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Messages - Cheese Ninja

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46
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Spren - (Major Spoilers TWoK)
« on: October 01, 2010, 09:05:35 AM »
I'm pretty sure Surgebinding as we've seen it so far has referred to just the Lashings, like Jasnah wrote about in the Ars Arcanum.  The prologue might indicate that there's a more destructive aspect to it as well.
Quote
The Windrunners were an order of the Knights Radiant, and they made use of two primary types of Surgebinding. The effects of these Surgebindings were known—colloquially among the members of the order—as the Three Lashings.
1. Basic/Reverse Lashings: "Gravitational Change/Giving an Object Gravitational Pull"
2. Full Lashing: "Binding Objects Together"
Quote
The stone ridges and mounds bore numerous scars. Some were shattered, blasted-out sections where Surgebinders had fought.
So other Orders probably had abilities categorized as "Surgebinding" as well.  And we haven't seen it specified yet that only Honorspren can create Windrunners either.

2/10 Orders of Knights Radiants possessed inherent Soulcasting ability.  Does that mean Knights from other Orders could learn to do it as well?  We haven't seen enough to know if the two Orders manifest the Soulcasting in different ways.  Maybe Jasnah goes straight to Shadesmar without having to volunteer a truth about herself like Shallan does, but if the effects are the same, should we really categorize them as different types of Soulcasting? Or there's an easier way to Soulcast than going to Shadesmar every time, otherwise I don't think Jasnah would be so blase about using it when she runs out of ink or needs a paperweight.

47
Brandon Sanderson / Re: The value of spheres in WoK (no spoilers)
« on: October 01, 2010, 08:39:02 AM »
I agree, since she was talking about emerald broams specifically, that it's not a particularly useful quote.  I think broams are probably worth a 4 or 5 times their respective marks, but that still makes Kaladin's remark about an emerald chip being worth more than 2 weeks of wages sound wrong to me.  Unless he's talking about after Gaz's bribe, then 4x would work fine.

If a ruby mark is equal to a weeks worth of wages for a sailor, and a sapphire mark is a week's worth of wages for a soldier, I really think ruby would be between sapphire and garnet.

I mean, aren't soldiers usually better paid than sailors?

48
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Herald Chapter Pictures--Identities *spoilers*
« on: September 29, 2010, 06:36:07 PM »
Sorry, I didn't post the whole thing.
Quote
The Windrunners were an order of the Knights Radiant, and they made use of two primary types of Surgebinding. The effects of these Surgebindings were known—colloquially among the members of the order—as the Three Lashings.
The two types are Basic and Full Lashings, and Reverse Lashing is just a specialized version of Basic, it says.

Some of the other Orders might do the inhaling Stormlight trick too, or maybe they can learn it, but they just aren't as good at it as Windrunners.  Lashings/Surgebinding seem to be limited only a few Orders (could it be only Windrunners?)
Quote
“Our own natures destroy us,” the regal man said, voice soft, though his face was angry. “Alakavish was a Surgebinder. He should have known better. And yet, the Nahel bond gave him no more wisdom than a regular man. Alas, not all spren are as discerning as honorspren.”
So, Alakavish was a Surgebinder with a spren, but not an honorspren?  Nohadon's book led to the creation of the Orders of Knights Radiant, which is interesting just by itself.  I've got to wonder if the Almighty or the Heralds somehow affected the book.

I think Dustbringers might be Chach, since its Soulcasting property is Fire.

We're getting a bit far off-topic now though, maybe we should move this to another thread.  There's no lack of Spren/Knights Radiants threads.

On topic:  Do you think it's safe to assume that any Herald in the chapter picture either features in the chapter, or that characters featured in the chapter demonstrate/embody some aspect for which the Herald(s) is/are known?  Or maybe just any Heraldic association that's listed on the chart in the Ars Arcanum?

49
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WoK: Random Thoughts after reading (Spoilers)
« on: September 29, 2010, 05:09:31 PM »
Quote from: Kierlionn on September 29, 2010, 03:28:01 PM
Quote from: Munin on September 29, 2010, 01:41:12 PM
Quote from: Kierlionn on September 29, 2010, 07:34:47 AM
I don't think it meant becoming a light eye literally but more social status wise.
That's not the impression I got. According to Kaladin (in one of the flashbacks to when he was growing up):
Quote from: Way of Kings, page 252
If a man wins a Shardblade on the battlefield, his eyes become light.

And the context of that quote makes it fairly clear that's something very different than simply gaining the social status of a lighteyes by marrying one.

