18th Shard

Introduce yourself! 8 17th Shard Discussion 1 The Coppermind Wiki 8 General Brandon Discussion 10 Events and Signings 10 Interview Database 10 Cosmere Theories 10 Mistborn 2 Elantris and Emperor's Soul 10 Warbreaker 8 Cosmere Short Stories 10 The Reckoners 10 (includes both Firefight and Calamity boards) The Rithmatist 10 Alcatraz 10 Other Stories 10 (includes Skin Deep board) The Wheel of Time 10 Writing Excuses 8 Reading Excuses 14 TWG Archive 8 General Discussion 10 AMAs 7 Entertainment Discussion 12 Tech Discussion 4 Creator's Corner 10 (includes Sanderson Fan Fiction board) Role Playing 10 (includes Inactive RPs) Mistborn: The Inquisition 10 Social Groups, Clans, and Guilds 9 Reckoners RPG 20

I had the awesomest dream last night. (You can tell when I have been paying way too much attention to the Reckonerverse when this kind of thing happens ). The government had made a device that somehow made a altered!Reckonerverse real by capturing Brandon Sanderson and hooking him up to this machine that actualized his imagination of the Reckoners world, but only what he'd written down. However, they made him write a general into an Epic who could control any corrupted Epics. They then subdued all the Epics in America, causing a giant military coup and they took over much of the world. Brandon managed to write that members of the RP could switch between any of the Epics they wrote at will, and when they died, all of their Epics got released to fulfill their dying wish. There was a bunch of fighting, but mail-mi turned into Timeport and transported Voidus and I into the future (slowly) where Voidus used the powers of Metronome to get all of the enemy Epics and allies who had survived in one place. Then Phoenix was revealed to also be Firefight, Megan's dimensional double in this parallel universe, so when Megan summoned him, he convinced her to come back to our dimension. Then she pulled out a dimensional double of Voidus, who got killed, and his legions of Epics overwhelmed the enemy so we won. On a less crazy note: After Blackhoof gets up his Iconoclast post, Phoenix will escape surveillance. I have this post ready, most of the way, so after that he will be free for Insight to pick up, Comatose. Also, would Insight ever go after Jumpdrive? I was imagining Jumpdrive's memories popping up, and how weird that would be for a non-Jumpdrive observer. Jumpdrive does it all the time, so it wouldn't be weird to him, but it would be like watching a memory and having videos, sound clips, photos, an imaginary AI, and text boxes pop up in your field of vision. It would be like watching a comic book in real life. Edit: Oh and Blackhoof, if you want to add Sidestep into the list of deceased Corvallis Epics on the Easter Eggs, that'd be cool. He is only mentioned as one that died to Iconoclast's attack by Jumpdrive. I imagined him as having the ability to step out of the way of anything he sees coming.

Introduce yourself! 8 17th Shard Discussion 1 The Coppermind Wiki 8 General Brandon Discussion 10 Events and Signings 10 Interview Database 10 Cosmere Theories 10 Mistborn 2 Elantris and Emperor's Soul 10 Warbreaker 8 Cosmere Short Stories 10 The Reckoners 10 (includes both Firefight and Calamity boards) The Rithmatist 10 Alcatraz 10 Other Stories 10 (includes Skin Deep board) The Wheel of Time 10 Writing Excuses 8 Reading Excuses 17 TWG Archive 8 General Discussion 10 AMAs 7 Entertainment Discussion 12 Tech Discussion 4 Creator's Corner 10 (includes Sanderson Fan Fiction board) Role Playing 10 (includes Inactive RPs) Mistborn: The Inquisition 10 Reckoners RPG 20 - Represent! Social Groups, Clans, and Guilds 9

verus est. Blackhoof, phoenix is at crystal lake apatments in corvallis.

Eh, Epic powers are rarely unique. Not sure on his weakness yet; I'm looking at something that measures speed like a speedometer or a speed gun.

