DragonHeir

If you use the investiture to do something, isn’t it adding energy to the system? If it then comes back, that breaks conservation of energy. The idea with draining it in the ways I described was that the siphoning would increase exponentially, which would mean that over time more and more power is drawn, eventually reaching the threshold of actually being significant. Even if you can’t shut down a shard, nigh infinite investiture is nothing to sneeze at. Also, if you were able to create perfect gemstones, wouldn’t it continuously emit light from the spiritual realm? That feels like it would work to create a significant investiture leak. (It’d also shine like the sun. Dyson Sphere time!)

Hi everyone! I was once again thinking about the Cosmere instead of my stroke technique during swim team practice, and I came up with a worrying idea; if you can draw out and store all the investiture in a shard, it might splinter them or even make them “un-ascend” or descend, I guess. Thus, I went about thinking of ways to exponentially or quadratically draw out increasing amounts of investiture from an otherwise closed system. I am unsure what the draining of a shard would cause, and will speculate a bit, but I’m hoping a better cosmere theorist than I has more knowledge about it. Methods to drain a shard: Soulcast functional gemstones, then fill them with a highstorm or bondsmith. This will definitely require more scientific knowledge than Roshar currently has access to, but surges could probably be used to accomplish modern artificial gem techniques. If you have a bondsmith, they could use adhesion, which is the surge of pressure, to flatten carbon into diamonds. (I think. I didn’t do any research.) There’s also something about smokestone being made by quartz and radiation. If you have access to limitless or near limitless materials to transform, you can turn those, or the soulcaster can turn their hand to the proper materials and then heal. Actually, if the carbon from human flesh can be refined into diamonds through magic, you don’t even need a soulcaster, just a radiant to heal, then whatever it takes to refine the carbon. I’d like to suggest the surges of division and gravitation (lots and lots of lashings on something heavy), which would allow a single random skybreaker to accomplish this, if they could find an island on the other side of Roshar. A verdant sporebinder or maybe a spore eater could consume their own vines, then condense the water vapor from respiration to create more. Your aether would probably get mad at you if you did this, but it wouldn’t actually be that hard as long as you also have other nutrients to stay alive. There is also likely a limit on how fast this could work, although you could continually add more people or animals to your sealed off condensation community, feeding them with the vines and collecting the water. This could even be scaled up to the planetary scale. (I’d theorized that Lumar’s seethe worked like this, but was shot down immediately.) Something overcomplicated which involves a soulcaster and some sort of compounder (and sometimes hemalurgy and Lift). Of these, I think the least impractical is to have a nicrosil compounder become an elsecaller (they’re more likely to agree to this than the lightweavers), and inhale a small amount of stormlight, then use most of it to soulcast part of them (their tongue, maybe) into nicrosil. They can store the last bit of stormlight, then compound it to get enough to heal the tongue back. By repeating this (with larger sections of their internal organs over time), they’ll end up with an absurd amount of stormlight, which can be stored in a nicrosilmind soulcast from their flesh if the process for some reason needs pausing. Additionally, depending upon how nicrosil feruchemy works, they may be capable of storing the powers that make this possible and letting other people do the same, or at least enhancing the efficiency of the compounding. If this person were to exist, they would be literally unstoppable, and if they got ahold of just one Breath, they could also compound that to become immortal. Yikes! AonDor is probably capable of this, just because of the sheer versatility of it. Specifically, if you can instruct an Aon to create additional Aons like itself (something that was possible in early drafts), you end up with an exponentially growing Dor conduit. You could instruct the Aon program to create additional effects as well as multiplying, if you wanted it to be actually useful. I believe there was speculation that a bendalloy feruchemist could store metal filings in a bendalloymind. Although this is powerful on its own for a twinborn, it becomes absolutely terrifying for a compounder; they could consume two bendalloy filings, store on in the other, then burn it for ten filings (I believe that’s the compounding ratio). This would allow for infinite bendalloy and infinite nutrient compounding. Even worse, a fullborn could potentially perform this trick to get infinite supplies of all the metals, rendering them even stronger than TLR, because he at least needed metalminds. That being said, I bet there’s some rule about the way subsumers work that would make this impossible. It’s too OP too easily. There’s likely more methods to accomplish this, but I’ll speculate on potential effects and motives for this. If a Shard’s power was drained, they’d first be rendered weaker (like the Preservation and Ruin situation), then their invested arts would likely shut down or weaken, stopping the siphoning. If this didn’t happen, the entirety of the Shard’s power would be removed, potentially allowing the infinity compounder to Ascend. I’m unsure what would happen to the vessel, but they would be: massively depowered and end up as a very weak shard, similar to the Stormfather, complete ejected from their shard and end up back as a human (or dragon or Sho Del or whatever), or simply killed. The most likely motivations for doing this would be either to gain lots of power or shut down a Shard and its invested art. Unfortunately for the Cosmere, the “good” shards are the only ones that I’ve figured out how to drain. (and maybe the Dor. That could make worldhopping to Sel a lot easier.) One of the Odious Skybreakers could camp out at a random island on the other side of Roshar and start mass producing perfect diamonds to completely shut down the Stormlight supply, leaving nearly all the Radiants helpless. Alternatively, the nicrosil compounding elsecaller could be simply trying to accomplish a massive task the requires a stratospheric amount of investiture. Sure, it might tip Harmony way towards Ruin, but this cool planet I Soulcasted from my organs is worth it, right? Right? So yeah, that’s another intimidatingly long post I intended to be like half this length. I can’t wait to see what everyone else thinks.