I have no idea why Szeth's eyes aren't always light, though. Maybe he didn't win his Shardblade in battle? It's possible that makes a difference.

It could be possible that is has been slightly mangled by rumors, as we know Szeth's eyes only go light when he summons it, because probably next to none of the darkeye population has a shardblade except on a rare occasion it is possible that it has just been twisted around like hearsay normally is, the only reason I think that is because I don't recall anyone having a firsthand account of a darkeye becoming a lighteye and it is something so rare that it could easily get twisted around.

I agree with you on the characters getting the facts mixed up.  Also, I recall Szeth mentioning that it was a special characteristic of his blade.
Quote
The moment he summoned his Blade, his eyes would turn from dark green to pale—almost glowing—sapphire, a unique effect of his particular weapon.
Here's what Kaladin thought:
Quote
If he took that Blade, he’d become one of them. His eyes would even change, if the stories were right. Though the Blade glistened in the light, clean of the murders it had performed, for a moment it seemed red to him.
I don't think we've seen any indication at all that shardplate will change your eye color.
When Teft gives the recuperating Kaladin the diamond spheres while he's recuperating:
Quote
Kaladin’s eyes snapped open, and they leaked light too, faintly colored amber.
Not sure if the it's the light or the eyes that are amber in that sentence.
Edit: found some more useful quotes from Dalinar's flashback.
Quote
The Shardbearer stood with his Blade resting on his armored shoulder, and he inspected Dalinar with eyes of such bright blue, they were almost white. Were those eyes actually glowing, leaking Stormlight? His skin was dark brown, like a Makabaki, and he had short black curly hair. His armor no longer glowed, though one large symbol—emblazoned across the front of the breastplate—still gave off a faint blue light.
  If the armor glows blue/sapphire, are they always a Windrunner?
Quote
The woman had light tan eyes that almost seemed to glow in the night, and she wore no helm.
...The female Shardbearer stood; her armor glowed with an even amber light. She smiled and turned to the side, a Shardblade forming from mist into her hand as she rushed to aid her companion.

Happyman, you're entirely too hung up on the meanings of those two words.  Although I agree that her father is the most likely former owner of Shallan's shardblade, it's still possible that it had another source. I don't there's anything wrong with her calling it the "proceeds" of an act or "fruit" of her sin if she took it from her father and killed him with it, or killed him with it while stopping him from claiming it for himself for some reason.  But since you're pretty set in your viewpoint, why don't you go with this one: the shardblade fell out of the air after he died and cut through his coat.  He doesn't even have to be wearing the coat in that scenario, just needs it nearby.

The Shallan thread has most of the quotes where she mentioned the shardblade in it, but it's indicated as early as her third chapter in the book:
Quote
Memories attacked her. Nan Balat bruised, his coat torn. A long, silvery sword in her hand, sharp enough to cut stones as if they were water.

50
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WoK: Random Thoughts after reading (Spoilers)
« on: September 29, 2010, 05:12:33 AM »
I wonder how long it will be until we truly understand the relationship between spren and highstorms.  It's notable that Shinovar has a lack of both.  No one else seems to be mentioning "crem" though.  It's a bit a like clay, somewhat poisonous if drunk with the water, and if left alone will harden to stone.  I find it a little bit strange for it to be coming out of the sky.  I think Odium may have hijacked the Origin for his own means, there's a brief mention of highstorms becoming more powerful lately, and the Almighty's vision of the Everstorm came from the Origin as well.

In a nutshell, the discussion about Shallan's shardblade is trying to reconcile two different things.: 1) Since her father's Soulcaster was in an inside pocket of his coat, and was sheared through (a chain and a gem setting), he was likely cut with a shardblade while wearing it.  2)Shallan refers to the shardblade as the fruit of her most heinous sin.  There's a few theories that satisfy both criteria, but we don't have enough information for something concrete.

I honestly don't think Taravangian is part of the ghostbloods.  Kabsal's attempt on Jasnah's life was pointless if you consider that Taravangian's staff makes all of her meals, and that he is sharp enough to hide a huge hospital of death in the middle of his palace.  There's just no need for a clumsy assassin, if he really wanted to kill Jasnah, he could have had it done easily, without it being traced to him.  Taravangian is either part of his own group, or associated with Restares.

Dalinar's boon and curse:  I think the curse was the loss of memory of his wife.  I don't think we've had any big hints about the boon.  Az's brief talk about his family and their curses (seeing the world upside down, numb hands) and boons (a bolt of cloth) gave me the impression that regardless of what the boon is, the curse is something that sticks with you for the rest of your life.

