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Rants and Stuff / Re: These Stupid Titles IX: Still Without a Title
« on: August 14, 2010, 08:13:25 PM »
Writing desk? Does that mean I am a writing desk or that I use them?
A lot of people describe Scalzi’s Old Man's War novels as military science fiction, but I would classify its sequel Zoë’s Tale as a space opera. It’s a story about, well, Zoë, a teenage girl whose parents are invited to take leadership roles in building a colony on a new planet. Zoë is an enthusiastic member of the group sent to colonize Roanoke, despite the risks—and the risks are considerable even before the political machinations of greater powers boil to the surface. Continue reading Zoë’s Tale
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You'd need an alternate universe in which little to no marketing was done in order to see what difference the marketing made.
The thing tha weakens leaching is that you have to touch the guy, an touching your oponent in a fight isn't actually that easy....
It really depends what constitutes "touching".
Readers have met four shards other than Ruin and Preservation.- From the HoA Q&A.
You've interacted with two directly.
One is a tough call. You've never met the Shard itself, but you've seen its power.
The other one you have not met directly, but have seen its influence.
My take is that the Shards output a constant, passive flow of magical energy that influences everything in its vicinity, specifically its world. This ambient energy changes humans, in the case of Allomancy, and certain aspects of the world, in the case of Hemalurgy. When multiple shards show up in the same world, their different energies produce additional effects, like Feruchemy.
My take on this is similar, but a bit shifted.
From what I understand, the genetics of the people on given planets determine their reaction (if any) to the influence of a shard's presence.
Brandon said at some point, talking about Mistborn and Elantris, that if you took people from one planet and transported them to the other, that they wouldn't neccessarily lose or gain any magic - it all had to due with the specifics of their genetics.
As a note here, the powers granted by all of the metals--even the two divine ones--are not themselves of either Shard. They are simply tools. And so, it's possible that one COULD have found a way to reproduce an ability like atium's while using Preservation's power, but it wouldn't be as natural or as easy as using Preservation to fuel Allomancy.
The means of getting powers--Ruin stealing, Preservation gifting--are related to the Shards, but not the powers themselves.
The powers of Ruin and Preservation are Shards of Adonalsium, pieces of the power of creation itself. Allomancy, Hemalurgy, Feruchemy are manifestations of this power in mortal form, the ability to touch the powers of creation and use them. These metallic powers are how people's physical forms interpret the use of the Shard, though it's not the only possible way they could be interpreted or used. It's what the genetics and Realmatic interactions of Scadrial allow for, and has to do with the Spiritual, the Cognitive, and the Physical Realms.
Condensed 'essence' of these godly powers can act as super-fuel for Allomancy, Feruchemy, or really any of the powers. The form of that super fuel is important. In liquid form it's most potent, in gas form it's able to fuel Allomancy as if working as a metal. In physical form it is rigid and does one specific thing. In the case of atium, it allows sight into the future. In the case of concentrated Preservation, it gives one a permanent connection to the mists and the powers of creation. (I.e., it makes them an Allomancer.)
So when a person is burning metals, they aren't using Preservation's body as a fuel so to speak--though they are tapping into the powers of creation just slightly. When Vin burns the mists, however, she'd doing just that--using the essence of Preservation, the Shard of Adonalsium itself--to fuel Allomancy. Doing this, however, rips 'troughs' through her body. It's like forcing far too much pressure through a very small, fragile hose. That much power eventually vaporizes the corporeal host, which is acting as the block and forcing the power into a single type of conduit (Allomancy) and frees it to be more expansive.