Aonar

Does anyone mind if I go next with a Frostfire post? He needs to get a chance to out-slontze Reader. (Or try, anyways.)

Both true, and both good points. However, Ruin's Investee only needs to be protected if he's publicly known. If they try to hit a random, non-Shard target, they're very unlikely to hit him. (Not impossible, I suppose, but highly unlikely.) It will definitely have to be a committed effort. Anything less, and we'll be in a far worse place than we started.

The weight of experience shaped me, changed me, molded me into something far different than I had been before. I lost sight of what I once valued, experimented with life and love and happiness, knowing that my actions had no consequence. I could always go back, change things, do better the next time. But there was one thing I could never change. ----------------------- The words, etched in metal, read: Kholinar, 1174. Redux… It was the silence that alerted Aonar to his pursuers. The streets, usually echoing with the noise of the looters and rioters, had gone silent after the Everstorm had passed a few hours ago. Tapping tin, he heard soft footsteps coming from behind him. Here we go again. Ducking into an alleyway, Aonar unslung his rifle, tapping steel, zinc, electrum and chromium to steady his aim. Before long, one of the guardsmen barged around the corner. The world slowed by zinc and steel, he took careful aim and shot the man in the foot. Aonar calmly set to reloading his rifle for the next of the guardsmen. Danyn had obviously learned some caution from the crack of gunfire and his compatriot’s pained shouts. He stuck his head around the corner, and immediately pulled back, too fast for even Aonar’s Feruchemically enhanced reflexes to make the shot, if he’d been trying. The bullet embedded itself in the wall of a building, a few inches away from where his head had been. If Danyn was smart, he’d rush forward now, while Aonar had to reload. While he could load a rifle faster than any unenhanced Scadrian, and more quickly than a good few of the metalborn, he was still vulnerable. But of course, he wouldn’t. Aonar knew that. Setting down his rifle, he drew one of his Sterrions, keeping it low, and stalked forward. When the guardsman stuck his head around the corner again, Aonar waited. Gaining confidence, Danyn raised his sword. A relieved grin played about his features. “Not so dangerous without that strange fabrial, eh?” Aonar stayed quiet. Unnerved but resolute, the guardsman feinted forwards, and then brought his sword down in a vertical slash. Sidestepping easily with the grace afforded by zinc and steel, Aonar brought his pistol up… and down again, cracking him across the temple, putting him out cold. Turning away, he retrieved his rifle and set off at a calm walk for the meeting place, secure in the knowledge that for once, he’d done something right. ----------------- Aonar was standing in the ballroom, unnoticed, storing aluminium and duralumin. He walked, practically invisible, up to Lord Hobbes, ignoring the chaos as Ash, Kae and Cleo arrived. If I'd know that Wilson would start a rusting cult, I never would have saved her, he thought, shaking his head. With a practiced motion, he tapped steel and placed a folded note into Lord Hobbes' pocket. With luck, he wouldn't notice until Aonar was long gone. The note read: Hobbes, I can't intervene, not yet. Don't bother looking for me, I'll be gone long before you read this. I do have a plan, however.... I believe it's time for someone to come up with a brilliant plan, seeing how we've done basically nothing this cycle, and have almost no info to work with. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like that's going to happen. So here's a mediocre one, in the mean time. Assumptions: (Which have been confirmed by Joe.) -Endowment knows the identity of all Shardholders, just not which Shards they have. -If Odium is for some reason incapable of using his actions, then the Eliminators will be incapable of killing. -Ruin-Invested Sharders can prevent Shards from using their actions. Plan: Alright. So there's been some debate about revealing roles, and first day lynching. While I would agree, I think I've found a better way. So here's the plan. If every (or even most) Shards come forwards (with their role, as well as the fact that they're a Shard), it'll be pretty easy to tell who's who, since Endowment has a list of all of them. Worst comes to worst, we'll have a couple Inactive Shards that Odium will hide among, but true inactives will be fairly easy to differentiate from regular inactives after a cycle or two. Nothing bad so far, although it will make the Shards briefly vulnerable. The key here though, is that once we've found Odium, we cannot kill him. Once we've found him, we have to keep him locked down with Ruin's Investiture, removing the Eliminator's greatest weapon, their Night Kill. Like this we can easily ferret out his Champions, without the pressure of that constant night kill. Problems: Ruin needs to survive for this to work. This means that Honour, or one of the Lifeless Operators will need to be protecting him. The other Shards will be vulnerable every cycle that Odium remains on the loose. Agreeing to this plan is going to put all of you at an incredible risk, as if even a few of you are inactive, it could be more than a couple cycles before we get Odium locked down. However, if the plan works, we could guarantee a win before the game even really gets going. So, what do you think? It's not the greatest plan, and it's quite the gamble, but if we pull it off, it could decide the game here and now.