I had an idea for a Salem Epic, Voidus (loosely based on the Zeno in the AMA thread I mentioned): Paradox. His powers fulfill paradoxes: first up, Zeno's Paradox: Anything that would harm Paradox automatically slows down to half its velocity, change in countdown timer, time effective, etc, when it gets halfway to him, recursively. Hence, a bullet fired at Paradox takes an infinite time to reach him, moving slower and slower as they near him. As a second power related to this paradox, he can teleport (bullets traveling from two distances at the same speed take the same time to reach him; hence, the two distances are the same. Second, in fulfillment of the arrow paradox, he can stop any object's motion by touch. Thirdly, no one can catch him.

Welcome back Winter and welcome Quiver! On a completely unrelated note, I have decided that Jumpdrive has like 5 vanillas working for him - though they have a super easy job, as they really just set up cameras on those rare days he feels like changing things. As far as Sentry goes, Jumpdrive actually wouldn't care that much. He would just write some program that automatically blurs her face on the screens in his control room, and ignore her as much as possible. He would probably keep a rolled up picture of her face that he occasionally yells at if she gets super annoying, and avoid having multiple copters near her - don't want to be able to prevent her untimely death if someone else gets annoyed, right?

Jumpdrive pulled up the feeds from all over the city of the creatures that had attacked, then added them to the file. It already contained accounts and video of the incident at the Sports Field, notes from tests on the subject's tissues and other anatomical changes that occurred in their ... changing. He downloaded it all to his phone, sending the file to Buttercup's mobile as requested. He turned back to the video of this Insight, watching as he materialized, leaving a lotus and then again, killing the Ogress. He can hide in plain sight. He froze it and played it back frame-by-frame. Unfortunately, the copter had been to far away to get a good shot. Jumpdrive smirked as he remembered all the movies 'enlarging and enhancing' pictures. You can't do that - one pixel will only show one pixel, regardless of how much you zoom in. However, he did get a few measurements on Insight - a rough height and probable weight, a few very basic descriptors. He began running it through his mental dossier, comparing it to citizen records. He also began running through records of incorporeal Epics, though most like Nightwielder in Newcago turned into something when incorporeal - very few were completely invisible and intangible. Of those, even fewer could carry objects while that way. Insight had a very unique power set, but there wasn't any record of him. He texted a picture of Insight, as best a picture as he could manage, as well as several notes about similar power sets he'd found in other records, to Rainmaker. Then he called Knighthawk. He needed more cameras, lots more. He'd find these Epics. He just needed special cameras. A couple in infrared and ultraviolet, a few of the super tiny ones he'd wanted for a while, and maybe he could get a deal if he sent over some of Ogress's tissue. Then he sat back in his swiveling chair and ordered a pizza. Then he texted one of the training sergeants. Maybe he should learn to use the pistol he was supposed to carry around. He had a feeling that his firewall wouldn't stop him from being kidnapped like Euphoria.

True. Do we know where we are going? Also, just asked the following. I call the answer to number one!

Official Sanderfan - First RAFO on the AMA. Anyone want to get a direction on where we want Corvallis to go? We seem to have forgotten Converter. Edit: Gonna get some reckoners questions in, I promise.

This one was mine. Time to start a theory.

Maybe connect the two magic systems somehow - one has people who can enhance their physical, mental, and internal characteristics, and one that has water that enhances people's physical, mental, and speed/agility. Maybe make a new Sunblessed that is healed by the water, and a new Ts/Daron kind that enhances speed/agility at the expense of... something. Hmmm, immune system strength? hydration? Anyways, somehow one group absorbs energy from Sunblessed water, and one directly from the Sun, but the second lose something when they do so. Or they can all do the above, but many don't know about Sunwater. This allows you to geographically bring them together, maybe have them accidentally interact. Just some ideas. See what fits your head!canon.

Nope, all wrong. It's from what actually happened, not a nightmare. His nightmare still has it but it's consistent in both.

Yeah, but Jumpdrive is a full half of my characters!

I like it. By the way, you have enough information to guess Jumpdrive's weakness. Let the guessing commence!

