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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Anyone in the LA area willing to mail me their book for loan?
« on: September 16, 2008, 06:57:21 PM »
Sounds like he got banned at exactly the right time, if you ask me.
News:
Max is a Shadowblade, a supernatural--and supernaturally competent--warrior bound to protect her witch Giselle. As a Shadowblade, Max doesn't age. She is better, faster, stronger than any ordinary human being. And she hates it. Giselle betrayed her trust to make Max what she is, and though she is magically compelled to protect Giselle and follow orders, Max works against her witch in every way she can. Continue reading Bitter Night
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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Vin as HOA?
« on: September 12, 2008, 04:16:45 PM »Hmm...? Happyman, are you saying that since Alendi was not the actual HOA and that since....oh i forget his name--the terrisman who at first announced Alendi as HOA but then thought better...ok anyways. Im confused, are you saying that the terrisman not only figured out that Alendi wasn't the HOA but thought it was Rashevak? He does state some attributes about his nephew( that he hates what his people are doing, letting a nonterrisman be the HOA, and that he hates Alendi more acutely). Can those be traits he bears in his metalminds of what the HOA would be like? Im i making any sense?
This isn't really my theory. I actually opposed it until I saw the chapter two bump. It just fits much better now.
There were three main human actors that we know about from the past that lead to the current world situation. There were Alendi, Kwaan and Rashek. We have heard from Alendi, who definitely was not the hero of ages (but thought he was), and from Kwaan, who knew that Alendi was not the hero of ages, despite claiming he was at first. Now we seem to have Rashek, who also clearly thought he was the hero of ages, perhaps with even more justification.
We have no evidence, however, that Kwaan though Rashek was the Hero of Ages; why Rashek thinks he is the hero of ages is something that we will hopefully find out, but it is still speculation to think that Kwaan told him.
Personally, it seems likely that the bumps were written by Rashek. However, I still don't know what he means by Hero of Ages of why he thinks that that's him. We still have a lot to learn.
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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Ruin and Preservation
« on: September 11, 2008, 07:22:17 PM »But Kell needed to die. It was essential to the story.My guess is, someon we care about dies. That's the only thing I could see making me hate the ending of a book written by someone as goodas brandon.
Well, he killed Kelsier and we forgave him for it
Yeah. And any other deaths will probably be essential to the story too. That doesn't stop them from happening.
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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Anyone in the LA area willing to mail me their book for loan?
« on: September 11, 2008, 07:18:53 PM »So is anyone willing to 2nd day ship a book to me for free? Or can anyone buy Sanderson's book on Amazon and put my shipping info as the shipping info, so they are buying me books through Amazon? I am a level 3 poster here on the boards, so don't I get some entitlement for free Sanderson books??
You know, now that I'm in a better mood, I can see how the other posters see this as funny!
That's a good one. Do you have any more?
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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Vin as HOA?
« on: September 11, 2008, 07:11:50 PM »
OK. With the new sample chapter up, surely we can make some guesses?
The possibility that Rashek is the author of the bumps seems to have gone up significantly (if you hadn't noticed, the power was used poorly when TLR took it. The chapter two bump seems to say why it was used poorly.) If that little description is even partly right, well, I'd be scared out of my mind to hold the power.
If that really makes him the Hero of Ages is still up for debate.
The possibility that Rashek is the author of the bumps seems to have gone up significantly (if you hadn't noticed, the power was used poorly when TLR took it. The chapter two bump seems to say why it was used poorly.) If that little description is even partly right, well, I'd be scared out of my mind to hold the power.
If that really makes him the Hero of Ages is still up for debate.
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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Vin as HOA?
« on: September 10, 2008, 01:15:59 AM »
I'd like to add here that Brandon mentions in his annotations that the beliefs listed in MB2 for Kandra are not central to their belief system; they are parts that float on the edges, part of the lore, but not the thrust of the lore. As far as I can tell, every belief system (including most forms of atheism) have some of these; often they can be abandoned without loosing the core of the system as a whole.
I actually expect that they know something about Ruin and Preservation. That sounds much more central. Of course, how they know---that's another question entirely. Maybe after the Lord Ruler lost interest in them they learned something from humans? Or maybe they got it from themselves somehow? Prophecy may be possible in this world; maybe Kandra can prophesy?