At first, it seemed a gift like no other. I used my power foolishly, changing little things, of no consequence. I learned to play the violin, as I had always wanted. I made myself wise, or so I believed. I taught myself as much as I could, of science and realmatics, of religion, of the Cosmere, of other worlds, of wondrous places beyond description. Soon, however, things changed. ------------------- The now-familiar disorientation came, the juxtaposition of memory and reality. Holding on to the feeling of cold metal under his fingertips, he plunged into the memories within… Aonar stood in his study, playing a thoughtful melody on his violin. He wanted to do something, anything. He’d already made the changes he needed to make, but he wished he could do something more. The dark wood-paneled walls appeared to loom over him. Despite winter’s chill, the small fireplace seemed to put out an uncomfortable amount of heat. That man, Relat, had shaken him. He had all this power, but he so very rarely used it for others. Sure, Aonar had saved a few that he didn’t have to. But people like Relat, people he’d hurt, he never gave a thought to. A voice came from downstairs. “Do you plan on coming down, dear?” Memory overwhelmed him. Shrieking, blood, gunshots; Relat, fleeing from the scene of a botched murder. Aonar shivered. He wanted nothing more than to rid himself of those memories. But he couldn’t, not yet. “I’ll be down in just a minute, Liah.” As he loosened his bow and set about packing up his violin, Aonar's eyes caught on the short note he’d received earlier. He read it one more time. Aonar, Odium is stirring. All the Sharders are gathering. Hoid is nowhere to be found. Come quickly. ~Second After a moment’s consideration, Aonar crumpled the paper and chucked it into the fire, before heading downstairs. He wouldn’t be able to stay out of the conflict forever, but for now, he had other places to be. Aonar will be on Scadrial, for now, anyways.

Gamma: Nightblood might not be involved, but somehow I get the feeling (S)Laughter most definitely will be...

In this very RP, actually. Definitely something I can agree with. I've got a whole document folder on my computer labeled, "Utter Crem I Will Never Show to Anyone." This folder has slowly started to stop expanding, but there's still the odd thing that makes its way in there. He looks pretty cool. I'd like to ask a couple clarifications though (aside from what's already been mentioned). 1. How the heck did someone this powerful end up working for the Panda? While the Panda has more versatile powers, nothing he can do would give him a real hold over Siren, what with being able to kill anything within earshot, and all. 2. Can he affect someone physically incapable of hearing? Or perhaps someone draining the kinetic energy from the air around him before it hits his eardrums, perchance? (Totally not just asking to see if Frostfire could take him down. )

Drafting (Lightbringer) Privileged (Powder Mage) Powder Mages (Ditto) Knacked (Ditto) Bending (The Last Avatar) Furycrafting (Codex Alera) Channelling (Wheel of Time) Extra Credit: Sympathy Naming Sygaldry Alchemy Grammarie Glamourie (This and the above, all from the Kingkiller Chronicles.) Without looking it up, name at least six non-magical protagonists from Brandon Sanderson's books (they have to spend at least one full book without any sort of magical powers to count).

Interesting. Okay. That's good to know. For the most part, there's nothing that contradicts what's actually been written so far (or at least, not badly enough to break WSoD), I'll just have to mess around a little with how I run his character. Thanks.

