ccstat

On 6/17/2017 at 10:29 PM, Extesian said:

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A:The way I have written dragons in the Cosmere… ALL dragons are naturally functionally immortal. They can be killed, but they don’t age.

I feel like this is more solid confirmation than we previously had? Maybe not. But still confuses me when read next to the line in The Letter "Though, as you are now essentially immortal". Why only 'now'? Unless it refers to an inability for Frost to even be killed now, but as we know he's not a Shardholder, I remain confused.

There are a lot of things it could mean, but my thought on reading it was that perhaps people can become dragons, and Frost hasn't always been one. 

I'm not sure how this jives with the little we know about the three Yolish races, but Brandon has said recently that dragons can assume human form. Perhaps that interconversion is more than a mimic of shape?

According to the map, @Nya Ellir is also in Cape Town. Not sure if that's the friend you already know or not.

(Also, just FYI, I've been updating the map weekly when somebody else doesn't beat me to it. All new posts are being taken care of!)

Probably not. 

According to his travel history, he's only been to Reno once before, and that was for a convention in 2011. The last time he toured to Las Vegas for a book release was 2009, so he's not very likely to have a stop near you this year. 

Yeah, I knew including the word Dawnchant would get me in trouble. I used it because it is the only pre-WoK language we have a name for, not because it was a likely option compared to intermediate scripts. I'll go ahead and edit it out of the previous post.

I can tell you aren't convinced, but I still think the text is hinting at a language discrepancy at the root of the misunderstanding, rather than poor penmanship or unfamiliar glyphs.

One thing I don't really follow/agree with is the argument that the glyphs are sloppy because Renarin isn't good at writing.

On 10/10/2015 at 10:00 PM, FeatherWriter (Alyx) said:

Sloppy lines, unpracticed at drawing glyphs. Renarin is not used to writing. He also might have been fighting against the complusion to write as he did it.

Glyphs are allowed for men, and he reads just fine. We have seen him attracted to scholarly pursuits, and I would find it surprising if he didn't excel in this area of personal interest. Yes, he feels ashamed enough that he refuses to pursue it, but if he didn't know he was good at it I doubt it would be the same temptation. Feather's suggestion that Renarin was fighting the compulsion is possible, but I don't buy it. In fact, I don't think the glyphs are poorly-drawn at all. Here is the quote from Rushu.

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 “Ah,” said Rushu— a young female ardent with long eyelashes and buttonlike lips. “Look at the sloppy lines! The improper symmetry. Whoever did this is not practiced with drawing glyphs.They almost spelled death wrong — it looks more like ‘broken.’ And the meaning is vague. Death follows? Or is it ‘follow death’? Or Sixty-Two Days of Death and Following? Glyphs are imprecise.”

Hmm... 'broken.' As in "Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns." A glyph that looks mostly like 'death' but also a lot like 'broken,' and written in a sentence that doesn't convey a clear meaning in modern Vorin grammar? We know that Dalinar speaks ancient languages during his visions--I thought it strongly hinted here that Renarin was writing in an ancient language, one from which modern glyphs are derived. It makes great sense that an early glyph for Odium would later evolve into both 'broken' and 'death,' giving the translation Rushu provides.

On the topic of the visions themselves, I find it quite logical that the surges accessed by Truthwatchers would work together to create visions (illumination) of possible futures (progression). Depending on how you interpret "Resonance" you are free to apply that term to this interaction, but I wouldn't call it that--it's not in the same class as the mnemonic perk of Lightweavers, for example. Just as the three Windrunner lashings are a combination of their two surges, I believe that future-sight is one of several forms of truthwatching, arising naturally from the combination of surges. The Vorin prohibition on predicting the future is not enough for me to discount it as a Radiant ability, especially since Cultivation is stated to be better at it than Honor--and Truthwatchers are on the (theorized) Cultivation side of the KR chart.

With that perspective, though, I do agree that Renarin's visions are fundamentally different from those that a standard Truthwatcher would experience. Feather makes a great case, and the involuntary nature in particular makes me agree with the others here who say his Nahel bond is being hijacked by something external.

8 hours ago, Djarskublar said:

If Ashravan became an Awakener, could Gaotona use the Emperor's stamp to Forge himself enough to withdraw Breaths from things Ashravan has awakened?

I really like this line of questioning. As an intermediate data point, it could be useful to ask whether Shai's various incarnations (Shaizan, etc.) could recover each other's breath.  This answer is most likely yes, but it would help establish a baseline for the tolerances for dissimilarity.

On 4/14/2017 at 1:20 AM, axcellence said:

"I had instruction"; Shouldn't it be "I had instructions" or "I had an instruction" or "I've had Instruction (capitalise to denote an individual)" or "I've had the instruction"?

