Voidlit Man

I would love a Lego Mistborn Game!

Modern Lego games have hundreds of characters, and I feel like Mistborn easily has the potential to fill that roster, with the amount of characters in the Cosmere

If I remember correctly, Clubs couldn't cover the entire building, he had several people burning copper at all times to cover the area.  I would guess that you can manipulate at least the size of a copper cloud, but I'm not sure about density

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I think that we just don't know enough about the Shattering to make firm guesses on this sort of topic. It's not clear to me if the sixteen knew how holding a Shard forever would affect them (though one would think that they must have had some idea). It's not clear why they chose the sixteen aspects they did when breaking apart Adonalsium's power, nor if they would have chosen the same sixteen with thousands of years' worth of observation of the fallout. We don't even know if "Ruin" is the concept they had for the Shard that Ati took up, though that seems likely too (it's what the other Shards call it). We also don't know how enthusiastic or reluctant the members of the cabal were-- per Hoid (I think? It must have been...), some of them were actively interested, others had no other choices left to them, and certainly other motivations existed, too. Maybe Ati didn't want to be involved at all, and especially not with that particular Shard.

Something must have compelled the group to choose (or allow) "bad" Shardic aspects like hatred and ruin, even if that thing was mechanical necessity, and something led each person to the Shard they took. I can't be certain without knowing what goals the sixteen had, but it seems hard (for me) to believe that what they've been getting over the last six thousand years is what they wanted.

 

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Questioner

Shards. We started with fairly obvious ones, magic wise. Trying to keep this spoiler free, so: Ruin, Preservation, this kind of thing. Then we get the weird ones. Why do we have Shards that can only exist in the mind of a sentient creature? ...Like the concept of Honor can only be done when it's carried out, essentially, by a sentient creature.

Brandon Sanderson

So when I split Adonalsium I said, "I'm going to take aspects of Adonalsium's nature." And this involves personality to me. So the Shattering of Adonalsium was primal forces attached to certain aspects of personality. And so I view every one of them this way. And when I wrote Mistborn we had Ruin and Preservation. They are the primal forces of entropy and whatever you call the opposite, staying-the-same-ism-y. Like, you've got these two contrasts, between things changing and things not changing. And then humans do have a part, there's a personality. Ruin is a charged term for something that actually is the way that life exists. And Preservation is a charged term for stasis, for staying the same. And those are the personality aspects, and the way they are viewed by people and by the entity that was Adonalsium.

 

The way this is phrased makes me think that some of the "primal aspects of Adonalsium" were more unpleasant, and that having bad shards couldn't really be helped. I'm not sure if the conspirators knew that before they shattered Adonalsium, or after, but it seems like at some point the members of the group realized the different attributes before they took up the shards, which is part of the reason why I think that Ati could've realized that it would be good for people if he took up that shard

Honestly, we really don't know any of the shards very well, especially before the shattering, so all of this is conjecture, but I think it would be really interesting to have some of the "plain evil" characters be shown to be kind at one point. It's possible that another shard we never met, such as Ambition, was a worse person, and that taking Ruin prevented that conspirator from taking it

In the Way of Kings Epigraphs, Ati, the original holder of Ruin was noted to be a good person.

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Ati was once a kind and generous man, and you saw what became of him.

He is also noted to have fought against the intent, and has made it kinder somewhat

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Alvaro Lopez

Why Odium is stronger and worst evil than Ruin?

Brandon Sanderson

One reason is that Ruin had a person in control of it who, for many years, fought against the impulse to destroy--and in the end, channeled it toward entropy and decay, necessary elements of the universe. Odium represents something else entirely.

He seems like an all around great guy before he ascended, and slowly became corrupted by the Shard until he became the guy we see in the Mistborn books.  Did Ati, when Adonalsium was shattered, intentionally take one of the most dangerous shards to keep it out of the hands of Rayse or other more-evil conspirators, and settle with his polar opposite intentionally because he knew that it would limit the danger of the shard? 

I'm sorry if this has already been discussed, but it was just something I was thinking of. When Dragonsteel comes out, I would love to see the kind of person that Ati originally was.

On 2/21/2024 at 12:45 PM, alder24 said:

The only thing we know, the only thing that matters is that Hallandren requires at least 25 births every week to sustain the Court of Gods demand for fresh, child's Breaths. That's at least 300 Breaths per year. Using the data from the city of Warsaw (Poland), which in 2015 had nearly 20,000 births per 1.744 million inhabitants, you would need a city of ~26,100 people to sustain the Court of God with the same birth rate. But the Court has room for twice as many Returned, so the city would have to be at least 52,000. That's really, really small. Hallandren seems to be much bigger, they have much greater births per year.  

It doesn't really matter how many adults sell their Breaths because we know nothing about this. They don't count in this statistic because they aren't babies, they can give up their Breath whenever they want - not when they are young. We don't know how many Breaths are held by the upper class or priests, how many Breaths are sold or anything. We can't speculate because that's just wild guessing at this point. We can only look at how big the city needs to be to provide Returned with fresh, young Breaths every week. We can't include the amount of Breaths sold by adults because we know nothing.