No, not yet, unfortunately. The local bookstore doesn't have it, and told me they wouldn't get it if they ordered it until February. I've heard that lots of assumed canon about Epics, weaknesses and the like has changed, but I've been trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to avoid spoilers. So far, I've just been guessing and hoping nothing I've written/planned runs too contrary to the stuff revealed in Firefight.

Just come up with a name for your character, and a general description/RP if you want to. The roles are going to be assigned by the GM once the game starts.

And Frostfire likes it, for exactly that reason. It tends to disconcert other Epics, and put vanillas off their guard. In terms of him referring to himself, it depends. Usually, they're pretty well interchangeable, but depending on the situation, he often uses one far more than the other. In the convoy, surrounded by vanillas and having not used his power for several days, he's going to identify far more strongly as Ethan. While he is using his powers fairly heavily, fighting, angry, etc., he refers to himself as Frostfire almost exclusively. If you want to, you could look at it as a particular quirk of the instability generated by his corruption.

First Frostfire post is up! Reader is (for now, anyways) free from the pandas. What do you think?

His feet tapping out a steady rhythm on the back of his truck, Ethan Mitchell felt himself growing restless. The caravan heading to the Dalles was unfortunately slow moving. He wanted to let loose, to run, to fight, to be doing anything but sitting around waiting. If he started now, he could cover the remaining miles in less than a half hour. Walking. But no. He’d offered his protection to these people, and judging by the towering column of smoke on the horizon, they would need it before long. For all that had apparently been done to make the Dalles a haven for Epics and vanillas alike, it seemed to be becoming a more dangerous place by the day. He still wasn’t certain that he believed all the rumours. A city where Epics worked alongside vanillas? Where no one had to fear every day that some random dictator would swoop in and take over? If he didn’t know better, he would have assumed them to be a foolish vanilla’s fancy. Most did, if they knew of them at all. Even though he didn’t have much to fear from Epics anymore, the idea intrigued him. It certainly sounded more comfortable than the near-constant running and fighting he’d been doing since he’d gained his powers. A shout came from further up the line. “The scouts are back!” Finally. Jumping down, Ethan set off jogging towards the front, determined to be the first to know what was going on. The scouting party appeared a little surprised by his rapid arrival. “What did you find?” Ethan asked, impatient. “Um… Pandas, sir.” Kayla was the one who spoke. She was the only person to actually volunteer for scouting the Dalles, and was one of the few vanillas he’d met who wasn’t completely terrified by him. Ethan blinked, trying to process what he’d just heard. “…Pandas?” “Yeah. Massive white and black bears, all over the place.” “Attacking the town?” He asked, incredulous. “Yup. Weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.” Kayla said, looking nearly as confused as he felt. He glanced back at the convoy for a moment. Ah, screw it. I have to see this for myself. They’ll be fine for now. Without a word, Ethan set off running again. The trees blurred bast, and it wasn’t long before the sounds of battle began to filter through. He broke out of the treeline to find himself right on the edge of the camp that was sieging the Dalles. It was exactly as they’d said. The piebald ursines, and a variety of other animals, were everywhere, although the camp itself seemed far emptier than he’d been led to expect; the squat buildings were quiet and lifeless. Hmm. Perhaps they’ve launched a dedicated attack? A flicker of movement drew is attention. A group of pandas was exiting one of the nearby buildings. They surrounded a man, – no, an Epic – bound and hooded, who they were slowly prodding forwards. Curious, Ethan moved closer, trying to get a better view. As Ethan tried to observe the proceedings, one of the panda-guards noticed him; drawing its head up and squinting, before nocking an arrow. Like a switch had being flicked inside his head, Ethan’s thoughts changed. A wide grin broke out on his face. This is going to be fun. The bear loosed its arrow. With the strange sixth sense that came with his powers, Frostfire could feel every minute shift in the arrow’s velocity. Casually, he reached up and plucked it from the air. He studied it with intense interest for a moment, twirling it between his fingers before it shattered into a hundred icy shards. The beast got over its shock quickly, loosing another arrow. This time, Frostfire stepped forwards to meet it. The head touched his chest and froze, hanging in the air for one impossible moment, before falling. He gave a dismissive gesture, and an invisible wave of force erupted from his fingers. The panda fell, clutching its throat as red blood blossomed underneath its fur. By now, the panda’s companions had noticed the disturbance. Frostfire concentrated for a moment, drawing in all the energy nearby. Darkness engulfed his body, every feature obscured by shadow. Hoarfrost spread across the ground at his feet, and trails of mist slowly dripped from his hands. Gesturing broadly, he threw the excess heat into the nearest building. It caught fire easily, orange tongues of flame eagerly licking at the dry wood. One particularly brave – or stupid – panda charged at him, leveling a wooden spear. Frostfire looked on in contempt as the spear struck, and shattered against his skin. He lashed out with one hand, lightly tapping the panda’s head. It keeled over backwards, fur crackling with ice. Picking another of the bears at random, he lazily pointed it out, a spear of heat leaping from his fingers, warping the air with its passage. The ursine instantly caught fire, filling the air with the stench of burning fur. Almost as one, the pandas broke, fleeing for the other side of the camp. Frostfire’s lip curled in distaste. Cowards. But he had done what he set out to do. He walked up to the Epic, shadow leaching from his skin. The Epic didn’t look particularly, well, Epic-like, that was for sure. Skinny, well dressed, but very dishevelled, he looked more like a down-on-his-luck businessman than anything. If it weren’t for the energy coming off him, Ethan probably wouldn’t have looked twice. He pulled his hood off the other man’s head and stepped back. After giving him a moment to adjust to the light, Ethan started talking. “Hello. The name’s Frostfire, or Ethan, if you prefer,” he said. “What can you tell me about the Dalles?”

