Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Brandon Sanderson => Topic started by: Inkthinker on April 24, 2009, 10:10:22 PM
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Hey all, I'm here to pick your brains again rather than pick through the books for reference. Help a brother out:
In what ways do Terrismen differ physically from humans? I know they're taller, and I seem to recall Sazed being described as skinny, but what else was noted in the text?
And in terms of humans and the class structure of the Final Empire; there's peasant skaa, city skaa, merchant skaa, nobles and the Canton (inquisitors). What else am I not thinking of? Are we to assume that the classes are largely the same across the Empire?
What other non-humans are mentioned outside of koloss and the kandra (and the mistwraiths, which are immature kandra)?
Were there other mentions of wildlife outside of dogs and horses (and if I recall correctly, rats)? I know much of the wildlife in the world is gone due to environmental changes, but what other domestic wildlife has survived? Cows? Cats? Pigs? Chickens?
I'm sure I'll come up with other questions as time goes on. I've got the novels for refs (and lately I've been highlighting or underlining passages that are particularly descriptive, so eventually I'll have a "visually annotated" copy of the trilogy), but sometimes it's just easier to ask.
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In what ways do Terrismen differ physically from humans? I know they're taller, and I seem to recall Sazed being described as skinny, but what else was noted in the text?
Besides the fact that they are human themselves, there's the whole Feruchemy thing.
And in terms of humans and the class structure of the Final Empire; there's peasant skaa, city skaa, merchant skaa, nobles and the Canton (inquisitors). What else am I not thinking of? Are we to assume that the classes are largely the same across the Empire?
Are you including Obligators in the Canton? Also, Obligators are of noble birth.
Were there other mentions of wildlife outside of dogs and horses (and if I recall correctly, rats)? I know much of the wildlife in the world is gone due to environmental changes, but what other domestic wildlife has survived? Cows? Cats? Pigs? Chickens?
Goats for sure. I don't remember anything else.
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I'm mostly referring only to physical appearance differences. Different ears, noses, etc.
Feruchemy does make physical changes, (pewtermind channeling, for instance), but I'm looking for a basic, "average" reference.
I've found the passage that descibes Sazed (which is also, I think, the first time we meet a Terrisman at all). He is taller than Kelsier, enough to be considered abnormally tall, but not so much that Sanderson needed to lay out a height as he does later with the koloss. I'm thinking that means about 7 feet or so. He has stretched earlobes with studs that run all around the outside (which we know to be metalminds, now), and his arms are longer than normal. He has a "long, flat face" and a "willowy" build.
From that I can makes some extrapolations, but anything I'm missing would be appreciated.
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You didn't mention it, so I thought I'd throw out that Sazed shaves his head.
I've also always thought of him as not being white, but the description of Tindwyl kinda puts the kibosh on that.
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I actually did miss that. For some reason I had him pictured as having a sort of colonial haircut, shoulder-length pulled back into a short tail.
That's why I check in with the crowd here, someone usually catches me before I wander off too far.
Rough sketch posted in the Fan Art thread. Feel free to check it out and let me know what else I'm missing.
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I've also always thought of him as not being white, but the description of Tindwyl kinda puts the kibosh on that.
I must have missed that description. I always though of the Terrismen as having darker skin. Kinda the color of Jada Pinkett Smith's skin.
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I'm not sure of any passage that described his skin color. Can anyone find the page in particular?
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I always thought of him as black as well, I thought that part was kept vague for our own imagination. *shrug*
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I don't think Tindwyl's skin color was ever described, but I thought she had blonde hair and blue eyes. *shrug* I could be remembering wrong, though. In fact, I'd really like to keep my mental image of Sazed as a black man - nothing else really feels right, so I do hope I'm misremembering.
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Blonde hair and blue eyes would not necessarily preclude darker skin tones.
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Ink, I seem to vaguely remember hearing somewhere you had some kind of business relationship with Brandon. Is that true or am I completely off?
PS I realize I am off topic here but I couldn't think of anywhere else to post :P
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I'm not officially doing anything for anyone. I love Brandon's writing and I think he's a creator who's got a lot of potential. I'm not going to comment on any conversations I've had with him in private.