“It’s a dea- ah!” the Redspine lunges at Tondon’s right side (unless it would for some reason attack his shield). He brings his shield sideways to block most of the blow, taking a few cuts on his unprotected right arm. A few cracks appear in the roseitite. Tondon dances backwards, Pulling, throwing, and batting several objects, somehow sending a sickle thudding into the back of a tree, the iron vials into the air as the extending spines curve towards them, and the steel box stuck to the shield. As he coordinated all three objects, his eyes closed and opened, his Connection surged and receded, and his determination to prove himself was at the forefront of his mind.

Ok, cool. A figure wearing grey and purple materializes upside down in the air, and drops to the ground somehow flipping and landing on his feet. There’s a moment where you’d swear that crystal wings appear around him. He looks around, appearing slightly bewildered. “Not again… Mazikoth, is this your fault? No?” he says, seemingly to himself. Then he turns to the other people assembled inside the attic (it’s an attic, right?). “I’m Vall. Do any of you have a clue where we are?”

What state is Vall in? Is he full dragon, full human, mostly human, or mostly dragon? Any powers you specifically don’t want him to have?

Can I join? @The Stormfather Character:

The spear of red thorns carves its way through the air, and Tondon puts his shield up to block, slightly too slow. His eyes widen, but the attack stops, splaying as if it hit an invisible wall, then dropping downward and shattering several vials of iron dust. “Huh.” Tondon says. “That’s interesting.” He cuts off the end of the projectile (is it like firing quills, or is it more stabbing with something that quickly telescopes to Tondon) with his sickle, the continues, tapping Connection. “You say you want to survive. So do I. And to survive, I need to win. If I can best you, and I can get you food, will you help me win?”

The brog or my dobbersense? Cause mine isn’t a pun. It’s like an inside joke about an inside joke, and of the eight-ish people who get it, I’m the only one I’m aware of who reads Brandon Sanderson, so I’m the only person on the planet who gets it.

“Young? Interesting. Do you really want to fight me? Even if you can kill me, you’ll be hurt. You have a different goal in mind than a simple fight. I believe you are smarter than the Game Makers say you are.” Tondon taps Connection to make him seem more important to the Redspine. (This could cause him to seem more appetizing, but it could also make it more friendly, baffled, or wary. Or all four.) He has a silver sickle in one hand and a roseitite shield in the other, and stands confidently, unafraid.

I wonder if my dobbersense is blocked by copperclouds. I know that song, but I’m not sure where the picture is from.

Tondon continues to look determined. “I will.” Then he smiles very widely. “I may even do better than that.” He shakes hands with Corin and steps outside, saying “I’ll be back,” to his alliance. Then, he goes off into the woods to find a monster. (Back to you, @BlueWildRye)

Tondon’s eyes harden. “What do you want me to do? I’ll do it. I’ll prove I’m not useless.”

People who didn’t read what my grade is: how old do you think I am?

“If I wasn’t competent, I’d be dead already. I can’t even die correctly. I was supposed to die five hundred years ago. And I’m supposed to die now. But I haven’t.”

“I think- I think you’re right. I’m not supposed to be here and I don’t know what I’m doing. And it’s all my fault.” He’s speaking through sobs. With that continuous voice crack sound, you know? THESE WORDS ARE ACCEPTED! (or not)

“I ended up here by accident. I used to deliver pizza. I had nice friends, and I lived right by- my parents. I’d been delivering a pizza to an office building. Large pepperoni.” he stops for a second and drinks some water. “I’m a lurcher, so I’d Pull myself up to the right floor by the fire escape sometimes. It’s faster than taking the stairs. That day, I’d been storing Connection a little, cause I wanted a raise. So this rich noble didn’t notice. He’d been one of the new mistings, as far as I can tell. He didn’t notice me as I went past, so he did something. The air became a shining sphere and everything started flashing. It flashed so fast that I closed my eyes at first. Maybe if I hadn’t I could have made it. But when I opened them again, I saw a streak of light in the sky, flashing. Buildings fell almost instantly, and then built themselves up again. The city grew taller and shinier. That was when I figured out what was happening. In the time it took, when I got to the edge, everyone I knew or loved-“ his voice breaks into a sob. “was gone. I was in the future, and all I had was my five hundred year old pepperoni pizza, still warm, and a few clips. The first night I ate the pizza. After that, someone told me to sign up for the hunger games. I figured it was an eating contest or something, and I’d had nothing to lose, so I signed up. How was I supposed to know that-“ he starts actually sobbing, and Corin gets a pause long enough to speak (Tondon’s talking pretty fast, as normal.)