Three years ago Alex opened the door as quietly as possible. His mom probably wasn't home - she should be at work for another three hours at least, and his dad wouldn't remember him being home even if he did see Alex. He turned past the stairs, cringing as the door creaked, and breathed a sigh of relief as no one came out. He walked toward his room carefully, pausing as he saw a light on his dad's room. Probably forgot to turn the light off. He opened the door quietly, stopping as he saw his dad sitting straight up in bed, staring at a photo album, a piece of paper in his lap. His dad turned, "Who are you? What are you doing in my house?!" Reaching to the bed next to him, his dad pulled up the pistol his mom always kept at her bedside, hand shaking. "What do you want? I don't have any money. Get out of my house!" Alex started backing out the door slowly, but his dad stood up, following him with the gun. "Where do you think you're going? The police aren't here yet." The front door creaked open behind Alex, his mom coming in from work. She froze, looking between her husband and her son. "David, put the gun down. You don't want to shoot your own son." "He's not my son! What are you, his accomplice! Stay back both of you," his dad shouted, gun switching to point at his wife. "David, please put the gun down," she said, taking a step toward him. "No," screamed Alex's father, pulling the trigger, gun still pointed at his wife. Alex watched, eyes wide, horror screaming inside his heart, but no words escaping his mouth, as his mother stumbled back, a dark stain spreading across her green blouse. It seemed like time was moving slower, Alex's mind taking in everything, the photographic memory he had had since birth recording this moment in exact detail. His mind numb, he sank to his knees as the couple in the house next door raced in. He sat there, staring at his mother's blood pooling on the floor as they called the police, as his father realized what he'd done, as police carefully helped his father back to his room. He sat there, that horrible scene playing over and over and over in his mind, like someone had hit repeat and he couldn't seem to turn it off. Present Day Jumpdrive tossed in his sleep, his mother's death playing in his mind over and over again. Each time, he tried to warn her, jump in the way, push his dad, something, before that moment, each time failing as the bullet embedded itself in her chest. Only this time it was different, this time the gun was pointed at her face, bullet changing to small wooden stakes, plunging into her eyeballs, killing his mother, ruining her life, with a figure half his dad and half ghost staring with sightless eyes at the woman spilling her lifeblood on the ground - Jumpdrive started awake, gasping, grabbing for the comfort of his control panel, something solid, real. He waited for his racing heart to calm down. "Jumpdrive, Rainmaker wants you to look over the following items. Also, the beast-people that attacked earlier are slaughtering Epics all over." Locator's calm voice cut through the chaos of his nightmares. Jumpdrive wondered if it was a subconscious desire for his mom to be alive that had given Locator his mother's features. Looking over the files Rainmaker had sent, he smiled, amused that he'd already seen it. Rainmaker had probably known just how much he tracked the Queens, and sent him the message just to say he was allowed to look into it. Probably. Turning to the other matter, the bestial berserkers [had a nice alliterative quality, should put that in the Archives], Jumpdrive tallied dead Epics. Pyrotouch, Blackthorn, Sidestep: all in all too many. He'd had his suspicions about the Epic that was causing this; Jumpdrive assumed he could manipulate flesh or use mind control, perhaps influence neural receptors of his targets. Any of those ways was practically impossible to track: the Epic could either change himself to avoid facial scans, or be acting completely invisiblely on any spectra Jumpdrive could detect. He frowned, and sent a helicopter camera toward where the attackers had started coming from. Probably a useless gesture, but it felt better than doing nothing.

Yeah, Blackhoof, if Iconclast could attack there that'd be great.

I'm back in town!

The thing I don't like with having your mind filling in details is Edge's problem above. Maybe make it so there is always some way to tell something is wrong (ex. all illusions have a dark blue shadow instead of normal), or have your mind reject completely implausible illusions?

My question is more of what your brain would imagine without the direct illusion. So if there is an illusion of lava, but the Epic doesn't create a perception of heat, would your mind do so anyways?

Well, he did say he wanted a powerful Epic. Changing perceptions is all in your head, but how much would your mind create? If he thinks is arm is twisted backward, would his mind create pain sensations? If he is illusioned over lava, would you feel hot, regardless of actual temperatures?