I have done some work for Crafty Games over the past couple years, and I enjoy working with them a lot. And they are slated to begin working on the Mistborn RPG this year.
Make of that what you will.
Right now I'm just having some fun practicing my skills at adapting text into visual design. I'm sure we're all familiar with adapted projects where you have to wonder if the people who did the designs even bothered to read the original author's work (I can tell you that often we don't, sometimes by necessity and sometimes out of pique or a desire to "make it our own"). I know it drives me nuts, and I think I'm not alone in that, but as an illustrator I'm in a position to actually walk the talk.
While I do work as a professional illustrator, what I'm posting around here lately is technically "fan art". I am a fan, I am drawing some art. I chose to adapt Mistborn material because I was struck by Brandon's powerful descriptions in the Mistborn novels. I probably burn through two novels a week on average (readin' some Lieber right now, got some Duncan on the slate next), and while I'm always "seeing" the book in my mind's eye, it's rare that I'm so powerfully inspired by the imagery of what I'm reading that I feel the need to actually get up off my lazy bum and put it out on the page.
Sanderson managed to pull that off multiple times in every novel. As an illustrator that's not a thing to pass upon. If I thought I could, I'd want to make a graphic novel series out of 'em. For now, I'll settle for fan art.
At any rate, this thread is a blatant attempt by me to get everyone else to help me get the details right as I doodle along. I figure there's no better place than this to find people who know what I know... that Mistborn looks awesome.
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I've always pictured Sazed as having a bronze-like skin color, and about 6'4"-6'5", somewhere around that height.
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I think you're right with the skin tone, but I'm still thinking he needs to hit the 7-foot mark to fit the description of "abnormally tall". Possibly 7'6". He needs to be NBA tall.
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I saw him as having slightly paler than normal skin and Vin reaching him at about nipple level. (Sorry, couldn't think of another way to describe that. ha ha.)
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I saw him as having slightly paler than normal skin and Vin reaching him at about nipple level. (Sorry, couldn't think of another way to describe that. ha ha.)
Chest level is usually the term.
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I would definitely NOT make Sazed 7 feet tall. 7 feet tall is freakishly tall. I'm 6'7" and a lot of people think of me as being "freakishly tall". I think I definitely fit into the category of "abnormally tall". I wouldn't make Sazed any taller than 6'6" or 6'7".
Min is supposed to be a little shorter than average and petite. Like Myabi, I always envisioned Sazed with a very pale complexion. Almost like an albino, but no pink eyes of course. If you draw Vin short and petite, and Sazed around 6'6" I think she would come up to his rib cage, which is what I always pictured.
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Im with Miyabi on the skin tone. I always pictured him as an albino Gandhi in my head, except taller. With the lack of direct sunlight I expect most people to have a lighter skin tone but with it emphasized on Saze.
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Hm. With such a range of impressions, I'll probably shelve this until something official can be learned.
How tall is Kelsier? Is that ever clearly defined?
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I saw him as having slightly paler than normal skin and Vin reaching him at about nipple level. (Sorry, couldn't think of another way to describe that. ha ha.)
Chest level is usually the term.
Yeah, but that's not quite right, because that insinuates like the middle of the chest where as the nipple is closer to the bottom of the chest.
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He just is reminding himself how much he likes twinking people nipples... :P
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A little bit taller than Vin.
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Kelsier is a bit taller than Vin? Or Sazed?
I'm of the mind that Kelsier is around 6' tall, Vin around 5' or slightly taller as the series progresses (she's only 16 at the beginning, after all), and so I still think Sazed need to come in near to 7.
Like I said, I think I'll table this until more information is available. I always have other subjects to pick upon.
Here's a new question; what (if any) internal organs do the kandra have? They need a brain and a circulatory and nervous system (I presume), but past that what do they have aside from a collection of malleable muscle forms and a skin?
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When they are in their true from they are look like a mass of translucent muscles in a blue-ish sack. When in a true-body (I think they called it that) they have translucent muscles still, but they have bones made out of whatever they choose.