Hoids comment at the end that there was a good reason the Alethi put light-eyed people in charge of their society was interesting too.  Are light eyes families originally descended from Radiants?  I can't remember if all the Radiants were light-eyed or not...

51
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Herald Chapter Pictures--Identities *spoilers*
« on: September 28, 2010, 10:50:05 PM »
Quote from: guy on September 28, 2010, 07:56:04 PM
Quote from: FollowYourMuse on September 27, 2010, 08:00:44 PM
I think just by thinking of the series, and that we know there are 10 orders of the knights Radiant, that it would not make sence for 2 of the main POV charachters to be of the same order.
so we can reasonably assume that Szeth and Kaladin are in different orders?  the ars arcanum does mention that windrunners used two orders of surgebinding

actually it said:
Quote
The Windrunners were an order of the Knights Radiant, and they made use of two primary types of Surgebinding.
Pretty sure all the Windrunners are of the same Order(1st).  I think the mechanic for using Stormlight differs between Orders.  Jes's Body Focus is "Inhalation" which is how both Szeth and Kaladin absorb Stormlight. 

That said, I don't see how the body focus applies to the bit of Soulcasting we've seen from  Jasnah and Shallan.

52
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WoK: The Heralds *Spoilers*
« on: September 26, 2010, 05:01:44 PM »
Quote from: Dryone on September 25, 2010, 11:36:06 PM
Shalash is Baxis' mistress in one of the interludes. She's on a quest to destroy any picture or statue of herself, that's why her statue is missing.

Thanks for the quote with the gender breakdown, I missed that!

Super delicious, I love it.  This is now the theory I'm supporting.  The other thing was funny, but way too weak.

also, epigraph:
Quote
16.“A woman sits and scratches out her own eyes. Daughter of kings and winds, the vandal.”—Dated Palahevan,
Quote
“The Heralds aren’t gods,” Teft scoffed.
“To you they aren’t,” Sigzil said. “Others regard them differently. The Emuli have what your scholars like to call a splinter religion—containing some Vorin ideas. But to the Emuli, you would be the splinter religion.” Sigzil seemed to find that amusing, though Teft just scowled.
Quote
Yes, the mistress claimed that the palace servants would be busy getting the new guest wing ready, but this was the home of Ashno of Sages himself. One of the richest and holiest men in all of Emul. He had hundreds of servants. What if one of them walked down this hallway?

Doesn't explain why she seems to take satisfaction in the destruction, but maybe that's just her personality. (A shardblade might be too easy, she states.)

Edit: added some quotes.

53
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WoK: The Heralds *Spoilers*
« on: September 24, 2010, 10:59:36 PM »
Quote from: Morsker on September 24, 2010, 07:27:38 PM
Quote from: Cheese Ninja on September 23, 2010, 07:53:12 AM
The drunk guy is actually Shalash, and he got rid of his statue using his Heraldic powers because he thought it would be a good practical joke.  He's not actually speaking in gibberish, just a language unknown to Szeth.

I had something like this idea on one of the other fan sites, and the main objection I got was that Shalash is almost certainly female, because of the similarity to Shallan's name, and because 5/7 remaining Heralds are female. The drunk was standing between Szeth and a row of Herald statues when he asked, "Have you seen me?" though, which I think is very suspicious. So even if he isn't Shalash, maybe this guy is a Herald who tried to hide as a beggar and forget his past, then got too drunk and started blabbing it to Szeth.

It's not a great theory or anything, it's just all I can come up with on the limited information we have.  I'm glad and amused to read that I'm not the only one who has thought it up.   Shalash does sound like one of the more feminine names, but there isn't really enough to make a definitive statement.

Where/when did we get a gender breakdown of the Heralds?
Nevermind, I found it. 
Quote
He began walking, leading Adolin around the back rim of the temple chamber. They passed statues of the Heralds, five male, five female. In truth, Adolin knew very little of what Kadash was saying. He’d never had much of a mind for history that didn’t relate directly to the command of armies.

54
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WoK: The Heralds *Spoilers*
« on: September 24, 2010, 08:18:18 AM »
Quote
I actually like that theory. When I first read that passage and noticed the missing statute, I was like somethings going on here. I though maybe Shalash was in Alethi at the time and hid the statute to not be recognised, but I never considered the drunk to be Shalash.
It's been 4 and half thousand years, it's questionable how well the statues actually resemble them at this point. Their names have been altered to fit the religious principles, after all.  Honestly, it's not a great theory, but it's the best I can come up with at this point.  And it's funny.  Shalash is probably upset that Galinar's assassination overshadowed his practical joke, and will go into hiding the rest of the series, as he sulks.