The doorbell was ringing. Nilan Izenry waited, hoping against hope that whoever it was would go away. The bell continued to ring. Slowly, he pushed himself out of his armchair. Whoever it was should know better than to disturb him at a time like this. The rusting bell was still ringing. “I’m coming!” Nilan yelled. Mercifully, the bell stopped. He reached the door and pulled it open. “What do you want?” The slight, well-dressed man who had so persistently rang the doorbell proffered something in his hands. “This is for you, sir.” Confused, Nilan took it. The item appeared to be a thin, leather bound notebook, with ostentatious gold ornamentation. “Good day, sir.” The man turned and left without another word. That was… strange. He took the book back inside, and sat down again on his armchair. Intrigued, he flipped the book open, and began to read. Nilan, Have you ever wondered what it would be like? To move through time like a bird through the air, to live a thousand years, hundreds of lifetimes; to gain all that knowledge and experience? To be able to go back, to change anything, everything, you’ve ever done? I didn’t have to wonder. The Shard offered me a chance few ever get. The power to change time. -------------------------------------- It was raining in Elendel as Aonar Izenry contemplated murder. His prey knelt in the darkened alley, hands behind his head. A faint wisp of stormlight leaked from a bullet wound in his side. Aonar stood behind him, the barrel of his rifle almost touching the other man’s clasped hands. It would be by no means the first time he’d killed. With his skills, and his line of work, it was an activity he had been forced to do far more times than he would have liked. But as Aonar stood, looking down at the man before him, his resolve wavered. He’d never met this man. He had no idea who he was, or why he’d done what he had. What does it matter? All the grief and pain he’s caused me, all the deaths he’s orchestrated… He deserves to be put down. But why? Why has he devoted his life to this? What could I have possibly done? All the things he took from me… All my ancestors slaughtered, my father, Liah… What could have driven someone to that? “Who are you?” The other man began to laugh silently, his whole body trembling. “Me? Oh, you wouldn’t know me. I’ve never been particularly important. Never even left Kholinar before the Seventeenth Shard noticed me.” “So you’re just another flunky then, sent to kill a ‘traitor?’ And you decided to go the extra mile to impress Khriss, right? Destroy my entire storming life while you’re at it? Ha.” Aonar cocked his rifle and steadied his aim. It was exactly as he’d thought. This man was nothing more than a dog to be put down. “Danyn Relat.” The man spoke quietly, but to Aonar’s tin-enhanced ears, the two words seemed to hold a lifetime’s worth of sorrow. “What?” “That was his name. My son. My only family. A darkeyed guard, trying to keep some order in Kholinar during the riots. He was just doing his job. But he never had a chance, did he?” Aonar’s hands started to shake as he attempted to keep his gun straight. “…No. No he didn’t.” “At first, I was tempted to forgive you. You were doing your job too, after all. But I never forgot. When you cropped up again, slaughtering other Sharders, my new family… Justice needed to be served.” Relat dropped his hands, standing and turning towards Aonar. “You can kill me now. You’ve already taken everything from me. Now, I can finally rest, knowing that I’ve shown you at least some small part of what you’ve given me.” His rifle fell, clattering against the asphalt. Aonar stood quietly for a moment; the rain soaking into his clothes. Carefully, he removed his metalminds and kicked them away. Shivering without the warmth of brass, near blind without the clarity of tin, and defenceless without gold’s healing, he turned his back and walked away, into the night. Aonar Izenry is returning once again. His story is going to follow a slightly different track this time, however... (Actually kinda glad sign-ups were delayed. Now I can post my first RP with the sign ups for once! ) Joe: Shards don't necessarily have to be safe roles. Assuming an AU, it's quite possible that some of the Shardholders have personalities fairly closely aligned to Odium's. (If you felt like getting real technical, this probably wouldn't be true for all the Shards, as some would have contradictory Intents, but it works well enough.)