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Right, I remember that they can also change their skin color from translucent to opaque/normal at will, and presumably grow and shed hair as needed.
I presume they somehow replicate organs like the eyeball, somehow. A tongue is a muscle, but hair is not, and skin tone is a function of melanin. Was there no mention of a brain, or other internal organs.
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Lol miyabi. You could've said 'pectoral level' or something like that. lol
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I seem to remember that they can't replicate hair (and nails I assume)—they can only use the hair they get when they digest a body. But they can make eyeballs...I think. And they have to have some form of lungs in order to speak. They don't need digestive organs though—their flesh itself does the digesting.
All my books are packed up right now from the move, so I can't check, but the part at the beginning of MB3 when TenSoon cries out for judgment should be instructive. Also the part when he makes the body they give him for the trial.
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I don't think they have any internal organs in their "true" form, and there is no mention of a brain. I think that their cognition is more distributed and robust. Also, I suspect that since sentience is conferred by hemalurgic spikes, their intelligence is more spiritually than physically based.
The Kandra learns to form organs, including the eyes, as part of the process of consuming the original body. They can't form hair and must use the original hair from the body. I assume, though this is not specifically stated (or even implied) in any book, that the bodies they form are capable of growing hair; otherwise their hair would start to look pretty shabby over time. However, if they can grow hair it grows at the normal rate, so if you want hair instantly you're stuck with the original stock.
From TenSoon we learn that a Kandra is capable of coming up with organs on its own, even if they are just handed fleshless bones. However, his speed and proficiency at forming bodies was an oddity among Kandra and a product of his ~700 years of experience doing it. Most Kandra would take several hours to form a body that he could form in minutes.
Kandra wearing True Bodies would have to invent their own musculature, and there are references to them using odd materials (like cloth strips) for hair. They would also need lungs and vocal chords to be able to speak. However, we see that a Kandra can absorb and digest food directly, so it needs no digestive organs.
A Kandra can form a body of any size, provided they consume enough food to increase their mass. If Kandra were real, they could bring dinosaurs to life.
If you couldn't tell, I thought the Kandra were one of the most fascinating creatures in the books, so a lot about them stuck with me. :)
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I'm not officially doing anything for anyone. I love Brandon's writing and I think he's a creator who's got a lot of potential. I'm not going to comment on any conversations I've had with him in private.
I have done some work for Crafty Games over the past couple years, and I enjoy working with them a lot. And they are slated to begin working on the Mistborn RPG this year.
Make of that what you will.
Right now I'm just having some fun practicing my skills at adapting text into visual design. I'm sure we're all familiar with adapted projects where you have to wonder if the people who did the designs even bothered to read the original author's work (I can tell you that often we don't, sometimes by necessity and sometimes out of pique or a desire to "make it our own"). I know it drives me nuts, and I think I'm not alone in that, but as an illustrator I'm in a position to actually walk the talk.
While I do work as a professional illustrator, what I'm posting around here lately is technically "fan art". I am a fan, I am drawing some art. I chose to adapt Mistborn material because I was struck by Brandon's powerful descriptions in the Mistborn novels. I probably burn through two novels a week on average (readin' some Lieber right now, got some Duncan on the slate next), and while I'm always "seeing" the book in my mind's eye, it's rare that I'm so powerfully inspired by the imagery of what I'm reading that I feel the need to actually get up off my lazy bum and put it out on the page.
Sanderson managed to pull that off multiple times in every novel. As an illustrator that's not a thing to pass upon. If I thought I could, I'd want to make a graphic novel series out of 'em. For now, I'll settle for fan art.
At any rate, this thread is a blatant attempt by me to get everyone else to help me get the details right as I doodle along. I figure there's no better place than this to find people who know what I know... that Mistborn looks awesome.
Ok. Thanks for clearing that up ;)
BTW, I would love to see a sketch of a mistborn burning atium. Awesome! (And now I am officially done changing the subject on your thread.)
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When Tensoon uses Kelsier's bones he is bald b/c they can't replicate hair, but yes they can replicate eyes and other organs...
