skaa

I don't know about you, but I don't have nightmares about a single specific fear every night (or even most nights). Epics apparently do. It's supernatural.

I think the nightmares would stop the moment an Epic conquers his fear. Dawnslight must have stopped having them when he began growing fruits for New Yorkers, long before Regalia arrived. As for the Rending, for him it would have happened while his nightmares were starting; he might have been too busy experiencing hell inside his head to bother with the people outside.

@Moogle and @Kurk: My use of English is not always as precise as I want it to be, leading to sentences that are sometimes unclear and sometimes downright idiotic. Sorry for the confusion. @Oudeis: I've heard about the "Tien is a Lightweaver" theory before, and while I've sadly forgotten the evidence in favor of it (I need to re-read WoK!), I guess I can concede that Tien would be the more mindblowing answer.

Alright, so it being "manipulation" is debatable. The original question is who it was that Brandon was thinking of when he said "You have seen what she was doing before, done by another character." I proposed that it might be Vasher because of how he can also affect the behavior of certain targets. Kurk disagreed because he didn't think it was Vasher "doing" the thing that was happening. And you disagree because you say it's not manipulation. You both missed the point, because Shallan herself wasn't consciously performing the supernatural effect on others that was being brought about by her specific Invested state, and that particular effect can be argued to not be a form of manipulation on her part (since she wasn't aware of it). Either way, neither of you have really explained to me why Vasher and Shallan are not similar in this manner. No. The annotations specifically said that it is the Returned's Divine Breath that has a mystical effect on children and animals, not their perfect bodies. It's a magical effect, not the result of aesthetics.

I should use that line next time I post another Skaa Theory. @Kurk: The current FAQ for Sel mentions Devotion and Dominion but doesn't explain who they are. The FAQs for the other Shardworlds are similarly vague about the Shards. Was that intentional? If not, allow me to contribute to the Sel FAQ: Q. What/Who are Devotion and Dominion? A: Devotion and Dominion are the two Shards on Sel. The Shard Devotion was previously held by a person named Aona, while Dominion was held by one named Skai. Aona and Skai are now deceased, their Shards Splintered. Source: WoP, WoB

Epics have nightmares about their greatest fear. Dawnslight, being in a coma, would've experienced the nightmare the moment he became an Epic. And unlike other Epics, Dawnslight would not have had the privilege of waking up. Being immersed in one's greatest fear every moment of every day sounds like a really effective way to get over said fear, so I'm not surprised at all that Dawnslight isn't corrupt.

David's fear was water, so even if he did become an Epic, I don't think Calamity would give him water powers (regardless of Regalia's request) because water would have been his weakness. He'd have received a different "thematically appropriate" power. Given that he already conquered his fear, a hypothetical Epic David would be immune to the Rending. So, is it possible that David did become an Epic, but has yet to discover his powers since he did not go on a crazed power-wielding killing-spree? There is evidence to the contrary: Prof was still able to Gift him shielding and healing powers after his experience with Calamity, and I believe it was said that an Epic can't receive powers through Gifting. I'm assuming that this restriction still applies to "sane" Epics, though, which might not be the case. Also, it's possible that David's Epic power is the ability to absorb some of the Epic energy (I almost said "Investiture" ) from another Epic, kind of like a reverse-Gifting effect, such that what we thought as Prof Gifting David was actually David taking from Prof. In other words, David may or may not be an Epic now. I hope he is. He'll need all the help he could get to survive the war against Prof and the other insane Epics, especially now that he no longer has access to Prof's gifts.

Even a weak form of personality manipulation is still personality manipulation, I would think. We know that the child Vasher rescued had been severely traumatized, and yet Vasher's Divine Breath still affected her. But anyway, the person Brandon says has done what Shallan has done might very well be any one of the characters we've seen that can tamper with people's minds, as I mentioned in my edit of the previous post.

Eh, I was thinking of that WoB as well. According to the annotations, children and animals like all Returned, because the Divine Breath comforts them. This doesn't mean all Returned are "pure" as in good or uncorrupted; that's obviously not true. The Divine Breath, no matter how evil its holder is, simply has this strange calming effect on animals and children. Note that in that link you gave, Brandon himself says he still needed to think about whether this is a mind-control ability or not: This was back in 2007, so there's been plenty of time for him to decide. In my point of view, if a person could ensure that animals and children will like him, no matter how bad he really is, and no matter what the animal or child's current temperament might be, just by being a Returned, I don't see how he can't consider that as an ability to transform personality/behavior of some targets. Even if it is just a side effect of his Breath. *** Other possibilities of who Brandon was talking about: One of the people who used Emotional Allomancy to trick others into doing their bidding. Nightblood, Ruin, and voidspren, who could compel targets to perform evil deeds.

Now that I think about it, Vasher's way with animals and small children seems to imply a similar personality-transformation ability. Given that Vasher is in Roshar right now, could he be what Brandon was talking about?