^: First things that come to mind for me are telepathy/hypnosis and precognition. That would definitely be a cool combination. Good for a more political, behind-the-scenes sort of character. Nice. It's pretty good. I'd keep the first person narration. It's a little different from most of what's in here, but you do a really good job with it. (I'm crap at writing first person, myself. ) To try out the red: I've been PMing with Jain, and the current plan is for Frostfire to intercept the pandas escorting Reader. Are you good with that, mail-mi? (The RP won't be ready for a while yet anyways, but I figure I may as well check.)

Dalles Characters: Astoria Characters: Under Construction: (Anyone can take these, if they like.)

Yeah, although right now I'm thinking that he isn't fully aware of everything he can do. A meeting between him and Edgerunner or MV would probably be interesting, I think. It seems like everybody's pretty well good with Frostfire's power-set? If so, I'll post a slightly more detailed version to the Epics of Oregon thread, PM his weakness off to TwiLyght and try to think up a place to introduce him into the thread. (Probably tomorrow, though, as it's pretty late right now.) ...Speaking of introducing him to the thread, Jain, roughly how many pandas are left in the camp now that they've started a dedicated attack? Pandas would probably make good fodder for playing around with Frostfire's powers, and wouldn't be a bad place to start.

There's a limit on his heat transfer. It gets exponentially harder to remove energy from things as they get colder. For example, at room temperature, for an object on the upper end of his range for size* (something like a cubic meter) Frostfire usually only gains enough heat to light a few things on fire. I wouldn't even know where to start with exact calculations, but it'll just say that past about -20/30* C, it gets impractically difficult to lower the temperature of the object in question, even though he could theoretically make it much colder. *(Seeing how the Earth is technically an object, and contains an incredible amount of heat, I needed to limit this somehow. If he attempts to drain energy from an object larger than a cubic meter, heat is only actually drained from the immediate area he is touching, with a range of about a cubic meter.)

Thanks. I might well end up going with Frostfire. It depends a lot on what exactly he's transferring. The way it's working in my head right now, it's not instantaneous transfer, but it's not exactly easy to see, either. Kinetic energy would appear similar to the momentum twins, powers (ie, as not much of anything, until it struck it's target). Frostfire would be able to trace it's path through the air due to the nature of his gifts, but most people wouldn't. Light/heat/electricity would be a little more visible. Probably just as a warping in the air, (like a heat mirage) as some of the energy is lost over the intervening distance. Think of it more as Steelheart's energy beams I guess, just not quite as flashy.