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Thanks, everyone! This is useful stuff, and much faster than re-reading the books (though I'll still have to do that anyhow).
Thanks especially for catching me on the issue of kandra hair. I'm counting on you guys who remember specific aspects like that. Impressions are helpful, but ultimately the final arbiter (unless an authoritative voice steps in, at least) is the text.
If you think of anything more or have a comment on something in particular, please post it! I'm sure I'll be asking more questions in this thread soon enough.
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One thing about kandra..... or I suppose MistWraiths...
Where do the new Mistwraiths come from? I remember Sazed wondering about it, but we never found out.
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They breed somehow. It could be binary fission—if a mistwraith gets too big it just splits. That's my guess personally.
[Note: This is not inside information. Just my guess.]
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That makes a lot of sense. Thanks Ookla!
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Kelsier questions now. Anyone know which passages describe his appearance, aside from the arm scars? How do you see his hair, his height, etc, and what's your basis?
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He's the Clooney to Dockson's Pitt, right? 8)
Actually, I don't picture him looking much like Clooney. I figure he's about 5'9", with shortcropped brown hair. This mental picture has about as much basis in the books as my idea that Sazed is black. :-\
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The book describes him as having blonde hair. I forget what length, but I always saw it as rather long ie to his eyes. I don't know what his height is like, but I always thought he was pretty tall, around six feet I guess. Slender, but muscular. And of course he has to be smiling :)
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Hey, everyone! I revived this from the graveyard with new questions, this time about Kings.
I'm looking at the Parshendi, and trying to lock down a physical description. So far as I can tell, they look like humans, but with red/black marbled skin (is it predominantly red with black marbling, or predominantly black with red marbling? Or either?) and they're thicker and shorter. The warriors are even more muscular, and also have their organic armor which grows from the skin.
What other physical aspects of the parshmen are described within the text? I've browsed the keywords "parshendi" and "parshmen" through my text version of the book, but it's pre-final (closer to the ARC text) and may not have all the references.
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The marbling of red and black is unique to each one, so what the balance is between the two colors is depends on the specimen. (look at me trying to sound scientific :P )
The males have the beards with bits of gem in them, infused with Stormlight, except for what might be the female of each pair.
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All parshmen have the red marbling, but some are described as white or pale instead of black. Page 62:
That meant many of the people she saw were exotic. Those single-sheet wraps would mark a man or woman frm Tashikk, far to the west. The long coats, enveloping down to the ankles, but open in the front like cloaks... where were those from? She'd rarely seen so many parshmen as she noted working the dots, carrying cargo on their backs. Like the parshmen her father had owned, these were stout and thick of limb, with their odd marbled skin -- some parts pale or black, others a deep crimson. The mottled pattern was unique to each individual.
I'm reasonably sure I saw elsewhere that the parshmen slaves in Alethkar are mostly white and red, but I can't find the reference. And I visualized the marbling like the alien head patterns in the old Alien Nation TV show, about 50%, but I never noticed anything explicit in the book saying just how much red they have.
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Patterns and amounts would be unique to each individual. The colours of the patterning are red, black and white. Eyes are solidly black. Parshendi/men seem to have thicker, bulkier bodies than humans, more muscle, more bone, greater mass. Features should be wider and blockier than most humans.
Parshmen are described as short (average height of 5'4-5'8 maybe?), thick and a little bit overweight. Skin is predominately red and white with some black.
Parshendi are described as being taller and fitter than their worker cousins (the Parshendi shardbearer was 7 feet tall in plate, so probably 6'7-6'8 without plate). They have predominately red and black skin with some white marbling. Armour is coloured a deep, rusty-red/orange, covering the head body and back.
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Thanks guys, this is just the sort of info I need. I'll probably have to pass stuff through Brandon before I can bring it back here, but this helps save us both time by keeping me on the right track to start with.
Any other details that you can think of, let me know. I'm always most interested in making sure things stay faithful to the book as much as I can.
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Hey guys, guess who's drawing a bunch of Mistborn content again?