Here are my questions: What were the names of the other three Outer Cities around Elantris? When a Mistborn uses Chromium on a Thug, removing his pewter, does the Mistborn experience a burst of strength? Does he actually "leech" the Thug's pewter into himself? If one were to submit a bead of atium to a modern chem lab for analysis, what interesting stuff would they find? Can Chromium Leeching be blocked (or at least be weakened) by Copper Allomancy? How important is metal in fabrial science?

I wonder if this question has been asked before: Suppose you take a tiny Coppermind and a much bigger Aluminummind (both with charges stored, of course), then melt them and mix them together to form duralumin using the proper ratio as indicated by Terion. What happens to the Memory and Identity charges previously stored? Do they vanish? Do they remain unchanged, implying that duralumin can store both Memory and Identity in addition to Connection? Or do they somehow transform into Connection charges? If they are transformed, what sort of Connection would the result be? Connection to what? Finally, what if the Coppermind and Aluminummind did not belong to the same Feruchemist? I suppose a more general question would be this: What happens to a metalmind's Feruchemical charge when you alloy it to create one of the 8 Metallurgic alloys? That would answer the first question above, as well as questions like "Will stored Weight transform into Speed when an Ironmind is alloyed with carbon to create steel?"

It's a good guess, but I don't think we know enough to answer that yet. I think it's a great question to ask Brandon, though!Alright, I have a question: Other than TLR, have we seen anyone using a Hemalurgic spike for Feruchemical storage? Do the Inquisitors that have Feruchemy use such "metalmind spikes"? Or do they use the more traditional bracers/rings? (Edit: I suppose earrings can be Hemalurgic spikes.) Unfortunately I don't have the books with me right now, so I'd be grateful to anyone who could quote relevant passages here for me. Thanks!

Congrats! Is there a new Steelhunt? Or can those codes be used to finally get the last unlockable here?

I learned Filipino (my country's national language, also called Tagalog) and English pretty much simultaneously. As a kid, my dad would always talk to me and my siblings in English, while my mom used Filipino. I'm ashamed to say that now I'm only truly proficient in Taglish, or Filipino-English code-switching. I've been studying Japanese on and off for the past two years but haven't had much progress beyond knowing the basic grammar rules, Hiragana and Katakana, and a few hundred Kanji and their various readings. I've kinda given up on it now. I wish I knew how to read French and Latin, just because there are so many awesome books originally written in those languages. Memorizing Hangul is a short-term goal of mine this year, though I don't really intend to learn Korean yet. It's more of just a personal challenge for me to learn the fascinating Korean alphabet. If I could spend ten years doing nothing but learning languages, these would be on my priority list: Latin French Ancient Greek German

I learned about the Cosmere from Wikipedia while researching on the author who had been tasked to finish the Wheel of Time. I then proceeded to spoil myself on every single Cosmere book that had been published by then. I love spoilers! I regret nothing!

Nah, I was just wondering whether a Shardworld could somehow influence the Invested abilities of visitors from another Shardworld. A similar (but more RAFO-bait) question would be whether an Allomancer/Feruchemist could go to Roshar, find a way to bond with a spren, make the spren transform into a tiny metallic bead (a Shardbead!), and then use that bead for the Metallic Arts. Of course, I'm assuming our hypothetical Scadrian has done the necessary tweaks to access Investiture on Threnody/Roshar before performing these experiments.

Yeah, that's my assumption as well. I am in fact developing a theory regarding these alloys with two Allomantic metals. I'm just afraid that I'd post that theory and then BAM! We suddenly get a WoB saying those alloys aren't what we assumed they were. Edit: Then again, come to think of it, if I were in your shoes I would probably pick questions that are much more interesting than alloy compositions. I'm sure there are at least 16 different lerasium alloys that create various Allomancers. What I was thinking of when adding that question is this WoB, which can be interpreted as saying that there are tons of possible lerasium alloys. This was Phantom's interpretation back in the day. Perhaps different ratios produce different effects when burned, some of which might not have anything to do with creating Allomancers. Or perhaps Phantom's interpretation is wrong and there's just 32 lerasium alloys (16 lerasium+basic metals and 16 lerasium+atium+basic metals). We might as well try to clear that up.

Hi Shardlet! Here are my list of suggested questions. Feel free to re-phrase any that you pick. Scadrial: RAFO-bait: Does the Southern Scadrian civilization know about harmonium at the time of Alloy of Law? If one were to submit a bead of atium to a modern chem lab for analysis, what interesting stuff would they find? Is there any significance to duralumin containing two Allomantic metals (aluminum and copper)?On a related note, does Allomantic brass contain copper, and do Allomantic bronze and Allomantic bendalloy contain tin? Will all Allomantically-viable alloys of lerasium create Allomancers when burned? Are there lerasium alloys that have physical/enhancement effects unrelated to creating Mistings? If a Mistborn uses Chromium on a Thug, Leeching his Pewter stores, will the Mistborn get a burst of strength? Can Chromium Leeching be blocked (or at least be weakened) by Copper Allomancy? Roshar: How important is metal in fabrial science? RAFO-bait: Can Nightblood grant abilities to a person he bonds with on Roshar? The word "lucentia" seems to connote light or visibility. Why isn't the Essence of Lucentia related to the Surge of Illumination? Cosmere: Silver affects Investiture on Threnody. If a Mistborn and/or Feruchemist visits Threnody, will he be able to use silver in Allomancy/Feruchemy/Hemalurgy while staying there? Can spren bonds be stored in a Duraluminmind? Is time travel to the past possible in the Cosmere? (Might be useful for atium alloy theorycrafting.) That's all for now. Have fun at the signing!

