his own weight. I'm not sure about the motion part yet. I thought I remembered a part where Wax was moving very fast and then tapped his metalmind, almost instantly stopping himself, but I couldn't find it. To continue (without making a point yet; I'm just "thinking out loud"), there was that point in chapter 6 where Wax Pushed himself off the balcony with decreased weight, increased it to Push the chandeliers out of the way, decreased it again to Push himself some more, and farther. That makes it sound like altering his weight (Is that even the right term to use? Shouldn't we use mass?) also altered his trajectory, which was why he had to keep switching between tapping and filling, as well as repeatedly Pushing himself. That would mean that his velocity (speed + direction of travel) would be affected by the use of his metalmind ... Yeah, no. I still don't have an explanation for the motion part.

Welcome aboard! I don't have a cookie to offer you, but stick around and one will arrive shortly.

Thanks. I'll check that out when I get home.

Why on earth did I have that associated with Zane? *shakes head* It still suggests the possibility that Ruin was influencing people long before Alendi (and Kwaan mentioned that he was certain that Alendi was being influenced, too). It also indicates, as we're talking about in the other thread, that it's possible for Harmony to "interact" with his followers. (Which brings up an interesting thought: Pathists are considered odd, because they worship something that asked not to be worshiped, but Harmony doesn't nudge his followers away, either. A change of opinion over time, perhaps?) Thanks for the quote, zas.

I wouldn't be surprised if Harmony were pushing encouragement to people; in fact, that's precisely what I think was happening with the passage you quoted (as opposed to Wax wishful-thinking). And I do like the idea of copper ferrings being able to "talk" to Harmony through stuff stored in copperminds. Where did Kelsier-Preservation appear to Spook, though? I remember plenty of instances where Ruin appeared to Spook, masquerading as Kelsier, but I'm drawing a blank on times when K-P himself offered help to Spook. (Admittedly, I've only read HoA once, and I'm working my way through a second read of the trilogy, so I may have just overlooked it.) As an aside, Ruin did specifically speak to certain people using words, not just feelings. Zane, for one. And I also think that Vin's "memories" of Reen's words in her head were actually Ruin speaking to Vin in Reen's voice. (Did Zane actually hold mental conversations with Ruin, or am I imagining that? I know there were times when Ruin was telling Zane to kill someone and Zane refused, but I can't remember if Ruin ever responded to the refusal in a way that suggested he heard Zane's thoughts.)

Not that. I mean, the thought "Anyone with any metal piercing their body can be influenced by Ruin" was somehow attached to the character of Zane, as if he may have said something along those lines, but not necessarily with those words. As if he somehow had some kind of lunatic savant insight into the inner workings of Ruin/hemalurgy. I'll make my way back through the second book at some point, so I'll find out if I'm imagining that or not.