Work for the RPG is in-progress, and as always I'm obsessed with getting designs as close to "canon" as I can, by following the text first before getting creative with it. Brandon usually leaves a lot of room to wriggle, so it's easy to start with his descriptions and extrapolate from there. While I'm scanning the books, I figured I'd throw out some questions as they come around, and if you guys can help me with descriptors and your own impressions, that'll help keep me on keel.
As always, it's possible that there's aren't specific descriptors to be found, in which case I'll just do my best. Whatever I do goes past Brandon eventually, but it's always helpful to get it right the first time.
Off the bat, I'm looking for descriptors on Zane. I know he's of medium height, wiry build and dark hair, and he looks (of course) a bit like Elend. He wears no mistcloak, and consistently dresses in black, but I haven't found much that actually describes his clothing in any detail... he wears a sash, at least when Vin chases him. He's armed with glass knives. Past that, I'm still browsing. Suggestions?
PS - Please don't ask me about the game itself. I don't know the answers, and even if I did I couldn't tell you. But I'm getting paid to draw, so that's as encouraging as you like.
;D
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Another one: What shape are copper clips (the coins most commonly used by Allomancers)? I got the impression somewhere that they were square, and the name "clip" actually implies that they're pieces of a larger coin, sort of the way silver coins were cut into pieces to make change, with the pieces being called "bits".
Unfortunately, square bits of yellow tend to look a lot like Cheez-Its™, so I might have to cheat 'em round just to get them read visually as "coins".
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Firstly, copper isn't yellow so they'd look like Cheez-its with a Snookie tan.
Secondly, I'd imagined the clips looking like very thin, small round coins. So.......baby Better Chedders with a Snookie tan?
As for Zane, I'd always imagined him in generic pants and shirt in the classic fantasy world style with thigh sheaths for the knives. I also figured his clothes would have pockets for extra vials and coins to push. I don't remember him having a belt pouch, but it's been a while since I've read them.
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Here is some Zane:
The Watcher stood quietly. He didn't look much like a messenger or courier. He wore all black, even a pair of black gloves. He wore trousers and a silken shirt, with no cloak or cape. She remembered that face. It was him.
Vin spun. A man landed quietly behind her. He looked . . . familiar, for some reason. He had a lean face—topped with dark hair—and his head was cocked slightly in confusion. She could see the question in his eyes. Why had she fallen down?
The Watcher stood quietly, then shook his head, as if . . . disappointed. Then, he pulled something from his sash.
Through the swirling mists, in the reflected light of the tent, she could see something on Zane's arm.
The skin was covered with thin white streaks. Scars.
Zane immediately lowered his arm, hiding the scarred flesh with his sleeve.
I know Brandon had something about the boxings in one of his annotations, but I can't remember which one or what it said. I know it's there though.
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The sash is mentioned specifically, so I presume he keeps his coins and spare vials tucked into the folds of it... if he needed to dump his metals, it'd be as simple as pulling loose the sash.
The description of a shirt, trousers and gloves is just the sort of thing I needed though, thank you! It can be hard to find a single line like that when you need it.
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The boxings are called that because they have a picture of Kredik Shaw - the Lord Ruler's "box" - on them. Beyond that, I don't remember reading anything specific about the coins. And Inkthinker, did you consider making the clips look like wedges of a larger coin rather than squares, if they are just pieces of a coin?
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I have, but the same problem comes up as with the square coins - they're not immediately identifiable as "coins" from a purely visual standpoint. They end up looking like metal splinters or something else "not coins", and while that may be more accurate from a narrative standpoint, it doesn't serve an illustration well.
This is one of those things that drives me nuts as a fan and as a person responsible for production material... some things really just don't work as well in one media as they do in another. All too often producers are very cavalier about makig changes, but I've always been intent on at least trying to stay as faithful as possible to the source material. When even a small change like this comes up, it rankles me.
Heh... "rankles". There's a word I don't get to use often enough. ;D
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Perhaps hexagons or octagons? They are close enough to the circular shape of coins, and you can make the argument that are parts of a bigger entity quite easily.
On a side note, can't you just call Brandon and ask him?
