Brandon Sanderson

So this probably doesn´t belong here but i wanted to complain about my Mistborn Era 2 Pen and Paper players and i don´t know where else (since the Mistborn thread is pretty much dead). They had both read all Cosmere books and know about worldhopping just for context. The got hired by a guy named "Mr. Tuxedo" (i like bad jokes) to recover a book full of scientific knowledge which could "change the world". They find the book in an enemy camp, full with cages with captives, a forge, a weird table on which apparently two people could be tied down atop each other, and a long row of spikes made from each of the 16 allomantic metals. Also there is an old enemy (pewterarm) who suddenly pulls on their guns and has a weird lump under her clothes. After the session they were arguing out-of-character what could be written about in the book and i was almost screaming when they didn´t think of hemalurgy, but blackmailing information for Eldendel government! But at least one of them got captured at the end, and he WILL find out what that weird table could be used for in the next session^^

As a sidenote, of course the immediatly noticed the Aviar i put into the enemy camp just as a little easter egg (i used the bird basicly like a pet coppercloud)!

The Final Empire is really good. I think partly because it works very well as a standalone story. It's the only book in the trilogy that I liked pretty much all the way through. The Emperor himself is a great villain. Or at least a great obstacle. With the other two, while there are parts I really like, even love, certain stretches feel off to me.

I love the ending of Well, and the idea of the central conflict, but it never clicked quite right with me. I don't know why. I never really liked Zane, and Straff is given a weird amount of focus for a character who basically exists to be worthless.

And I mostly loved Hero up until the ending. As I've said before, the ending feels like a weirdly foregone conclusion that I respect for the way it's set up more than I enjoy to watch play out. I don't care about a fight between invincible Atium soldiers and.... well, anyone really. Plus, there's Preservation pulling a posthumous "checkmate motherfucker!" on Ruin.

I never really liked the Kandra plot either. It's tropey and cliche in a way that just wasn't fun. I felt like I could predict everything that was going to happen with them. At least regarding their own internal conflicts with each other.

Edited by GNinja on Apr 22nd 2020 at 12:54:53 PM

The Way Of Kings e-book is free on TOR for today only. I mean, I'm sure everyone here already has it, but figured I'd post it anyway.

So, I have to ask… given how Atium is the economic standard of the FE, does that make the FE a floating currency, since it’s based on the supply and demand of the trade of Atium?

Hard to say. On the one hand, it's based around a specific metal, like the old gold standard. However, unlike gold, atium is a renewable resource (or at least it was, so long as Ruin was around).

It gets complicated by the fact that atium can also be burned up by allomancers, depleting the world's supply, and that the Lord Ruler likely didn't tell people exactly how much atium he had stashed away, only that it was a large amount. So no one really knows how much atium there is out there at any given time.

I don't recall if boxings were actually tied to atium, like the gold standard. We know that the Lord Ruler demanded his taxes and the like in atium, but was every boxing worth a fixed weight of atium? I don't remember one way or the other. (There's also an economic argument to be made that if taxes are only payable in atium, then atium is the true currency of the Final Empire and boxings are just a convenient means of exchange.)

Edited by NativeJovian on Jul 5th 2020 at 2:13:12 PM

I was under the (likely mistaken) impression that Atium wasn't being constantly generated, but rather that there's a fixed amount of Atium in the world, and when an Allomancer burns some, it re-condenses in the Pits of Hathsin.

I'm not sure if they've explicitly said that's not how it works, but it seems unlikely. Part way through The Final Empire, the crystals in the Pits of Hathsin were destroyed, meaning they wouldn't start producing atium again until they regenerated after a very, very long time. So for the last two books of the original trilogy, no new atium was being made, but plenty of it was still being burned.

Well, yeah, I don't think that's counter to what Duranzo said. The atium supply was constant due to the Pits, but when the crystals were destroyed it started truly depleting.

And I'm pretty sure that all money was backed by atium, like the gold standard. It's specifically mentioned early on that the economics of basing your money around atium (a renewable resource that is valuable because you can burn it) are interesting if you care about that sort of thing.

Just gonna... leave this link here... https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragonsteel/the-way-of-kings-10th-anniversary-leatherbound-edition?ref=28cb1w ...and run

I just had a random "how does the Cosmere work?" thought.