English is my 2nd language, so I just want to check

As@Jondesu said, it is correct as written. Your proposed version is also correct, but the meaning is a little different.  If Dalinar "had instructions" then he had a list or recipe to follow, a directions of how to make it work. If instead he "had instruction" as in the quote, then Kaladin spent time teaching him what to do. 

Does that make sense? 

I'm sure you will get lots of suggestions from everyone's personal lists (mine is here) but my recommendation is to look over the questions that got answered in the most recent events in Boston, Poland, Bulgaria, and Germany. Odds are you will find some that spark follow-up questions of your own, and you can be reasonably certain you are working with up-to-date knowledge.

I will add that the link Ecthelion posted has a map to give a visual sense of where 17S members are located. In addition, this map of Brandon's tour stops gives a picture of where the publisher thinks his fans are (weighted for locations that are easier/cheaper to send him).

FYI, I ended up using the official design I received from Chaos (which matches the site design and color scheme), rather than the one I made above. If I get approval, I'll post that file here. Either way, I am sure you can get the file from Chaos if you want it.

I printed them double sided at Staples, and got 1000 for $25. It turns out half that many would have been about right for a three day mid-sized con, but doubling up to 1000 was only $5 more so I figured better safe than sorry. So now I have enough left over for all the future events I get to. :-)

Great song, but I can't imagine that taking the midnight chull is ever a pleasant prospect. (Or that it would take you very far.)

Updated.

1 hour ago, Firerust the Terris Gyorn said:

If I could give this another upvote, I could, because this is storming awesome. Unfortunately, I've reached my limit for today.

Thanks, I'm glad you like it!

You may want to check out the updated version linked in my signature. (also here)

Hmm, you may be right. The great circle at Nebrask is drawn very thick, which suggests to my mind that the thickness does something worthwhile beyond simple durability in the elements. I also had in mind that the chapter with the visit to the crime scene, where Fitch has the workmen with shovels break through the LoF, mentioned the thickness of the line mattering. However, looking up all the occurrences of "forbiddance" in the ebook doesn't turn up any reference to the thickness of the line mattering except one reference to how high the barrier becomes. There are three mentions that how well-drawn it is matters (not specifically how straight, but that may be assumed.) 

It still makes sense to me that the thickness would influence the ability of chalklings to get through it, since there is more line there to attack, but I guess I don't have a textual reference to support that assumption.

While the event these questions were gathered for took place in February, this thread is still a good place to suggest more questions and discuss them. That event is actually where the spiritual-realm-entity WoB came from. Report is here. 

Regarding #1 we have theories but no WoB. The main proposals are: that bind points must be marked explicitly, or that the intent of the Rithmatist when drawing it sets the type of circle, and later changes (even if geometrically valid) can't alter the initial determination.

For #3 we know from the books that the thickness of a LoF influences not only the strength & height of the projected barrier, but also the ability of the line to resist chalking or LoV attacks. So even though it is likely possible to make tiny lines of Forbiddance, it is hard to imagine a situation where that would be useful -- certainly not in a duel.

Yeah, I had trouble deciding which subforum this belonged in. I'm happy to have it moved if Events would be better.

2 hours ago, Pagerunner said:

For missing info, take a look at this page. 

Thanks! I wouldn't have thought to check Theoryland. TGS tour is now entered.

I was curious about where Brandon's book tours usually take him, and got a bit carried away with tracking it. I've pulled all of the event info I could find and compiled it into a spreadsheet and a map. Conventions are noted as stars, to distinguish them from regular signings.

The biggest conclusion I came to was Shadows, this man travels all the time! How can he possibly write anything? 

Since 2006 he has attended 60+ conventions, in addition to all of the book tours and other signings each year. Perhaps not surprisingly, the majority of his book tours hit the same cities (and bookstores) over and over. I guess those are where Tor and Gollancz like to send their people? He has also attended SDCC and Jordancon many times, so he's been to San Diego 14 times for signings, and Atlanta 9, the most events anywhere farther than an hour from his house (i.e. excluding Provo and Salt Lake City).

At the moment, there isn't an easy way to see all of the markers for the same location, since they overlay one another. So if the location you are interested in says Brandon has been there multiple times, you can check the spreadsheet to see when each of the visits occurred and for which tours or conventions.

I'm sure I've missed some things. The biggest hole is his 2009 tour for A Memory of Light, which I couldn't find listed anywhere. If you have a correction or addition, I'm happy to fix it. I have not made any effort to combine or separate markers that are in different addresses or townships in a larger metropolitan area--everything is located simply by the city noted. Event info came from Brandon's past blog entries, Tor.com announcements, and 17S event reports. (Brandon's event page purges past events, so it was no help.)

53 minutes ago, The Honor Spren said:

@ccstat I sent the mod-access-thing. Hopefully it works.

Everything works. I went ahead and added the stragglers who had posted in the other thread, and I'll see about getting it unpinned.

42 minutes ago, Left said:

Nope, I don't feel comfortable posting my hometown online. 