“Secrets… will you tell them to people? Can the GMs hear us? And are they sending what’s happening out?” he looks around, then says, “I also know about what happened a long time ago. What would your cost be? If I could do it on my own, would it be less? Like one of those spren things, then I have to figure out whatever these ‘ideals’ are.” “Hey, Gambler!” Tondon calls, “what would I have to bet to get a spren matched to my personality? Also, would you be up for some low stakes games?” @Ancient Elantrian

“Does the armor mess with ironpulling? How much would it cost?” He considers it. “Do you think I’d be able to become one of these Radiants?”

“Deal.” Tondon hands him the fabrial.

If I’d known you play D&D, my explanation could have been so much simpler… Maybe each runescribe can take on an apprentice, or maybe two, but it takes long enough that most cannot mentor two. So random accidents drop the number of runescribes about as fast a new ones are trained. So like the astral projection spell? Yeah, I do the same thing and have the same problem. Real people tend to think of more interesting ideas, but they also tend to not care about my writing. ChatGPT tends to open its statements with a rephrasing of the question, makes bullet points, then wishes you luck and compliments your question, which is what I had done. I’ll see if I can think of some concept for you. (I’ve tried to make a rune system, but making designs was hard. You don’t necessarily need to draw all the runes. You can just describe them vaguely.) These examples could all be the same rune or be several different ones. You could even have a way to modify the runes to change the meaning (for instance, adding two diagonal lines on the fire rune might turn it to the light rune.) Home/protection/safety Movement/energy/excitement Fire/heat/light Ice/cool/dark Attack/anger/dangerous Life/plants/health/food Friendship/love Think/wonder/know Those are what I can think of off the top of my head. I can probably get others later, once you decide how you want to organize them.

I just had a very interesting thought. Adonalsium I think once we learn more about glyphs, it may give us some interesting insights. I don’t really have much else to add other than that, though.

“I was wondering if you had something that you had a deal on, or something you think would be helpful.” his eyes light up. “A whole bunch of people have these weird magic swords. Can you give me information for the feb-rail thing? I think if I go up against someone with one, I’m gonna die really fast. How do you block one, how do you prevent someone from getting one into their hand, what does the grey cut thing do, and where do you actually get one from?”

I was reading through unread content and found this. Some of you need to get either more sleep or less, I’m not sure which. I have this reoccurring dream where I start in a place I know. Usually it’s the pool where I have swim team practice, but sometimes it’s my house, my school, or somewhere else. I’m trying to get somewhere or find something, or occasionally just wandering, and the farther I get, the stranger the place becomes. I start just going through hallways or doors that aren’t there in real life, occasionally ending up in other areas of the place or sometimes even somewhere else, but the location is mostly recognizable. As I keep going though, I usually end up in a large open area, with lots of staircases, almost like a mall. I’ll wander up a staircase, and end up on another normal level, but after that passages are weird, dizzying, and unsafe. If I get in an elevator, it opens up into a ledge with nothing behind it. Staircases will be narrow, wind in different directions, and tend to lack railings, some steps, or both. After either going to another level, I tend to either fall and wake up, or refuse to move, and somehow find a safe path back to where I started or where I was going. The weird thing is that I’m not afraid of heights in real life, just in the dream. (Except those stairs going down from the parking garage in the science museum. *shudders*) Sometimes, the transportation will be extra weird, like these turbo elevators that go way too fast and make you slide up to the ceiling as they drop. Dream me for some reason chooses to go back up on these really sketchy maintenance stairs instead, which are like ten times more dangerous, and somehow still made me fall up when I got to a landing. Anyway, does this dream happen to anyone else? Or is it just me? Apparently dreams are more standardized than people think. Like weird driving dreams are common. I read somewhere that people took advantage of that to scam people into taking “psycospacial alignment programs” by listing that dreams where you have to drive from the back seat or something as a symptom.

You’re assuming I have bones, it seems. As far as I’m aware, you’re right. Supposedly, my bones are made from spellsteel, so they reflect light weirdly. There’s not very much light there anyway, so I’d say they’re probably like ultraviolet or ultra-ultraviolet. Put ultra-ultraviolet down as my answer. (Do you have a list or something?) I don’t really encounter a lot of chickens. There’s probably a really cool type of chicken that does something really strange, so I’ll pick that one.