... So, erm, sorry to interrupt, but how does one go about joining this thing? (Aside from posting and asking to join and all.) This RP looks really awesome. I have a couple ideas for Epics, and, (thanks to the very helpful summary posts a little ways back) pretty well understand what's going on in the Dalles. However, I have two(-ish) problems. I'm having difficulty thinking up a suitably pretentious and self-important name, and I'm wondering whether or not I should add more limitations on the powers of the Epic I'm thinking of running. At the moment, he's not super-powerful (it's not like he can level city block or anything) he can just do a crap ton of stuff, with clever applications of the one ability. (I'm not sure exactly where to introduce him into the thread either, as depending on who he met and when he met them, he could fall on pretty well any side. This can come later, however.) Anyways onto a (relatively) brief description: What do you guys think?

...Forgery is primarily Spiritual? My mind is too blown to try and come up with a cohesive response at the moment. That seriously makes no sense to me. I always assumed that it was the conflict between it's physical state and Spiritual Aspect that generated the whole "plausibility" mechanic, and the actual physical change was due to a more Cognitive interaction. Unless we start assuming that a Spiritual Apsect includes not only what something is, but also everything something was, could have been, and could be, then it seems downright contradictory to how it's described in TES... This definitely needs some more thought. (Unless there's already been a thread about this? I don't check the theory boards often enough anymore to really be up-to-date.) However, back on topic for the moment. Yeah, the healing one was kinda a non-sequitur, and with Savants I did mean that they retained their Savantism when not burning, and their Savantism had effects on them even when not burning metals. With the third, I basically meant that Soulcastings don't wear out like Forgeries. If you Soulcast poison out of someone's blood, it stays that way, where if you Forge someone into having not been poisoned the Seal has be renewed constantly. With Returned, I was trying to imply a parallel between renewing Forgeries and the Returned feeding on Breath. The change, (in this case from being dead to being alive) requires a constant infusion of Investiture to sustain itself. I would expect that a change on a Spiritual level to result in a more permanent bond between body and soul. Before the weirdness with Forgeries being Spiritual came up, I would have posited that this requirement was driven by the same "plausibility" mechanism that limits Forging. I.E., the Spiritual Aspect tells the rest of the Returned that it should be dead, while the Cognitive Aspect stubbornly maintains that it's alive, and requires x amount of Investiture every so often to override the Spiritual. Atium Ferrings were just conjecture, (and bad conjecture at that; now that it's a more reasonable time, even I'm not really sure what I was trying to imply here) and seeing how my whole argument might be built off a faulty premise, it's probably best ignoring for now. "Is," and "should be," were oversimplifications. The Spiritual Aspect is an Ideal state, but it's also a record of all the connections between oneself, others and the environment, and these connections influence the Ideal state. While Lopen's Ideal state has two arms, it isn't a seven foot tall minor deity, because that isn't what Lopen is. However, Lopen might think of himself as one. (Where the should be comes in. Returned think of themselves and are thought of as being perfect and divine, and so should be, even if they aren't really.) I think we're close to being on the same page; (although that quote about Forgery being Spiritual is really messing with me) I'm just doing a terrible job explaining myself. (It probably doesn't help that both times I've tried so far it's been two in the morning. )