This Epic would need to concentrate a ton though - imagine 'creating' a wall on a sunny day. You would have to create a visual of a wall and its shadow, sounds of any object 'hitting' it like leaves/bugs/wind, and the feeling of the wall and any wind being blocked for each person you are showing it to. And the wall isn't moving, changing, bending, etc. And that's assuming no one tries to lean something on the wall, nothing goes through it, no one runs into it, or someone stands in its 'shadow' and notices the heat is the same. That's not to mention any other illusions he's making. And Comatose, I mentioned the Queens moving to another part of the park in Jumpdrive's POV, though I can change that if necessary. The idea was that they weren't close enough to interfere, but close enough to still be in the general area.

I'm a Mormon. I follow the tenets of my faith and believe the doctrine I have learned since I was a child. That isn't important to me as an indicator of my faith. I see many times people (not implying that any here, merely people I know personally) say that X religion is what you believe because you have been taught that. And while that is true for some people, I personally choose every day to believe as I do. I personally choose each day to live my life in accordance with what I have been taught because I know without a shred of doubt in my mind, that it is true. That may be a bold statement, that I know, but I do. People can know things falsely, but that doesn't change the fact that for that person, truth is what they know. Regardless of whether you believe that knowledge to be valid, I know from personal revelation that Jesus is my Savior. Whether or not you choose to believe he is your Savior is up to you. However, I believe in agency as well. Defined in Mormon terminology as the free will to choose your actions and attitudes (though not the consequences of said actions), agency is the most precious gift we have been given. It is the gift to grow, to choose who we are. And I value every person in this thread's decision to choose to use that agency to be a better person. Because I believe God doesn't judge us on what we have said, done, or professed, but on who we are, and every one of you is a better person because of what you believe. I believe in a perfect God, who knows that your life is different from mine and thus your experience and knowledge are different than mine, and he will give every person an opportunity to decide in the afterlife whether or not what they believed/worshiped is actually my God. I love C.S. Lewis's Narnia books, and I believe that what he had Aslan do in the Last Battle is similar to what Christ will do in the Final Judgement: he accepted that one honest Calormen (I forget his name) because though he worshiped Tash, he worshiped him as a true believer would Aslan. @Chaos and others: I understand that math doesn't imply a why, that it doesn't show love. And that is fine. Math and religion go hand in hand - math is the who, the how, the what, the when. Religion supplies the why. Math is the law of the physical realm, religion the law of the spirit. Edit: As to whether God determines morality, I would say no. God does not make something moral. However, the God I believe in is perfect, and follows and expects his children to follow such a perfect moral law. God tells us morals that exist outside of him.

Twi's Epic Weakness. What is the headcount of Voidus's Epics? See, I have a theory - because of the Epic Zeno [of my invention unless Voidus already made him], to count Voidus's Epics, you must count all that he had currently created. In that time, he will have created more, which you must then count, during which he will make more, and thus never reach the end of his Epics. Because of Zeno, advanced math doesn't work on it.