Another way to look at this is that Hallandren has 40,000 Lifeless. Those will eventually break down after a couple of years and they would need a replacement. If we assume an average "life" expectancy of around 10 years for Lifeless, they would need on average 4,000 bodies per year to replenish losses. In 2015 in Warsaw nearly 19,000 people died. That means that Hallandren needs to have a population of at least 367,000 people to sustain such an army. That's more like what I've imagined. That's comparable to the population of the largest cities in Europe in 1600. The population would have to be even larger because many of those bodies would not be adequate for Lifeless soldiers - like too weak, too much rotten, lacking limbs, etc.

But then the entire country would contribute to the replenishment of the Lifeless army, people from outside of the Hallandren could be making Lifeless and selling them to the Court of Gods. But let's assume for the sake of simplicity that it's cheaper to make them from bodies found in the city, thus they prioritize mainly those. 

Another thing to note, Poland's TFR during 2015 was 1.32 births per woman, and I would assume that Hallandren's TFR is higher, since they are likely in stage 2 of the demographic transition model. T'Tellier seems to be a truly massive city!

This is a fairly straightforward question. There are around two dozen Returned in the Hallandren court of Gods, and each Returned requires a breath a week, (The God King has two), which brings the number up to 25ish. Most members of Hallandren do not sell their breaths directly to the Gods, I'm going to say conservatively that about an 8th of the population does. How many people would have to live in Hallandren in order to have 200 new breaths a week? Is this number too small, or too large? I have little experience counting demographics based on amount of children born. 

On 2/8/2024 at 7:57 AM, Child of Hodor said:

I think Valor will come into the story in the back half. The only reason I think this is a passage from RoW right before Taravangian kills Rayse it sounds like one of Brandon’s Shard Intent descriptors, but for Valor. Like Valor was influencing Taravangian.
From RoW Ch. 113:

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If you compare that to how Odium is described when Dalinar sees it in OB it has the same cadence and format. Same with shards described in other series. OB ch. 57:

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My theory is either Valor was influencing Taravangian or Taravangian so exemplified the intent that he attracted the attention of the Shard in that moment. Either way I think Valor is coming. 

Interesting. Of Sanderson's planned three main series, Elantris, Stormlight, and Mistborn, Stormlight certainly seems to be the one most about war, so Valor would it into that smoothly. Bravery, Honor, and Hatred together makes an interesting combo, and it might factor into Cultivation's endgame, considering she helped Taravangian gain such emotionality

@TwinSouls Is that profile picture from the Series of Unfortunate Events? I love those books!

Someone gouged out 4 of that spiders eyes! Horrifying! If that thing crawled onto my pizza I would want to die. Pineapple Spider on Pizza? It makes me ill just thinking about it!

Just kidding its way rad and quite psychedelic. 7/10

Battle of Thaylen City has to be my favorite. Dalinar alone with a book he cannot read, facing all the things he's done in the past is just so impactful, but I'm not entirely sure if that counts as part of the Battle of Thaylen City. The actual meat of it, Adolin facing the Thunderclasts, Kaladin facing Amaram, I didn't care for as much

On 1/31/2024 at 6:47 AM, Mason Wheeler said:

Some Jasnah fanboys disagree, largely out of motivated reasoning, but it seems quite clear that Jasnah is a psychopath, of the charismatic, pro-social variety that is largely overrepresented among CEOs and politicians.  There are plenty of reasons to believe this, but the most obvious one is the way her go-to solution to every problem is murder.  For example:

• Don't like your brother's new wife?  Hire an assassin to keep tabs on her, and don't so much as bat an eye when the assassin points out that assassins aren't hired just to keep tabs on someone.
• Thugs robbing people downtown?  Use a Soulcaster to brutally slaughter them all.
• Trouble with the Fused?  We should find some Heralds and kill them.
• Something fishy going on with Renarin's spren?  Better murder him; it's the only way to be sure.

She doesn't always go through with it, but it appears to always be the first obvious solution that pops into her head.  Because she's a psychopath.  Having her on the throne of Alethkar is horrifying.

She's got problems. A lot of people point to her unique point of view on life, but it seems to be her point of view on death that more interests people, mainly that so many people deserve to die, and that Jasnah is the one who decides who deserves to die. She's not altogether dissimilar to high-intellect Taravangian, who knows that it would be better for society if all the stupid people die, without realizing how much it means to so many that stupid people live, lower than average IQ and all. The only difference is that half the time, Taravangian sees this, while Jasnah almost never does. 

(unpopular opinion)

YKYASF when every day at school you ask your friend if his secret project boxes have come yet

On 10/4/2023 at 10:07 AM, Bzhydack said:

 

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Also, after SP4, all of us probably would say: Aux is the best spren!

I agree with this. Man, he makes me want to see what Szeth's spren will be like.