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I can (and I did, the coins are round and clips are not pieces of larger coins), but I try not to call on Brandon too often 'cause the man is busy, and he's got a lot more on his plate than Mistborn.
Most of the burden of research accuracy is on my shoulders, and he doesn't need to burn his time answering questions for me that could be answered by just reading the books thoroughly. Furthermore, asking him MB questions at this time draws him out of what he's working on right now (which isn't MB), and so I want to do that as little as possible. Certainly not for one or two questions.
I'm doing most of the reading myself, but every so often I just can't find a passage that I need. Brandon is notoriously scarce about descriptions, especially in his earlier novels... you might think this makes my job easier, but in fact it means every nibble of definition that IS written becomes that much more vitally important.
Many of the fans here have read the books more often than I have, and know the material well enough to remember things I miss, and so that's why I'm tapping you guys here. I want these designs to be as book-accurate as I can make 'em, and not just create stuff what I think looks cool. I get to do a lot of that anyway, but if I can make stuff that looks cool AND gets it "right", that's even better.
Most of the questions I have I can answer on my own. But when I can't, then I ask. ;D
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Well, right, I can see why you wouldn't want to call him for every little - or big - thing. But there are some things that are not in the books, and I am certain Brandon is excited about having accurate and cool art re: his books almost as much as the fans.
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Have you thought about pumping Peter for information?
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I do tap Peter as well, but honestly he is just as busy as Brandon.
They both see everything that I'm drawing for the book, but it's an easier job for everyone if I get it right sooner rather than later.
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Brandon still has background information documents that he hasn't given me. I keep reminding him.
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Kelsier is described as being "hawk-faced"... I've heard the term used a lot, but I wonder if I'm imagining it right and I'm having trouble finding a visual example.
Suggestions for what features you would use to describe someone as "hawk-faced"? I think it's a bit more than just the nose...
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The nose and a narrow jaw/chin and a little larger eyes. That what I think of when you "hawk face", but that's just me.
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This (http://homepage.mac.com/wildlifeweb/bird/ferruginous_hawk/ferruginous_hawk_01tk.jpg), although humorous, actually gives a better idea than most.
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Hawk like for a woman I see this face http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf8zmzp2rKo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf8zmzp2rKo) She comes in at 15 seconds into it.
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The Mtn Dew commercial is somewhat helpful. Narrow chin, sharp cheekbones, a thin roman nose, that's more or less what I had in place. A little bit like a younger Gabriel Byrne (http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1600&bih=1102&q=gabriel+byrne&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=), I suppose.
I'll run the rough past Peter and Brandon and see if I'm in the ballpark.
Sometimes it's just useful to know that I'm thinking the same things other readers are.
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I also think of Spock.
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Nimoy, sure. I can see that. I think of him a bit more in terms of Sazed though, the long features and the slender hands.
I actually have good ref from Brandon on Sazed, but here's a question... is there any example of him in the text wearing spectacles? I have some idea of him in glasses, but I think that's might something I've just made up in my head with an impression of him as being scholarly.
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He does wear glasses when he is storing sight. But I not think he does when he isn't storing it.
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I remember Vin specifically noting at one point that Sazed was wearing glasses, and that this was odd because he never had before. This was right after the time he'd burned through some stored reserves to rescue Vin from Inquisitors at Kredick Shaw, including using improved eyesight to find her, and he was clearly trying to restore the spent resources. So, Sazed does have spectacles but he only needs them when he's deliberately downgrading and storing his sight with Feruchemy.
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More than anything I tend to associate being hawk-faced with a really intense stare and lowered eyebrows, which seems to fit Kelsier.
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In the well of ascension. As he starts to fight the colous (sorry about the spelling I have the audio books) sazed is noted to cause a coluous to pause because it wasn't expecting to see something nearly it's own size.
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"koloss"
Sazed gets koloss-sized when he taps his metalmind, but normally he's at the high end of 6-7 feet. Not freakishly tall, but he stands out in a crowd.
Sorry if I haven't been back to ask for more help guys, but things are proceeding along quite nicely. There's going to be a good bit of Mistborn artwork coming from my corner towards the end of this year.