Sorry about the two week delay there. :/ With family business and the like over the holidays, I’ve really had no time for the Shard. Anyways: Yeah, you're probably right there. The whole thing looked a lot longer when I was writing it out. It might well be possible that we just haven't seen someone use a destructive Command, but somehow this seems wrong to me. I forgot about that quote, although I do believe my other reasoning still holds merit. (Although I obviously need to better explain myself.) On to your second bit. Becoming closer to divinity, more like Endowment. This is fine. Even though we really have no clue what exactly this means, it works, and the various effects of Breath likely do relate to this. (The actual wording of the quote seems to be more vague than you're suggesting, though. In fact, to me, Brandon’s phrasing, “the idea of being Endowed by deity,” sounds more Cognitive than Spiritual.) However, there looks to be more to it. To quote Warbreaker: (Pg. 58-59) As we can see here, Breaths seem to innately endow some Aspect of humanity upon what it Invests. (I maintain that Cognitive makes the most sense, I'll try to explain it better below.) You could argue that this is the same thing as being Endowed by deity, but why should that force the object into a form that is recognizable as human? Notably, it mimics muscles and bones in the way it moves, pretending to require them. This is the greatest real evidence that destructive Commands will not take the same form as the ones we see normally. For some reason, Breath seems to need to use elements of the human form in its action, and humans have a tendency not to tear themselves apart or spontaneously combust. (Although the second is apparently disputed. ) We don't know how much Breath is constrained by this, but it is clearly involved somehow in how they function. I’d propose that Breath is primarily Cognitive rather than Spiritual, simply because it seems to me that Spiritual Aspects define what something is while Cognitive Aspects define what something should be. To elaborate: Things that affect the Spiritual Realm seem to have decidedly permanent effects. Wounds do not reopen due to a lack of Stormlight. Savants do not lose their increased powers when they stop burning metals. Soulcasted stone does not change back into air when the Soulcaster leaves. The Cognitive Realm has rather temporary effects. Forgeries revert back to their original state unless renewed. Atium Ferrings return to their original age when they stop tapping. Returned die when they lose their Divine Breath/run out of Breath to consume. The reason the effects of Breath seem to have more permanence than other Cognitively based effects, is that Breath is rarely consumed. Breath remains within it host, giving an illusion of lasting change, while in reality, it is dependent upon the Breath it holds. The only problems with this are Divine Breath healing, and memory-changing. However, (getting back to my original theory here) I would propose that these effects consume Breath, and use this consumed Investiture to enact a Spiritual change, rather than a Cognitive one. (Looking back over what I wrote in the OP, I realize I somehow managed to never really explain this.) Once it's no longer the wee hours of the morning, and I've gotten some proper rest, I'll try to rework the OP and add some of the clarifications from this post. Any thoughts, now that I've explained myself a little better?