Does that mean you don't want to be on the map at all, or do you want to be added in Generic, Ohio?

3 hours ago, kenod said:

So, if I understand it correctly, we have two threads doing this, but for both of them the OP hasn't updated the post in a long time?

That's correct**. This thread is the more current of the two, but it hasn't been updated since June (9 months ago). 

Someone tried summoning @The Young Bard a while ago, but didn't get a response. Let's try summoning the other map mods and see what we get. Our best bet is probably @The Honor Spren as she is the most active here. The others are @Curious Anamaximder and @firstRainbowRose. Rose is an admin and quite busy, but I know she'll see this eventually if one of the others doesn't get to it first. 

Note to the map mod: I am willing to volunteer as another map moderator if that would be helpful. My email is my user name at gmail.com.

**Originally, the Geotracking thread (now locked but still pinned for some reason) was intended to be for refinements/corrections of map locations. The primary locations were taken from the Master List. When the owners of the first list and map stopped updating, Young Bard stepped in to recreate it and wisely added additional moderators so that we wouldn't get stuck again. While new members continue to post there, The Master List hasn't seen an update since before this thread was created. Since neither @Aether and @Quitecontrary have logged in for over a year, I think it's appropriate to request an admin to unpin (and possibly lock?) the other threads. But I will wait to do that until we get an update processed for this list.

My take has been that the girl transferred her memories to Vasher. She gave him a small piece of her Breath that had those memories attached to it. This is speculation on my part, but it fits the text and it matches with what we know of Nalthian magic, which is all about giving things away.

Here are the relevant passages in Warbreaker.

Vasher and the girl, chapter 49

Vasher and Denth, chapter 57:

Don't forget the annual Tarachin tournament. There are three student leagues you can sign up for, with games throughout the year. Those games do help seed the final brackets, but anyone can challenge into the "sweet sixteen".

Last year's tournament drew large crowds when freshman William Ann Montaine defeated the reigning champion in the first round! She didn't place first overall in the tournament, but she did give a strong showing, and she's heading up the informal practice league. So if any of the incoming class want to learn from a talented young player, that is a club you ought to consider.

On 3/17/2017 at 2:59 AM, Pattern said:

Assuming the lashings effect the center of mass like steel-pushes or iron-pulls in allomancy, opposite forces just cancel each other, so you would not be ripped apart. Might be that surgebinding is a bit more variable in use, so if you imagined the lashings right you could lash the head in one direction (attachment of force in heads center of mass) and the torso in the other direction.

The comparison to allomancy is useful. Most allomancers are only able to push or pull against an object's center of mass, but very skilled or experienced ones (Kelsier, primarily) have demonstrated the ability to push/pull on individual parts of an object to apply torque or to refine their aim. I suspect lashing is similar: the default is center-of-mass only, but with enough practice you could learn to accomplish more intricate feats.

One allomancy correction, though (very minor Mistborn spoiler):

Against my better judgement, I will add to the beauty-of-female-characters discussion.

The most important thing to remember is that physical beauty is highly subjective and derives from both cultural and individual expectations. That whole "eye of the beholder" thing. @king of nowhere is right to pay attention to who is describing whom. Also, presentation (e.g. Vin vs Valette) is a big part of how those beholders form their impressions.

I will add that my personal impression of some of the mentioned characters differs markedly from the previous post. (In particular, Vin, Shallan, and Ranette). So the reader brings their own set of biases to layer on the narrative.

In my experience of real-world relationships, I've found that beauty tends generally to increase with the amount of time you spend with someone. So it should come as no surprise to us when after investing time and emotion into a book and character they feel beautiful to us. (Especially when that character is the vehicle for some of our own wish-fulfillment of using incredible magic, overcoming impossible odds, and visiting amazing locations.) 

Aside: in listing cosmere characters for this purpose, don't forget about Silence Montaine and her girls (from Threnody), or Vathi (from Sixth of the Dusk). Those are from shorter, less epic works, so different rules may apply to generating heroines, but none of them are described as stunning.

To @maxal's good points about what naysayers see against the cover: yes, this is a very classic fantasy cover that doesn't really move forward. But that's primarily because Michael Whelan pretty much defined the classic cover. I agree that seeing only the front cover rather than the whole image puts Jasnah very much in the foreground, when a strength of at least the WoK cover was the emphasis on the storm. It doesn't help that Brandon's name covers up so much of the artwork that isn't Jasnah. That makes sense for marketing, and we all want this to make money, but from a judge-the-cover perspective I think it would help widen the focus if the title and author didn't need to be thunderclast size.

I'm glad they got Whelan to do another "making of" post for the reveal. I particularly love the in-process 'value study', which feels even more dynamic than the final version:

Okay, I guess I missed that. Thanks for the correction.

I thought Brandon had continued to be cagey on this point.