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once again off topic here, but i think you would be good with cover art, ink.
and i too pictured him as tall and black. the earring thing throws me off a bit though.
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I've always thought of Sazed being 6' 7"ish (with Vin being 5' even (easiest, since she tells you it multiple times), Kelsier 6'3-4", Elend 6', etc), with an Asian skin-tone and facial structure (maybe Amazonian tribesmen, that seems to fit; I'm trying to think where I got my idea of him from...), combined with the elongation of limbs due to his castration and his thin build, would make him seem much taller than he really is. This is especially evident when you conisder that the average adult skaa male is probably 5'8" (or shorter), with nobleman maybe hitting 6'. We are thinking of our age, where the average human male is around 6' tall (plus or minus a few inches), when being 6'7" is an impressive height, but not freakishly so. This also puts Kelsier into perspective (if we base his height near my guesses), since he is close to a foot taller than the average skaa, taller even than nobleman, making him seem greater than a normal person. The spread of a few inches also fits Sazed's slight unease at standing near someone almost as tall as he is (can't remember what page it's on, but it is in FE somewhere...)
When he is fighting the koloss in WoA, the koloss is surprised because Sazed is even more muscular than the koloss itself, not because Saze is as tall as it (no Feruchemical metal that has been revealed will let you do that, I believe.) ;)
Also, first post! :o Prepare for much flinging of random/not-so-random ideas; I'm chock full of them!
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once again off topic here, but i think you would be good with cover art, ink.
and i too pictured him as tall and black. the earring thing throws me off a bit though.
Terrismen do have a darker skin-tone than skaa. But the range of tones across the entire human race is more homogenous than ours thanks to the Lord Ruler's eugenics.
Aside from Isaac Stewart, who's contributing work on the maps and symbols, I'm the only artist on the Mistborn RPG. Cover and interiors, this part of the book is mine to carry. They made a blog post about it some time ago, but I hadn't really said much about it myself because I'm still in the middle of the work.
I really hope that's good news to most of you... :-\
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You've been doing good work, Ink. Note nearly as much as if I had you imprisoned in my basement with Brandon to write and give you advice, but good work nonetheless.
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I've always thought of Sazed being 6' 7"ish (with Vin being 5' even (easiest, since she tells you it multiple times), Kelsier 6'3-4", Elend 6', etc), with an Asian skin-tone and facial structure (maybe Amazonian tribesmen, that seems to fit; I'm trying to think where I got my idea of him from...), combined with the elongation of limbs due to his castration and his thin build, would make him seem much taller than he really is. This is especially evident when you conisder that the average adult skaa male is probably 5'8" (or shorter), with nobleman maybe hitting 6'. We are thinking of our age, where the average human male is around 6' tall (plus or minus a few inches), when being 6'7" is an impressive height, but not freakishly so. This also puts Kelsier into perspective (if we base his height near my guesses), since he is close to a foot taller than the average skaa, taller even than nobleman, making him seem greater than a normal person. The spread of a few inches also fits Sazed's slight unease at standing near someone almost as tall as he is (can't remember what page it's on, but it is in FE somewhere...)
When he is fighting the koloss in WoA, the koloss is surprised because Sazed is even more muscular than the koloss itself, not because Saze is as tall as it (no Feruchemical metal that has been revealed will let you do that, I believe.) ;)
Also, first post! :o Prepare for much flinging of random/not-so-random ideas; I'm chock full of them!
Where does it say that Kelsier is a foot taller than the skaa?
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Kelsier is described as "tall", but I don't think it ever says exactly how tall or compares him to anyone in particular.
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Not to belabor the point on Sazed's height, but is it not true that when eunuchs are castrated, they become enormous? I think I remember seeing that in a historical documentary about the Roman Empire once...
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quick google search didnt provide much info other than historical context, but I seem to remember eunuchs are tall, have long extremities, and sometimes grow sunken chests with pot bellies. However, this is all from memory, so may not be entirely reliable. The physical effects of castration are vastly different depending on when the person was castrated.