Hmmm... Actually I'm starting to suspect that the 8 metallic elements and the 8 alloys aren't all paired in the strict sense. Remember, the Allomantic chart was made by Scadrians, who we know have had wrong assumptions regarding their magic system before.The Allomantic alloys of iron, chromium, and gold contain only one Allomantic element, so I guess those are properly paired. But if you look at the other alloys, you'll notice that their relationship with the Allomantic elements are a bit more complex. Pewter and bronze (and bendalloy, if it's the same thing as real life bendalloy) contain tin. Brass, bronze, and duralumin contain copper. We have at least three alloys containing more than one Allomantic element, four if Allomantic bendalloy has both cadmium and tin (real life bendalloy even has more tin than cadmium!). So if (if!) there is a correlation between the metals and the Shards, then perhaps the Shards show the same sort of complexity in their groupings. Edit: Duralumin is the only Allomantic alloy absolutely confirmed to have two Allomantic elements, I think, but the point still stands.

We don't know. I think gemstones are part of it, sure, what with fabrials and all. But it seems that once Kaladin obtains Stormlight it doesn't matter what kind of gemstone it came from, meaning the focus of his Surgebinding is not gemstones. I personally think the Rosharian focus is the Essences themselves. The gemstones are related to the Essences. So are the spren and the Divine Attributes. All of these seem to be important in their own way. @Username: A counter-example to your theory would be the Divine Breaths, Splinters of Endowment on Nalthis. Brandon said that Commands, not Breath, are the focus on that Shardworld. Edit: Note to self, don't type multi-paragraph replies using the phone.

While I was researching on metals with gold and aluminum I was also hoping to find a reddish-colored one, but had no such luck. Red suggests copper, and there are gold and copper alloys out there so I guess that's another candidate for harmonium, but we'll see.@Oudeis: Thanks for the feedback. Rather than thinking of the harmonium problem as "Why would local Scadrians name it this way?", I think of it as "Why would Brandon name it this way?" It's a fictional world, created to tell fantasy stories, which are meant to entertain and give pleasure. With the goal of making good stories in mind, things like consistency and cohesion take center stage. So, yes, it's my opinion that patterns are important in this case, even though in the end I have no idea if I'm seeing the right patterns or not. But yeah, I really can't deny that none of my evidence are conclusive. Unfortunately, only a more awesome alternative theory or a definite disproof via WoB will make me give up this theory now. So, agree to disagree?

Someone born with an ability already has that ability as part of his Innate Investiture. External Investiture granting the same ability may or may not modify Innate Investiture to retain the ability in case the external Investiture is removed.We only have few WoBs regarding this term, but it seems obvious to me that it is Investiture that has melded with a person's Spiritual aspect. It is this Innate Investiture that is modified/boosted by things like burning lerasium or Snapping, and is something at least partially inheritable (being part of the so-called "Spiritual DNA"). The Nahel bond's ultimate goal, I think, is to eventually perform the same sort of changes that lerasium does, enhancing the person's Innate Investiture with Surgebinding. But for the Nahel bond this process is quite a bit more time-consuming (perhaps due to Honor's more restrictive Intent demanding extensive Cognitive changes as well), making Kaladin etc. rely on external Investiture (i.e. Stormlight) to retain things like the change in eye color. Note that the change in eye color is not the end goal. Shardbearers also become lighteyes eventually, but that doesn't make them Knights. Permanent eye color change simply signifies that something has already broken through the Cognitive aspect's defenses, something that's now heritable. Edit: Ninja'd again! Why am I so slow?! *sobs*

@Weiry: Woops! Sorry, I tend to let my guard down when I'm in the Cosmere Theories section of the forums. I'll be more careful next time. I think Shardblades simply severe the connection between the Spiritual and the Physical aspects, so it won't necessarily change a person's Ideal Self. The problem with Hemalurgy is that it makes drastic modifications in addition to wounding your Spiritual aspect. There's also the problem of an Invested object being stuck into you instead of just slicing through you. I'm pretty sure Kaladin won't be able to heal from a Shardblade wound while the Shardblade is still inside of him.

Here you go. It's from Brandon's newsletter, but I believe he also read a version of it in an event once. Edit: He read it at Fantasycon.