Phoenix struggled in the darkness, the void consuming him, the darkness burning his very essence. He was burning, always burning, consumed, yet still on fire, his flesh devoured by tongues of lightless flames. A small orange flame ignited above his chest, tiny and insignificant compared to his pain, but he stared at it. The darkness receded around the flame, blazing bonfires erupting, pushing back the dark. Phoenix yelled, sensations returning to his senses, the night sky gleaming above him. Phoenix looked around at the charred circle around him, the startled guards drawing guns, the beautiful life and light around his ashes. He breathed deeply and held out both hands, a column of white-hot flames surrounding him, cocooning him from the dangers outside. A gunshot went off, but the bullet melted away, the metal droplets falling over the ground. Phoenix turned in a circle, searching for a way out. He spun, looking at the puppet-like guards. They continued to fire bullets ineffectually at him, metal splashing on the ground. Can't get out, gotta leave. I won't be killed again, I won't. Phoenix glanced at the energy Epic restrained, then turned away. As he held out both hands, the column flared, expanding to nearly double its size, burning so bright it was hard to look at. Singeing guards and trees alike, it morphed into a figure that roughly resembled him, holding a flaming sword. "Die, humans!" Phoenix screamed, then turned and ran, hoping against hope that the giant, flaming him would distract them. It swung its massive sword as he jumped behind a tree, then ran for his life. Fortunately, he had run track in college. He ran as fast as he could, adrenaline pushing his feet over the rough ground into the trees, guards scrambling behind to find where he'd gone. Phoenix sprinted into an apartment complex, stopping behind an old man opening his door. Phoenix grabbed the elderly man, wrenching the key from his hand, burning the man into thin air with his offhand. He twisted the key, slamming the door behind him. Safe, for now, he heaved in relief. Jumpdrive leaned back in his chair, careful to keep his bare feet on the ports below. His office in the Valley Library basement had a new floor-to-ceiling screen on one side and several massive, high tech hard drives on the other. Remote controls for scores of toy helicopters, cars and bugs that he had placed all over the city sat on the third wall, each labeled in order. Wires coiled around the walls and floor, connecting every device to his computer desk, the flatscreen on the fourth wall displaying a single video at half-time. Information streamed into his mind in tiny 0s and 1s, recording the spy cameras' footage from all over the city, but the footage in front of him held his attention. He hit the replay button, slowing the movie down to quarter speed. "Legolas clearly miscounted, he clearly killed two Orcs with that arrow - he should be tied with Gimli at this point." Opening the proper folder in the Corvallis Archives, Jumpdrive added the new entry onto the note, then closed the file. He spun back toward the large screenwall, looking at the field where Epics had attacked earlier. The Queens had moved earlier to the far side of the park - no point in discussing what to do with enemy Epics nearby. "Still nothing," he sighed, boredom evident on his face. "Pretty lame fire Epic, no prime invincibility or healing. And this energy Epic seems contained pretty well. No way she can burn through tungsten - it's melting point is like 6191 degrees Fahrenheit. Wikipedia said that tungsten was a hard, rare metal under standard conditions when uncombined, tungsten is found naturally on Earth only in chemical compounds. It was identified as a new element in 1781, and first isolated as a metal in 1783. The free element is remarkable for its robustness, especially the fact that it has the highest melting point of all the elements. Also remarkable is its high density of 19.3 times that of water, comparable to that of uranium and gold, and much higher (about 1.7 times) than that of lead. I should probably check to see if it's been changed though. I might be wrong." Jumpdrive shuddered. Nothing was worse than outdated information - well, almost nothing. There was that pesky weakness, which - suddenly, the fire Epic's ashes burst into orange flames, flames that formed into a human figure in a massive explosion, then a column of fire absorbing the bullets the Mannequins fired. "And nevermind, he's got reincarnation. Phoenix, fire, reincarnation - should have known better. There goes my afternoon." Then the column burst even brighter, frying the camera. Jumpdrive spun his chair over to his remote wall - man, this chair is great - and grabbed a remote for a helicopter with an infrared scanner. It flew over the field, but there was nothing. "Where could he have gone?" Jumpdrive mused, helicopter flying by the ashes on the ground. Sir, someone escaped from the column of fire, a woman's voice sounded in his ear. Locator, his personal AI hallucination, hovered over his shoulder. "What?!" Jumpdrive said. "Replay the video feed, I wasn't paying attention." Locator nodded, and Jumpdrive closed his eyes, imagining that his eyelids were tiny projector screens. The video feed he'd been recording played in his mind. Jumpdrive watched as the last footage from the burnt camera played in his mind. "Hold it," he said, and the video paused. Jumpdrive carefully zoomed in on the column where a dark shape was making its way out the back side. He tried to enhance the image, but the flames interfered with any clear image. He sat back in his chair, studying the image. He's running toward the treeline, but he's got to hide somewhere. Jumpdrive mentally opened his files on nearby residents, then called the police. "Please check each house and register who is in there. Send me the photos of each resident in the area when you're done." Jumpdrive opened his dossier of known facts on Phoenix and added "Reincarnator", then leaned back and waited for the police to finish their searches. It was going to be a long night.