On 1/25/2024 at 5:14 PM, Rorzikel said:

Given that the ars arcanum describes storing as entering a depressed state and tapping as entering a manic state, it’s clear to me that the primary use-case for Electrum Feruchemy is treatment of bipolar disorder. A person with the condition could store when they’re naturally experiencing mania and tap when they’re experiencing a depressive cycle.

This is probably the safest and least prone to abuse as one would be consistently baseline; no need to be constantly depressed to buildup the storage or requiring compounding which would be easily abusable into just being Feruchemic meth.

That's what my mind immediately went to upon reading the Ars Arcanum, but I think it could be applicable anywhere. Normal people have manic and depressive episodes. Not as often or as extreme as people with Bipolar Disorder, but being aware could allow you to regulate your mood a little easier

Thanks for the thoughts! That makes sense

It makes me wonder if some sort of super powered steel-pusher, with multiple Hemalurgic spikes would be able to affect them at all, of if it still would be practically impossible

In the 3rd book, I think, Kaladin remarks that it feels weird to swing around a girl weapon, and Syl says that roughly half of all of his spears have been female. This seemed strange to me, because I feel that since more soldiers are men, people would tend to think of spears as more masculine, thus skewing the spear gender ratio towards male.  Does spren gender have anything to do with how people view the object? For example, are ships more likely to be female because the vast majority of sailors seem to think of their boats as female, or is that also half-and-half? 

Sneak into a tomb no one has discovered, awaken a mummy to "attack the next people who say so and so" (color change likely wouldn't be super noticeable on the cloth or flesh of a mummy), and then write some gibberish on the wall. See if the archaeologists are stupid enough to actually say it. This would make a great hoax

A lot of the time the Koloss come of as funny to me, aswell. It's a society of passive gents that occasionally murder the others because their foot got stepped on or something. Obviously in real life it would be terrible, but since the book is Fantasy, I'm allowed to laugh at brutal murder (I think, otherwise I'm a psychopath)

The magic fish in the Purelake are Cultivation's Godmetal!
 

If one were to take the time to "cultivate" (proof that my theory is foolproof) a fish farm and ate all of the fish in the purelake, they would turn into a shark!

I'm pretty sure that's just Cosmere Science

It's only a matter of time before Brandon confirms it

I would be third of Sundown

WOB

Questioner

Can a Shard hold on to the Cognitive Shadow of a person for later use?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, that can indeed happen.

Questioner

Without it being fully Invested?

Brandon Sanderson

You don’t have to fully Invest it, no. They would have to do some Investing shenanigans, but what you’re asking is quite possible, very possible.

So, for instance, let me give you a corner case. You might be asking: could Endowment send somebody back later than immediately after they have passed away? The answer would be “yes.”

I’m gonna tell you, I have no immediate plans to do that, but it is possible within the framework of the cosmere.

Dragonsteel 2022 (Nov. 14, 2022)

This confirms that you can hold a cognitive shadow "in reserve", but the last bit makes me think that if Gavilar was to come back, he would either have to be a cognitive shadow the whole time, or somehow revived in a similar manner to Szeth. If Gavilar was brought back, what powers would he have? Do you think he would be a normal fused, one with all the powers, or one with specifically bondsmith powers? I know that a Bondsmith Fused has never happened before, but with a new Odium, it might be possible. 

Another thing to consider, the Terris were close to extinct in The final Empire, but make up a sizeable amount of the population in MIstborn Era II, probably because a much smaller percentage of them died

On 1/10/2024 at 11:25 AM, hwiles said:

Electrum. I would actually think that determination could be stored best using your flicker method. I'm pretty sure I could store at 90% during most of my daily meetings and no one would notice as long as I stopped when asked to speak.

I would be worried that while storing Electrum, if someone asks you to speak in a meeting or something, you'd have no motivation to stop storing. Sort of an "eh, what's the point" kind of deal, where you don't care about your job. Of course, that depends on how Electrum storing actually works, but I think there is a real danger in just not caring about anything at any time. This one seems like it would really suck to store.

10 minutes ago, alder24 said:

That kind of shaving won't kill a person, it would make the cut area dead and kill cells responsible for the hair growth. Loss of sense in this area would also happen most likely as receptors in your skin would be killed too. Thus it would be the last shave you will ever need and if you cut shallow enough it would damage only skin cells, not muscles beneath, thus your face would function normally but you won't feel any touch in that area. That is what I think about this scenario. 

I agree, and think a similar thing would happen to the limb. Cells would die, no hair would grow their again, and you would not be able to feel it. If a part with a vein got cut, likely the vein would still function for the rest of the arm, if I am reading this WOB correctly.

Excelsius

What's the biological reaction of a limb cut by a Shardblade, because they don't start to rot after being cut?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah they don't start to rot, so the bloodflow is still happening. The limb is still attached, it's not going to rot off, but the soul is dead. This is a thing that can happen in the cosmere that can't happen here. Because you have Spiritual, [Cognitive], and Physical DNA. Your soul's been severed in that part, and it just flops around. You can't feel it, you can't control it. It's something that, again, couldn't happen here.

Bonn Signing (May 15, 2019)

The cells would spiritually die, and you wouldn't be able to feel from them anymore.