Two McMillion

What if Szeth was sent to assassinate the Lord Ruler?

Do we know if blade can be destroyed?

I think the above makes sense if you need to account for 100 shardblades, certainly. But personally I think all of the radiants abandoned their blades, meaning we must account for nearly a thousand. Your explanation seems much less likely for that number. However, it's possible that a large number of blades could be hidden among the Shin. We don't know enough to say for sure at this point, but that could be a place for them.

I'm not sure that would be nearly as easy as you think, dyring. To play the role, it's not just a matter of having supernatural powers- there are certain things you have to do in order to qualify for the position. Qualifications, as it were. The Abrahamic religions already have a model for the appearance of a person with supernatural powers who doesn't meet the requirements in the character of the Antichrist. I doubt that identification would help much. You might be better off starting your own religion, and waiting a few generations for your immortality to convince people. Assuming science doesn't make everyone else immortal so you're no longer special.

I've heard it discussed and assumed on the forums many times before that the Honorblades are/were more powerful than ordinary Shardblades. Now the thing is, Shardblades are already pretty powerful, at least from a sword perspective. It would be really have to have a better sword than a Shardblade. This got me wondering what exactly it might mean if the Honorblades are more powerful. One option is that they might be able to slice through ordinary Shardblades. I don't like this option, because the fights will be less dramatic. Another option might be that they can cut through Plate more easily than normal Blades. I suspect this is true, but if that's all there is to it, it would be rather lackluster. Which brings me to my idea. There were ten Heralds, and ten orders of the KR, each associated with a Herald. It isn't much of a stretch to suspect that the Heralds probably had the powers associated with their order. It also isn't much of a stretch to suppose that the Heralds were probably more powerful than the ordinary KR. It is commonly believed that Shardblades are stored in the spiritual realm when not in use. This means that taking up a Shardblade alters your spiritweb in some way. And what else alters your spiritweb? Having magic. Once again, it isn't much of a stretch to guess that it might be possible for a Blade to alter your spiritweb in more substantial ways. I believe this is what makes the Honorblades more powerful. They alter your spiritweb to bring you more in alignment with the Radiant the blade belongs to. If you're a KR, you become more powerful. If you're not a KR, what happens? There's been speculation that Szeth has a Honorblade. We know he has at least some of the powers of a Windrunner, yet does not have a spren. I believe this is the explanation: Szeth indeed has an Honorblade, the blade of the Herald associated with the Windrunners. His taking up the Honorblade altered his spiritweb and gave him his powers. This is why he has no spren, and perhaps not the complete set of abilities. This would also explain why it was the act of leaving their Blades in the ground that was so significant to the Heralds- they were literally giving up all (or almost all) of the power that made them special. Thoughts?

Indeed, historically, Christianity's view of God as being not merely a humanlike being with tremendous power but something entirely different altogether is very unusual. If we lived in Ancient Greece or Scandinavia, we might not have any conception of the concept of "God" as the latter at all. So it's interesting that Vorrinism seems to have a conception of the Almighty being much more like Yahweh than Zeus. That would not have been common for a culture on Earth. I wonder if Adonalsium was yet against a humanlike being with tremendous power, or if he was tilted more towards the Yahweh side of things. A bigger and better shard, or something truly Almighty?

To a certain extent, I sympathize with the problem Robert Jordan must have had with finding applications for channeling. Unless he'd come up with every single effect that was possible before beginning the series, it would have been difficult to completely think everything through that was used. And I don't think Jordan was the kind of writer to chart all that out beforehand. If you introduce a new effect in book 10, you have to explain why it wasn't used when it would have been useful in book 6. Remembering an old weave and coming up with a new use for it is no doubt a difficult thing. And yet I wonder if it isn't more realistic this way. Sure, we're mostly powergamers and optimizers here, but think of all your friends and relatives who aren't. Can't you imagine them using a single weave the same way over and over again and not exploring it? I think I could. Remember, too, that Rand and pals are from a place where there are no video games or RPGs to teach us this stuff. I think we'd have an enormous advantage with any magical powers we found we had, just because of the time and culture we live in. The WoT crew didn't have that benefit.

Would it truly be necessary for an immediate and bloody takeover? I mean, you're going to live for a while, you can afford to take some time to do so. The other thing is that, while modern weapons would probably be able to kill you, I doubt you'd be going at it alone. With the help of emotional allomancy, you can be at the head of a larger movement. And if Hemalurgy works, too, you need not be the only superhuman in it... (Couldn't use Hemalurgy to grant Allomantic or Feruchemical abilities, of course, but you could steal the attributes of ordinary humans with it.)

Yeah, it's interesting to think about. I mean, I had assumed that if Honor had presented himself to Jasnah and announced, "I am the Almighty" (whether or not it's a true statement about his level of power, he was apparently perfectly willing to accept the title) that she would believe in him, but upon consideration it's more complicated than that. I can see her response being, "Really? Prove it." And while Honor was no doubt able to accomplish quite a lot, really, how does one go about proving they are almighty rather than simply very powerful? Food for thought for sure. The Shin Elders, perhaps? Look what they did to Szeth...

I will try, and will likely fail. But even so, this will be fun!

I actually like the idea of Balefire. An unblockable attack with potentially terrible consequences if used can be a great tension increase. Still, there were times when it did the exact opposite, like when Be'lal was built up to be this massive threat before being unceremoniously balefired by Moiraine a couple sentences after he appeared on the page.

I'll be very interested in seeing where Jasnah's beliefs go, given we more or less know she's wrong and the Almighty exists (or did).