55
Brandon Sanderson / Re: I would like your opinion on the source of the dying visions (minor spoilers).
« on: September 23, 2010, 10:20:20 PM »
Quote from: douglas on September 23, 2010, 10:14:48 PM
I'm wondering if that's actually about Kaladin as the "I" person.  Promises are not usually referred to as "killed", but that choice of word would make perfect sense if it's referring to Kaladin's promise to bring his brother home alive. Maybe Amaram's the one who "saved" his life, by granting him the mercy of being sold into slavery instead of killed with the rest of his squad? Hard to say who counts as having killed the promise under this interpretation, though.

I'd say Varth and Amaram are the ones most responsible for killing his promise of protecting Tien.  And then Amaram killed some of his men later as well.  Although why Kaladin would be protecting either of them from Dalinar, (Dalinar has saved Kalidan's life twice so far) I have no idea.  So I think we just don't have information yet to figure out what's going on in this prophecy.  Honestly, there's been a lot of life-saving so far already, and I think that more will happen as the series keeps going.

56
Brandon Sanderson / Re: The value of spheres in WoK (no spoilers)
« on: September 23, 2010, 10:08:35 PM »
Quote from: brycex99 on September 23, 2010, 10:01:17 PM
It seems like if Kaladin made 10 clearmarks in 2 weeks, and an emerald chip is "more than he normally made in 2 weeks" then an emerald chip would have to be worth more than 8 clearmarks. Or are you assuming he's referencing his net income after the bribe?

It bothers me too.  I can't find any place where the broam/mark conversion rate is mentioned specifically.  I'm just assuming its the same as the mark/chip conversion rate.

If it was 4 marks to a broam, then emerald marks would be worth 50 diamond marks, and emerald chips would be worth 10 diamond chips.  Which I still don't like.

57
Brandon Sanderson / Re: The value of spheres in WoK (no spoilers)
« on: September 23, 2010, 09:45:37 PM »
Quote from: Rhuan on September 23, 2010, 09:27:16 PM
Hmm, where do you get the 8 from? I didn't follow where that appeared from.

I'm assuming a broam is worth 5 times what a mark is. I can't find a conversion rate in the book.  If so, an emerald broam would be worth 25 emerald chips. (emerald broam = 200 diamond marks)/25 = 8 diamond marks, or 40 diamond chips.

Topaz and ruby and zircon only show up a few times, so it's tough to figure out what they're worth.
Quote
Lamaril waved Gaz over, so he reluctantly approached. Then he took a sphere out of his pouch and passed it over. A topaz mark. He hated losing it. He always hated losing money.
“You owe me twice as much as this,” Lamaril noted, raising the sphere up to look through it as it sparkled in the sunlight.
Quote
Kaladin patted the bridgeman on the shoulder, then left him to his work, surrounded by a small ring of topaz chips; Kaladin had gotten permission to bring them, explaining his men needed light to work on the armor.

So Gaz was paying Lamaril in topaz marks, so I would think they'd be a bit more valuable.  But it's not too odd for Kaladin to have topaz chips?
Quote
“This is for you,” Shallan said, taking out a ruby mark and handing it to Yalb.
“Brightness, this is too much!”
“It’s partially out of thanks,” she said, “but is also to pay you to stay here and wait for a few hours, in case I return.”
“Wait a few hours for a firemark? That’s wages for a week’s sailing!”
I'd assume a week's worth of wages for a sailor is less than a week's worth of wages for a soldier, so rubies are probably somewhere between garnets and sapphires.

58
Brandon Sanderson / Re: The value of spheres in WoK (no spoilers)
« on: September 23, 2010, 04:49:14 PM »
so, what's the denomination chart?
Quote
“This is for you,” Shallan said, taking out a ruby mark and handing it to Yalb.
“Brightness, this is too much!”
“It’s partially out of thanks,” she said, “but is also to pay you to stay here and wait for a few hours, in case I return.”
“Wait a few hours for a firemark? That’s wages for a week’s sailing!”
Quote
Diamond marks, each worth five diamond chips. A single chip would buy a loaf of bread.
Quote
A sapphire sphere was worth about twenty-five times a diamond one. As Kaladin made one diamond mark a day, a skymark was worth as much as Kaladin made in half a month. Of course, a common darkeyed soldier earned five clearmarks a day, which would make this a week’s wages to them.
Those are some long months. 50 days.  Weeks are 5 days.
Quote
It was five diamond marks to a garnet.
Quote
An emerald broam was the largest denomination of sphere, worth a thousand diamond chips. Ten of them was more than her trip to Kharbranth had cost by several magnitudes!
Quote
Kaladin looked down at the sphere. An emerald chip. More than he normally earned in two weeks.
He would earn 10 clearmarks in 2 weeks (if you include his bribe to Gaz, 8, if you include income from selling knobweed sap, considerably more)
Quote
This single emerald broam was worth what a bridgeman slave would make in two hundred days.
If what were told earlier was true, shouldn't it be exactly what a bridgeman makes in 200 days?
Quote
There, she used all her remaining spheres to fill the oversized goblet lamp. To get enough light, she was forced to use spheres of all nine colors and all three sizes, so the illumination was patchy and varied.

