Timewaster's Guide Archive

Magic Sword destined to be held by the prophetic male magic user created during the age of enlightenment 3000 years past? It could have been a spear, an axe, or any number of other objects, why a sword?   Why is said sword so important for prophecy?   No they aren't exactly the same, but they hold the same place when comparing storylines.   The fact that Rand barely used it and that it's a major plot point throughout the SoT series(going as far as the series being named after it) is just a difference in storytelling.

I don't think we can necessarily generalize from the two shards we've seen and assume that the shards always come in opposed pairs.

If we are to believe that the number 16 is a divine number, then we can also at least speculate Shard science based on the examples of 16 we have seen thus far(If we are assuming there are 16 Shards that is).    With the Metals, there are 16 of them, each has an opposing metal, and they are grouped in fours by attribute.   I don't think its a long shot to say this is a very plausible explanation for Shards as well.

I don't think we ever got confirmation that the guy was Hoid, did we?   I always figured that Vin could smell the trap and just avoided it.   Then again, Vin was spiked, so maybe it was Ruin telling her not to go there just like she felt the mists had changed and were her enemy during book 3.

OK children, quit arguing.  Debating is cool, but just flat out arguing is annoying.

1. If an Atium misting could also burn Malatium that would break rules already set up by the magic system and if you ever read Brandon's First Law Essay he talks about different magic systems and how they need to be set up.  One of the sections talks of how systems with set rules that are strictly followed should not break those rules, so Brandon wouldn't do that.

2. The term Atium Misting and Seer ARE confirmed in the book.

3. The book inherently DOES CONFIRM that none of these "Atium Borns" exist by simple laws of the Magic system.

4. I guess if you would like to involve Hemalurgy into the argument you could make an "Atium Born" but then it wouldn't be the same thing that you are talking about.

First, wasn't arguing, never do.
1.  As comatose said.
2. They are confirmed by people in the book, not by actions in the book.   No "Atium Misting" ever tried burning Malatium and failed.
3. The book doesn't even tell all the laws of the magic system, why would you assume you know them.
4. Not involving Hemalurgy, not required.

Mok, I like where you are going with that.   Yeah, I suspect Rashek made the pits very much for that reason but it makes me wonder why he didn't make it more like a typical mining operation.   I know he wanted to keep things secret but at the same time, it seems a very bad method of extracting the atium.   Maybe there were other things we don't know that were involved with the pits.   Maybe the pits already existed(like the nuggets of Lerasium) but Rashek just learned about them when he took the well.   Interesting.

I would guess there are exactly the same number of divine elements as there are shards.   They said that the divine elements are representation of the shards within the world.

I wonder if Elend injesting the last piece of Lerasium ended Preservations life in a way.   With no body left and his mind caught up in holding Ruin hostage and finally his power being dispersed, Preservation could no longer survive.   Might be why Rashek left just a single piece as he knew.

Quote from: Shadowkiller on November 13, 2008, 01:15:42 PM

I have a theory about the people staying sick longer.   I expect the method used by Preservation to snap the mistings doesn't mix well with Atium, hense why those people stayed sick longer.   I also wonder if "Atium mistings", I quote cause this is a name given by BS and not confirmed by book, could burn any and all alloys of Atium therefore not being mistings at all but rather Atium-born.

The book uses both the terms "Atium misting" (it's the obvious method) and "Seer" (Yomen uses this one, and it's a very natural name for it) to describe someone who can burn only Atium.

I'd like to point out who wrote the book.   Remember, I am the person who claims everything in the book is biased and misdirectional because BS wants it to be.

Au contraire.  Sazed said there was something very deep and fundamental about the number sixteen, something that related to the way the universe itself worked.  He said that Preservation used 16 because it was so fundamental to the way the world worked, Ruin couldn't counter it.  He said, in fact, that he didn't fully understand all the implications of 16, even with his expanded intellect.  Thus I feel that my statement is a solid speculation firmly based on canon.  If you wish a citation for this reference, I will  have to get it later.  It was one of the bumps after the Allomancy/Mist connection had been found.

As for Sazed absorbing two of them:  That doesn't change the number of powers, just the number of personalities controlling the powers.  I still suspect that there are sixteen powers, or shards.  If they are being recombined, then good for them.  They were, after all, apparently one once.

I'll bow down to you on this one. I only took note of the fact that Sazed said Preservation used the number 16 to let the people know he was doing something and apparently ignored/forgot the rest.

As to the 5 or 6 shards thing, I'm fairly certain BS said that we had encountered 4 other shards beyond Ruin and Preservation.   I don't think he indicated how many there were total.

On a side note, anyone wanna bet that there are 16 shards?

I would bet against there being 16 shards.   Sazed said 16 was the number that Preservation used to let people know he was doing something.   There is no indication that the number 16 went above and beyond that.   Plus if there were 16, Sazed now brought the number down to 15 by absorbing two of them.

I was an RJ fan long before I ever heard of BS.   The WoT books are amazing and its just too bad that you wont get to do all the speculating we got to do over the years.   From what I've been told the first three books were built as a trilogy.   RJ, I guess, had originally planned to do the whole story in three books but it ran long.   He continued to try to make each book readable on its own well into the sixth book but realized that it wasn't possible and backed off on the big recaps around then.   Most people that had problems had them in the 4-6 area.   Book 7 picks up again and he does a good job right up to book 10.   Many people don't like book 10 thanks to the fact that it is a setup book and nothing truly happens.   Book 11, though, manages to do so much in the course of a single book that it makes several other previous books look bad.

Throughout the series, there are prophecies and dreams and such that are made and some are quickly completed while others manage to hold on till the very end.   Most of us that have been with the series for a long time speculated greatly on what types of things mean what.   RJ did a fantastic job weaving an intricate storyline that extends over the course of 12 books and its extremely exciting to be at the end.   RJ can get a bit wordy at times and for some people this can be a big turn off, but for the rest of us, it just makes the story that much better.

There are many tools and websites out there to help people with the books.   One of the biggest helps I've found was a character archive which seems to no longer exist but reminded me things like who was that Macura Lady from the latest book.   There are over 1k major and minor characters amongst the books and many are recurring so it gets tough to keep track of them.

Its a book series that is well worth the read and I would suggest it to anyone.