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Theoretical Impressions

Kurkistan

By Kurkistan
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Kurkistan

Kurkistan

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As the title indicates, this is a thread for people to just post their first thoughts and impressions on worldbuilding. We have theory threads popping up like mushrooms, but I think there's value in everyone just throwing down everything that struck them and then we can arrive at a faster gestalt as a community, rather than accidentally fixating on one or two details and missing the forest for that one particularly interesting tree.

 

So, mine:

 

Lift: (copied from a PM right after I first read it, for authenticity's sake)

That is a This post has been reported for attempting to skirt the rules-ton of new info. Like, some fundamentally enlightening info. And Cultivation is the same person as Nightwatcher, and we got 2 new surges and an oath, and everyone has a Shardblade, and rival Surgebinders need those creature things to drain stormlight, meaning you can't steal it conventionally, and ... *brain shuts down*

 

Shadows of Self:

Nothing Realmatically new that I can see, unless Tan used Southern tech to come back to life or something. Some new worldbuilding info on Scadrial's development and society, as well as Elendel.

 

Legion:

Looks interesting enough, but non-Cosmere, so let's table it for the moment.

 

Sixth of Dusk:

Hmm. Very very interesting. Temporal abilities are usually "related directly to the pure essence of a Shard or to a Splinter," but I'll apply an Electrum veto on this one. In fact, new theory (yes, I'm breaking the implicit rules that I wrote): Temporal abilities are uniquely Shardic except for your own future (/past?), as seen with first Allomantic electrum and now this bird.

 

Besides that, I'm mostly just waiting on more of the story. The creatures seem to detect Cognitive activity, though I suppose it could also be Spiritual, with a damper!Bird acting exactly like a Smoker...

 

---

 

And now it's your turn! No theories, if you can help yourself. Just throw everything that you noticed out there for public consumption.

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Argent

Argent

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"GODS BELOW, SO MUCH INFORMATIONZ!" was pretty much my reaction to Lift's chapter too. Juicy, exciting information... Many implications. I naturally find myself wanting to see more of her - though I confess it's mostly because I now associated Lift with realmatic knowledge. She is a fun and interesting character to read about, but I am selfish and I want her for her brains :P

 

I am guilty at not being as thrilled about the other unlockables. Legion was, as I expected, a colossal amount of fun. Sixth of the Dusk... I feel weird about it. I think I need to see more cosmere from it before I say I like it. Shadows of Self did contain the seeds of an interesting theory - one I must credit @Krazeemee for. His (?) first PM to me outlines it quite nicely:

 

So, when reading the piece from shadows of self, I noticed a little something, and I'm wondering if anyone else caught it.
 
At the end of the first chapter, Wax sees Bloody Tan, who he knew was dead, as he shot him in the face. He is confused and wonders if he actually saw Bloody Tan, or if he was slowly going crazy. This would have been alright (to me) except that I remembered in Alloy of Law (page 157) there was an article in the Elendel Daily (the little interludes scattered throughout the book) and I quote
"'The Faceless Immortals Saved My Life!' A women in the Fifth Octant suffered a harrowing experience when a fire broke out in her tenement. She and her children were saved by a shadowy figure SHE SWORE WAS WEARING THE FACE OF HER DEPARTED HUSBAND... yada, yada, yada."
So, dead people coming back to life, eh?

 

Ultimately, I was persuaded that there is at a decent chance that there is a kandra roaming the streets of Elendel, doing... seemingly random things. 

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Shardlet

Shardlet

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IDK, it seems a skilled kandra could work around broken face bones by stitching pieces together with muscle and tissue on the inside of the skull so that it doesn't show up on the outside.  Broken arm or leg would not work because those are load bearing bones, per se.  but skull and face is pretty much cosmetic for a kandra, neh?

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Windrunner

Windrunner

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The broken bones thing is an interesting question. You'd almost certainly think that Kel broke a few bones when TLR slapped him hard enough to demolish half his face, but OreSeur and TenSoon seem to be able to still create a normal looking human being from those bones.

 

I am very excited for Sixth of the Dusk, but a new cosmere story always makes me excited. I'm very interested in the source of power for the investiture on this world.

 

What did you guys think of the santhid? I think it looks pretty sweet, I've missed Shallan's sketches. It's actually the new background on my phone right now...

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skaa

skaa

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The thing I liked most about Lift's Interlude (in terms of theory-making) is that we see Lift using three Body Focuses. First, she uses her body's fat reserves (Oil) to produce Stormlight. Then she channels Growth and Friction Surges through her Flesh, similar to how Windrunners can channel Gravity and Pressure Surges to another object via skin contact. Finally, she uses Exhalation to channel Regrowth. This fits perfectly with my previous musings about how the Body Focuses (and the Essences in general) are connected to Surgebinding.

 

As for Shadows of Self, it seems that whatever that Bloody Tan-lookalike was, it also has Bloody Tan's tremendous "luck". Do we have WoB that Tan was a Spinner? If so, then I don't think this is a kandra using Tan's corpse since I don't think kandra can copy a person's powers. It's more likely that Bloody Tan used Hemalurgy somehow to obtain Gold Compounding before Wax got to him in the previous book.

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Oudeis

Oudeis

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As for Shadows of Self, it seems that whatever that Bloody Tan-lookalike was, it also has Bloody Tan's tremendous "luck". Do we have WoB that Tan was a Spinner? If so, then I don't think this is a kandra using Tan's corpse since I don't think kandra can copy a person's powers. It's more likely that Bloody Tan used Hemalurgy somehow to obtain Gold Compounding before Wax got to him in the previous book.

 

What did Tan do that was lucky in Shadows?

 

Honestly I suspected that his power in Alloy was allomantic atium. Kelsier said it would take 300 years for the pits to produce again; the instant we learned it was 300 years that Alloy took place, I started looking for atium.

