Arcanist Lupus

I've always thought that Atium doesn't actually produce Atium shadows. What it does is provides you with probabilistic information on the future, and enhances your mind's ability to understand the information, and your mind interprets this as Atium shadows. What happens when the shadows split is that the feedback loop overwhelms the mind's enhanced ability to understand the future, and it throws up its hands and sends you multiple best-guess. The distinction isn't really that relevant, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyways.

Wow. This thread tripled in size yesterday. (third post)

Well, the AoL AA mentions Sel, so that means that the AA writer is definitely a worldhopper. In my opinion, the AA writer doesn't avoid discussing Adonalsium because he/she doesn't know about it, he/she doesn't mention Adonalsium because it isn't specifically relevant to the magic system that's being discussed. The author is presumably writing the AA for himself, or other worldhoppers, and the target audience already understands Adonalsium, so there wouldn't be any need to explain it in the AAs.

With a Pulser, it becomes possible to film bullet time in real time.

My father read me The Hobbit, but I didn't take off reading on my own until Harry Potter in 3rd grade. My dad was reading those to me as well, but the fourth book came out in the summer, which meant that I was spending a lot of time around the house while he was at work, and eventually I got tired of waiting for him, and started reading it myself. I haven't stopped since.

My two cents: If Adonalsium has a mind/core/consciousness/etc, than that core(/etc) is the "item" that Hoid* is protecting "as he would his own skin". *assuming, of course, that Hoid wrote the Letter.

Television and movies wouldn't be entirely neglected, though. There are still some things that movies do better than live performances. For example, Transformers would make a terrible live performance. I do wonder if movie theaters would employ Rioters, though. I'm sure they would. The more and more I look at it, the more I think that Soothers and Rioters would be in huge demand, which means that aluminum hats would also be in huge demand. I bet that hats have a much larger cultural significance on Scadrial than they do here, once aluminum foil becomes cheap.

Especially as, if WoK is any indication, Brandon plans on running the definitions of race and species through the wringer.

And yet, oddly, riot squads would actually prefer to use Soothers...

I'll believe it once it's actually out. At one point, Amazon claimed it was already out, just not in stock.

And in riot squads.

And of course, I don't want to imagine the field day soap operas will have with Rioting and Soothing.

On a different, yet related topic, what is Restares, the second most likely person to have staged a murder attempt on Gavilar, doing advising Amaram, who isn't even a highlord? Also, I don't think the Kabsal quote describes the motivation of the Ghostbloods. I think it describes Kabsal's motivation - the reason he became part of the organization.

Yes, but will Soothing/Rioting ever become an art form by itself? Would there be shows where the main draw is the skill of the Soother? Sorry for not being clear the first time.

Would kandra be able to reproduce with humans, if they created the proper organs? I see no reason why not, although I'm not sure why they would. (Although a story about a kandra who decided to be human, and live like a normal human could be fascinating.) And kandra are clearly a separate species. One thing to consider is how much spiritual DNA affects reproduction. Certainly an inquisitor's spiritual DNA is warped enough that I think it would be considered a different species if it was real DNA.

Has anyone read the Codex Alera by Jim Butcher? In one of the books, a brothel uses earthcrafters for the same use we are discussing for Rioters. On a similar, yet unrelated topic, what do you think the likelihood of Soothing/Rioting being turned into an art form, perhaps in conjunction with singing/dancing?

Not necessarily. While the Returned can change their appearance, mostly they don't. They appear as whatever they see themselves to be, and unless they're specifically trying to alter their appearance, their appearance would stay the same.

To some degree, I think you could argue that none of the Shards are really male or female. Gender isn't intrinsic to any of the shards.* Sure, the Shards have bodies, and those bodies are male or female, but the personality of the Shard will align with it's Intent, which is above gender. *evidence of this is in Mistborn: (spoilers for the series)

I had not heard this, but it's entirely possible. It's also possible that the second world that's being referred to is Shadesmar, although that's not technically a world.

My name, Sir Read-a-Lot, is pronounced: Sir-Reed-A-Lot.

The second book definitely leaves you hanging. The third book should be coming out soon, but on the other hand, it's been "almost out" for several years now. I don't know what the deal is.

However, the very

Didn't we get one, at the very end?

Alcatraz. Everyone else is secondary.