I actually think it would be cool to be an Elantrian, assuming I could get the power to work here on Earth. Immortal, incredible variety of power and very abusable. Sure, we don't know about all the modifiers and such, but we know enough as a starting point to learn. But for power with the smallest learning curve, Feruchemy might be the way to go. Never fail a test again!

I've now read the first eight chapters. My biggest concern thus far is the repetition that occurred there. I feel that one or the other of the wings or acid sequences could be deleted without changing much in the book. Once is great- it introduces the characters, gets us to understand this world a little better, but twice where basically the same things happen? My suggestion would be to make the first two days more unique, or cut one of them. There's no reason Allen couldn't be on the early bus two chapters earlier. The main weakness so far seems to be worldbuilding. I'm having a hard time visualizing how a world where the curse happens is operating. Is it just this town, or is it everywhere in the world? If it's just in this town, why aren't there reporters, gawkers, and tourists everywhere? The way the adults treat the curse also puzzles me. As you have it now, it seems they're fully aware of it but just ignore it. It feels like they should at least acknowledge what's happening, even if they adopt a long-suffering attitude. I think it would be better if something like the Mist from Percy Jackson was at play- it would be more believable if they just couldn't see what was happening. This wouldn't affect their behavior thus far very much, but would help me understand what was going on more. Of course, you may have aspects that come in later to explain all this, but those are my impressions as they stand now, take them as you will. Throwing out my guess for the ending right now:

I feel intimidated already.

The last line: Is the last word intended to be "soured" (what it is now) or "soared"? Soared would make a lot more sense. The main thing that confused me here was the character mentioned "Christendom", which made me think it was something like historical fiction. But then we had the issue of the phoenix feather and fairy glass, so it doesn't seem like it could be HF. For the rest of the piece I was a little distracted trying to figure that one out. Any time you mention "phoenix feather" someone is going to think of Harry Potter, and I doubt there's a way around it. I didn't share Hal's despair when that feather failed to help, though, because it hadn't been built up enough. It would probably be better if you added Hal thinking more about how the phoenix feather is his only hope. I'm not really sure what was significant about him using his hair in the arrow- this might have made more sense if we understood the magic a bit more rigorously. It seemed like it was about hope or something, but it was a little hard to understand why his hair was significant that way. I think Feathers is a fine title, personally.

I'd be interesting in seeing this if possible, Mandamon.

I just got around to reading this. It was interesting. Had it been the first chapter of a novel, I would have kept reading. However, as a piece that tries to stand on its own, I don't find it particularly engaging. We're drawn in with hints of a potentially interesting world and mythology, which is something that in a novel I am willing to wait on. I am less willing to wait for them in a short story. If you set something up in a short story, there has to be a payout there. It is intriguing to see the main character make what seems the counter-intuitive choice (take the lashes), but we're not given enough time to see what this choice means. I think the piece would have been better with some time to explore this a little more. I wasn't aware jinni were thought to be vulnerable to iron like western fae are. Minor nitpick: On the second page, there is a comma missing in the protagonist's first line of dialogue.

Soulstone, IMO, is probably the same stuff as Soapstone in the real world, which is easy to carve at first but becomes hard when heated. This doesn't necessarily mean it can't be Devotion's body, though- Sanderson has said that Atium is made up of atoms like ordinary metal is, but wrapped up in spiritual stuff that makes it special. I suppose this makes it possible that Atium, were it to be brought to our world, would be recognized as an ordinary elemental metal from the periodic table. In the same way, Soulstone might still be ordinary Soapstone, but with spiritual stuff in it. A bigger issue is that unlike Lerasium and Atium, Soulstone is apparently not named after a person.

Bold added... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I wouldn't mind this IRL.

Okay, fair point. *sigh* This just makes me want the next book more!

If that's the case, it seems like the Windrunners ought to have at least one more ability. Sharing two abilities with an adjacent order and one with another doesn't seem really symmetrical. Plus, given how Sanderson's magic works, I would expect each surge to grant the same number of abilities, rather than some giving one, some giving two, etc. This makes the Windrunners' possession of three abilities kind of odd, though. Perhaps each grants one ability, each shared with an adjacent order, and then the two combine to grant a third ability, unique to each order? Not sure which one of the Windrunners abilities this might be, though... I've always thought it odd that some surges seem significantly less powerful than others. Gravity is a powerful thing. Pressure? Not so much, IMO.

I liked how this story was written, but it was a few pages of interesting stuff and then it fizzled. I think the problem here is what others have said, that there's no real weight to what Pyrus chose to do. In the modern world, we're extremely used to doing our own thing and not thinking ourselves beholden to spirits or higher powers. In many ways, that's alien to our thinking. Thus, at the beginning, where Pyrus feels an obligation to perform the sacrifices, the story is more interesting, because it's further from our experience. The fear and terror of being beholden to a spiritual power is not something most of us have experienced. Walking away from the idea is. Thus, the story suffered for it. This is why the mythic treatment authors such as Stephen King and Neil Gaiman give the modern world is so powerful- it puts us in a place we're not used to being from a place that we think is familiar. This story did the opposite. I assume the infection came from the cat scratches and the omnipresent germs that exist without modern cleaning techniques, but this wasn't clear. A minor nitpick: In the second sentence, either change "pressing" to "pressed", or link the first sentence and this one together (linking would be better, IMO).

Hello again, everyone! Well, I'd send another Peter Endor excerpt, but you guys have convinced me that needs a quite a bit more work. So, instead, I am sending a short piece I wrote a while ago, about, well, lizard men. A bit of background. This began as the following draw of decktet cards: The goal was to write a short piece incorporating these elements that managed to have both plot and character development- in 500 words or less. Well, I didn't quite end up with less than 500 words (it's 632 words), but I do hope it will be an interesting read all the same. Thanks for reading and commenting! - Two McMillion