Despite all the various denominations, How many have we seen used so far? And does that quote mean that only 9 and not 10 gems are used in money?

so, a chip is worth 1/5 of it's respective mark.  Is a broam worth 5x what a mark is?  That would put an emerald chip at 8 clearmarks... And it would put the 100 diamond broams at 2.5 emerald broams.  I can't decide if these sound right or not.  As far as the worth of an emerald broam: 1000 loaves of bread. A slave is 1.5-3 emerald broams, depending on quality.

59
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WOK: Navani's Notebook Translation *MAJOR SPOILERS*
« on: September 23, 2010, 04:11:53 PM »
Quote from: Harakeke on September 21, 2010, 01:19:10 AM
The Alethi alphabet is rather elegant in the way it organizes phonemes, and graphemes seem to be systematically derived from the sound properties of their corresponding phonemes, rather than simply being abstract symbols.  Each grapheme has two elements that describe its sound properties: shape and size. The different shapes correspond to the location in the mouth the sounds are produced: hashes are vowels, left and right arrows are various alveolar consonants, diamonds are bilabial consonants, and fancies are velar consonants.  Height relates to breath control - the amount of stress and voicing the sound recieves. The taller the line, the greater the stress.
Reading written Alethi script evokes speaking the word aloud in a much more direct fashion than English letters, with the sound rising and falling with the letters' curves.

This is pretty awesome, I understand the general idea, even if I don't know the particular types of consonants.

The writing style is pretty, but I think for a personal research/observation journal, it would make more sense to use the shorthand (just top or bottom) instead of bothering with the mirroring.  Unless this isn't her personal research journal, and instead an official research paper that Navani is going to be getting peer reviewed.
Quote from: Stormblessed on September 23, 2010, 02:20:22 AM
Quote from: Cheese Ninja on September 20, 2010, 11:52:44 PM
Is it just me, or does this manner of writing seem a bit impractical?

This is probably a special way of writing. Your everyday girl (men don't write unless their ardents) writes in a normal language like in Shallan's journal.  This writing is probably a more formal way of writing. Remember Jasnah holds prejudices against Shallan's way of writing, which may be shared by her mother (they do seem kind of close).

I get the impression that Shallan's journal is in English (along with some of the other pictures in the series) just to make it easy for us to understand.  Any writing to convey information would really be done in the Alethi way in the series itself, regardless of how it's presented to us.  That said, do all the cultures in Stormlight Archive use this same alphabet,  even though their words and meanings are different?

60
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WoK: The Heralds *Spoilers*
« on: September 23, 2010, 07:53:12 AM »
Oh, I came up with a funny/dumb theory about Shalash's missing statue in the prologue.  It works though, assuming that the Heralds are immortal and have powers beyond the average person.
Quote
Szeth left the feasting chamber behind. Just outside, he passed the doorway into the Beggars’ Feast. It was an Alethi tradition, a room where some of the poorest men and women in the city were given a feast complementing that of the king and his guests. A man with a long grey and black beard slumped in the doorway, smiling foolishly—though whether from wine or a weak mind, Szeth could not tell.
“Have you seen me?” the man asked with slurred speech. He laughed, then began to speak in gibberish, reaching for a wineskin. So it was drink after all. Szeth brushed by, continuing past a line of statues depicting the Ten Heralds from ancient Vorin theology. Jezerezeh, Ishi, Kelek, Talenelat. He counted off each one, and realized there were only nine here. One was conspicuously missing. Why had Shalash’s statue been removed? King Gavilar was said to be very devout in his Vorin worship. Too devout, by some people’s standards.

The drunk guy is actually Shalash, and he got rid of his statue using his Heraldic powers because he thought it would be a good practical joke.  He's not actually speaking in gibberish, just a language unknown to Szeth.

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