 

Would a Kandra have even needed the bones? Give him any skull with even loosely the same features, and a picture of Bloody Tan, which can't have been hard to find. He only needed to look enough like him to be seen by Wax for literally a moment, while Wax was hurtling through the air above. Surely a race of beings that can make dogs that talk, have pockets of skin, and paws dextrous enough to grasp paper could mimic a face that well documented at least that well for at least that second of time, even without the literal skull.

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Shardlet

Shardlet

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Honestly I suspected that his power in Alloy was allomantic atium. Kelsier said it would take 300 years for the pits to produce again; the instant we learned it was 300 years that Alloy took place, I started looking for atium.

 

I have always wondered how accurate Kelsier's assessment of that was. Where did that bit of info come frome?  How reliable was that source?

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skaa

skaa

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What did Tan do that was lucky in Shadows?

 

You know, she thought. The assassin is lucky. They couldn’t have known that bolt would deal a killing blow.

...

 

Marasi stood, intending to do something, but the next part happened quickly. Before she had time to take a step, the man rushed her. He fired the crossbow over his shoulder, causing a Wayne-like yelp to come out of the alleyway, then grabbed Marasi by the shoulder as she tried to run.

 

 

Perhaps Atium could have helped him ensure a killing blow against Marks, but unless I'm misunderstanding the part I highlighted (English isn't my first language), it seems Bloody Tan was also able to shoot someone hidden in the shadows somewhere behind him, something that Atium could not have helped him with. Sounds more like Chromium Feruchemy to me.

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Oudeis

Oudeis

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Perhaps Atium could have helped him ensure a killing blow against Marks, but unless I'm misunderstanding the part I highlighted (English isn't my first language), it seems Bloody Tan was also able to shoot someone hidden in the shadows somewhere behind him, something that Atium could not have helped him with. Sounds more like Chromium Feruchemy to me.

 

Er... first, I do not believe the "assassin" is Bloody Tan. Does anyone here think that it is? I suppose that part was from Marasi's perspective so she might not necessarily have noticed it, but she's obsessed with Wax, and surely she'd've seen (and this being Marasi memorized) his picture from his wanted poster, and recognized it. So, I don't think this person is using either Feruchemical chromium or Allomantic atium, I think he's just an assassin.

 

In fact, her line of thought is, "this person couldn't have known he'd be so lucky, he'll probably circle around and make sure," and sure enough, he circles around to make sure. If he were simply relying on luck, he wouldn't have needed to bother.

 

We don't know Wayne was in the shadows, just that he was in an alleyway. Atium could very easily have helped with that; see the head of Wayne's atium shadow pop up, fire at it just before his real head does. Again, I don't think he needed either, because I don't think this guy was Bloody Tan. He's just a dude with a crossbow and halfway decent aim. Marasi, who is an excellent riflewoman but had never been in combat before, did quite well at that social event in Alloy. Presumably a trained assassin can hit a decent-sized fellow in broad daylight at a moderate distance.

 

To review, I don't think he's Bloody Tan, and I don't think he is using either allomantic atium or feruchemical chromium. If he is using f-chromium, he should have been more careful to save enough luck not to die.

 

As to the question on the pits and the time of regernation, you make a very good point, one I've wondered myself. The best I can figure is this: At some point in the past thousand years, people did try to use allomancy in the pits and the crystals cracked. Notes were taken and it became known, not widely but known, that it takes roughly 300 years to recover. Kelsier could have heard guards/administrators discuss it, or after he escaped and started his plan to fight back, learned everything he could on the Pits, including this tidbit.

 

Not gonna lie, I'd feel better if we had WoB one way or the other. I'm certainly not convinced Bloody Tan was a Seer, but I think it's a possibility brought about by a suspicious conjunction of coincidences.

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Kurkistan

Kurkistan

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Not gonna lie, I'd feel better if we had WoB one way or the other. I'm certainly not convinced Bloody Tan was a Seer, but I think it's a possibility brought about by a suspicious conjunction of coincidences.

 

Your wish is my command. ;)

 

Source:

ATEISTCANUCK (14 NOVEMBER 2011)

Was Bloody Tan an atium misting?

 

BRANDON SANDERSON (14 NOVEMBER 2011)

No, he was not. Good question.

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skaa

skaa

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Er... first, I do not believe the "assassin" is Bloody Tan. Does anyone here think that it is? I suppose that part was from Marasi's perspective so she might not necessarily have noticed it, but she's obsessed with Wax, and surely she'd've seen (and this being Marasi memorized) his picture from his wanted poster, and recognized it.

 

Whoops. Yeah, you're right about the assassin's entity not being revealed in the excerpt. I have this annoying tendency of making plot theories as I read, and sometimes those thoughts get mixed with the memory of what I actually read. Sorry about that!

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Moogle

Moogle

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Shucks. Still, he did say it was a good question. I'm going to resist the urge to justify my theory by claiming hemalurgy or semantics, and accept that something new is going on there.

 

Why not join me in the Bloody-Tan-was-an-Electrum-Misting camp? We've got cookies, and some wordings in the MAG which may or may not support the theory. Besides, Electrum is basically a weaker atium anyways. There is the issue with Bloody Tan being alive in Shadows of Self, but everyone else is just as confused!

Edited by Moogle
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ccstat

ccstat

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Legion was, as I expected, a colossal amount of fun.

This is the only thread where the Legion excerpt has been mentioned at all. Can someone confirm that the link to that one is still good? When I click on it I get redirected back to the vault top page, which currently shows the Lift interlude.

EDIT: looks like it was a computer issue. Can't load it on the desktop I used first, but trying it on a different machine worked fine.

Edited by ccstat
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