We're told that Awakening is much easier if the Awakened object resembles a living creature. Except living creatures in the Cosmere include the kandra, amorphous blobs of flesh that can look like just about anything. So couldn't almost any object be said to potentially resemble a kandra, allowing for easy Awakening?

If we ever meet an Awakener who's familiar with them, we might see!

Even the Kandra seem to favor humanoid forms... I think? Or do they just use the artificial skeletons to move among humans?

I´m not sure if it was that it´s easier if it rsembles a living creature, but instead resembles a human (Vasher coat ist cut into the general shape of a human, his strawmen are too, and the big banner he awakens tries to imitate a human arm). It gets easier if the object had been alive before (and if the object is completely inanimate like stone or metal it becomes so dificult as to be basicly impossible without the 9th heightening).

But in general i don´t think "resembles a kandra" as an exploit would work. In my opinion the easier awakening of human form comes from the Connection breath has to its host. Breath used for Awakening has usually been attached to a human for the vast majority if its existence, thereby creating a Connection between it and its host. It becomes easier to form a new Connection with the awakened object if it resembles its host. So unless the Awakening is done by a Kandra, who has held the breath for long enough to overwrite the Connection to its original host, i don´t think this exploit will work.

Actually this made me think of something else: An Awakener has to give the commands in their native language with clear pronounciation and proper visualization. Could an Awakener who is using a connection-medailion give commands in "foreign" language, or would differences between the native language and the "Connection"-language make it to difficult (example nothern scadrian doesn´t have a word for the southern scadrian word Jaggenmire)

Edited by Samaldin on Jul 11th 2020 at 10:32:36 AM

While the human form is mainly what's used for crafted Awakened objects, I think that's just 'cause the human form is so versatile, making it a useful choice. While I haven't read Warbreaker for a while, I'm pretty sure the narration only mentioned Awakening being easier if the object looks like a living being, not a human specifically. It still only took one Breath to turn that squirrel into a Lifeless, right?

As for the kandra, the First Generation used to be human before Rashek turned them into mistwraiths. Makes sense they'd prefer to take forms similar to the bodies they used to have. And given how kandra revere older generations, subsequent generations of kandra most likely imitated them (our look into kandra society shows there's a fair bit of fashion consciousness about what skeletons they wrap themselves around).

Edited by RavenWilder on Jul 11th 2020 at 8:43:49 AM

No, it's definitely that Awakening is easier the more the awakened object resembles a human — because it's being powered by Breath taken from a human. Organic material is easier to Awaken because humans are organic, but beyond that, being human-shaped makes it easier as well. This is why you can Awaken a human corpse with a single Breath — and why that Breath sticks to the corpse so strongly that it can't be recovered afterwards.

Did some digging on the Coppermind wiki, and it had a link to this Word of God, which is a little of Column A, little of Column B.

Yes, if Awakeners want their constructs to be easier to Awaken, they do need to make them into a humanoid shape. But it seems that's due to the Awakener being human, not due to the Breath coming from a human. When asked about a hypothetical canine species getting access to Bio Chromatic Breath, Brandon said they'd need to design their constructs in a canine shape for optimum effect.

So a kandra gaining Breath, and dealing with what it means to Awaken something that's "kandra shaped", could still happen.

It might depend on how strongly that kandra identifies with a humanoid shape, too.

That leads me to one question, what the hell shape would a Sleepless awakener have to make their awakened objects? Might they even be able to awake a single entity out of multiple seperate parts, because of their hivemind identity?

Notably for me he likes Final Fantasy X and considers it the perfect FF. That is the correct opinion and one I wholeheartedly endorse.

Edited by Nikkolas on Oct 7th 2020 at 7:43:20 AM

Sanderson promised an announcement a couple days ago of "something you never, ever expected."

Kelsier in Fortnite.

Yes, really.

YES, REALLY.

ahahha

Oh good, more places to see Batman Mc Xanojesus

Apparently this happened for no other reason than because Sanderson is friends with the Fortnite creator, and they both thought it would be fun.

I just started watching his writing lectures and found the plotting ones really useful.

Although I haven't read any of his work. I don't know where to start.

Probably best to start with Warbreaker, as its a standalone or the first Mistborn book The Final Empire. If you're attached to the the publication order of an author Elantris is his first published novel and another standalone. Although general consensus is it's a bit weaker than his other stuff. So a lot of people recommended starting elsehwere.

Or if you're into superheroes Steelheart might be another good pick to read first.