[Warning: This is a little long, and not as well cited or clearly organized as I'd like it to be. Its about 1000 words long, so each of the major sections is getting it's own spoiler. If you don't feel like reading a short (but rambling) essay, feel free to skip down to the tl;dr section below. I happen to be writing this at 2:00 AM, so when I say rambling and poorly organized, I mean it.] What is an Acceptable Command? I’m going to start this off with a question. Do we have any criteria by which to judge an “acceptable” Command? I’ve been wondering this for a while, personally, and I haven’t been able to find much about it. All Commands we see, (or hear of) in the book deal with motion (standard Awakened objects/Lifeless) or cognition (Lifeless/Nightblood-class objects/Returned/Heightenings/whatever weird Command wipes memory). This strikes me as a little strange. I mean, it seems completely arbitrary. Breaths seem to be able to do two things; provide energy, and affect cognition/the Cognitive Realm in various ways. The question is: What limits these interactions? Why can’t an Awakener tell cloth to combust, or stone to shatter? These things are still both just energy, simply expressed in different ways. Why should Breaths be limited to providing mechanical energy? The most obvious reason is that doing these things would render the Breath unrecoverable. However, we do know that Breath can be consumed in certain circumstances. Returned do it, as do Type IVs. I would also speculate that whatever Command removes memory involves Breath being consumed. It seems to me that BioChromatic expressions* which cause change** are the ones which consume Breath. Why Breath Behaves the Way it Does: The reason for this, I believe, relates to the differing effects of Breath upon sapient and non-sapient entities. In inanimate objects, Breath must be given purpose when it is bestowed upon an object. This Breath then carries out its purpose, and, where it can, reshapes its host to a humanoid form. In sapient entities, Breath seems to be purposeless. It is given, and left undirected. However, while in this dormant state, the Breath is still acting. Its purpose (or intent, if you prefer) seems to be shaped by the Cognitive Aspect of its host. Reduced aging, increased health, lifesense, all related to an expanding and reinforcing of the Cognitive Aspect. By all appearances, Breath seems to be a primarily Cognitive Investiture,*** and holding it forces your Physical and Cognitive Aspects into line with each other. (Similar to how Stormlight forces the Physical and Spiritual Aspects into line.****) Note here, that the Breath seems to be superimposing a human Cognitive Aspect upon non-human objects. The Breath itself appears to hold a definite Cognitive Aspect, and this generates many of the effects we see. Its peculiar “stickiness,” the passive effects of the Heightenings, and the fact that it likes to mimic life wherever possible. Change Verses Augmentation, and the Cognitive Aspect of Breath: Now, back to the question at hand. What decides whether or not a Command can be used? It seems to me that the visualization for Commands is in some way limited by what it can do with a human Cognitive Aspect. Inhabiting mammalian corpses, animating the inanimate, bestowing sentience, removing memories, healing. All things that would make sense for a human Cognitive Aspect to do (with a touch of Endowment’s Investiture, of course). On to the next logical question. Is there any way to work around this? As a primarily Cognitive Investiture (as defined by Chaos) Awakening should be innately flexible. So, I would like to draw attention to the last two things we know of that Awakening can do. Removing memories, and healing. While they do fit under the framework I’ve laid out, they’re a bit of an anomaly. Why should Breath be able to remove memories, or heal, and how does it do so? These are some of BioChroma’s few uses that really input a permanent change in an object (excluding the colour that is used as fuel). The changes which occur in all known BioChromatic constructs are reversible with the transfer of Breath. (With the partial exception of Returned. While giving away their Breath does kill them, they still retain their augmented forms, and seem to hold on to more of their Cognitive Aspect when dead than your average Joe.) We know that Returned healings are permanent, and memory wipes strike me like they would be somewhere along the same vein. As I speculated above, it seems that the consumption of Breath is related to a permanent, powerful change, as opposed to simple augmentation. I think with the right visualization, with the right Commands, it might be possible to derive more expansive and powerful effects from Awakening. Tl;dr: Basically, there should be undiscovered Commands that have more varied and powerful effects in exchange for the consumption of Breath. The primary reason that they have not been discovered is that they are non-intuitive, and require more difficult visualization, as Breaths appear to be somehow tied to human Cognitive/Spiritual Aspects. There also might be an alternate framework for Awakening mechanics in there somewhere. Now, I know my logic is a little sketchy in places, and I ramble on for a bit that I likely could have explained far more concisely and tied in for better, but other than that, what do you think? Any ways I could make this clearer and flesh it out better? Footnotes:

Similarly to you, Meta, I ended up deciding that I value my own short term survival more than the group's long term survival. Unlike you, my fears appeared to be unfounded. (Still trying to decide whether this was a good or a bad thing.) Anyways, don't think I can't see what you've been doing, Meta. Last cycle, with your list assessing the probabilities of people lying about going to the Cornucopia. You're drawing attention to people you want dead, while simultaneously implanting the suggestion that you and yours (I would assume that you and Gamma are in contact?) are helpful, honest and harmless. Now, you're doing much of the same. Making a neigh-on unverifiable claim (I'll admit, I made the same one, and you have no reason to trust me, but you also have no reason to trust him), calling out people you'd no doubt enjoy seeing dead, and ingratiating yourself with the community. (Notably, you're directing the group's ill-will towards others for the same reason it should turn towards you. You seem to be expecting yourself to avoid our ire simply because you were the first one to have the opportunity to say, "Sorry I didn't go along with the plan, please don't kill me.") We all know that you're no less ruthless or conniving than the rest of us, yet you're going to a lot of effort to paint yourself as something you're not. I really wouldn't be surprised to learn that you were responsible for one of the deaths yesterday. I will say this, though. I do plan to be killing Mutts tonight. If your numbers don't add up, then it'll probably be because I'm dead. Or maybe because you killed me?