Isn't one of the most important questions "Did the Lord Ruler really create the Kandra?" Maybe they were humans before being changed. We don't know the limits of the power used to remake the world. Are mass and energy conserved? If so, then the Kandra were made out of something; it may have been "clay" (inanimate matter), but it may also have been out of living creatures. Ditto for the Koloss. Those creatures are just darn weird, both of them.
So many questions. So little answers. Curse you Ookla!
I actually expect that they know something about Ruin and Preservation. That sounds much more central. Of course, how they know---that's another question entirely. Maybe after the Lord Ruler lost interest in them they learned something from humans? Or maybe they got it from themselves somehow? Prophecy may be possible in this world; maybe Kandra can prophesy?
Isn't one of the most important questions "Did the Lord Ruler really create the Kandra?" Maybe they were humans before being changed. We don't know the limits of the power used to remake the world. Are mass and energy conserved? If so, then the Kandra were made out of something; it may have been "clay" (inanimate matter), but it may also have been out of living creatures. Ditto for the Koloss. Those creatures are just darn weird, both of them.
So many questions. So little answers. Curse you Ookla!
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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Important Warbreaker Values Conflict!
« on: September 08, 2008, 10:44:18 PM »Because... if we do it in an entertaining manner towards the administrators, they give us Fell points?
OK, that's kinda funny. It just seems some people actually take it seriously, instead of mocking the guy out the ears.
Also, I suspect that if the response stays muted, he will keep getting more and more offensive until it triggers something ugly. That's the direction it's headed.
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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Important Warbreaker Values Conflict!
« on: September 08, 2008, 09:55:15 PM »
Guys, why are we putting up with this troll?
DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS!
DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS!
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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« on: September 04, 2008, 07:04:31 PM »I have read most books I own several timesbut like everyone says this thread is about warbreaker.
I have just started reading it and I am enjoying it a lot (despite the misspelled words, which I actually find encouraging; there's hope for me yet!)
but one thing doesnt quite add up for me. If the godking was stillborn at birth, then returned and if the returned dont age... wouldnt he still be a pheotus?
I'm so clever I scare myself sometimes
I started Warbreaker on Monday and had it done on Wednesday. I can definitely say that something did not add up there
Didn't anyone catch that the physical appearance of the Returned is one of the major plot twists? It all made perfect sense to me at the end when I understood what was happening and how it was foreshadowed.
Long story short, the Returned get to choose what they look like; their body responds to their self-image. With practice, they can even make it voluntary (although most don't know that). Returned who are young grow until they choose to stop, and those who are old can do whatever they please (probably within limits, but still.)
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Brandon Sanderson / Re: ALCATRAZ und das Pergament des Todes
« on: September 04, 2008, 06:54:40 PM »Good grief. How to the native speakers learn this stuff?
I am not sure if this was meant to be sarcastic or what, but if you're really asking then it's really a lot easier than English.
In English you basically learn a completely different set of vocabulary - a whole sub language - to speak with your boss. A different one for friends and a different one for family. Also, there is the language for typing on the internet in a chat room and the language of writing on message boards. Sometimes one of these will overlap another, sometimes it will not. For a foreigner to learn the various formalities of English, I believe, it is very difficult when compared to the formalities in Korean & Japanese.
For Korean & Japanese it's pretty simple: change conjugation of the verb. That's the only thing that needs to be done differently to indicate who you are talking to and the relationship between them.
If you want to start getting crazy, let's discuss words relating to various parts of the family in any east Asian language.
It was sort of sarcastic and sort of a real question. But now that I know the answer, I must say thank you for telling me. Yeah, that does sound easier than English. The thing is, you never actually think about your native language until you're forced to.
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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Reen's obsidian
« on: September 04, 2008, 06:41:38 PM »Just thought I'd point out that in the Ruin and Preservation thread we talked quite a bit about who did the tearing and who changed the writings, and the theory that Ookla just (semi-)confirmed just supported what we had already. (Though I admit I still thought it was Ruin who did the original page-tearing.) I think that this is one of the problems of all of our theorizing, is that we have so much information and no way to easily categorize it if we need to check the current theories on any one topic.
Actually, I always thought it was the mist spirit that cut the pages. I thought it was trying to tell Sazed that something was wrong with the manuscript. (After all, it cut the most false part out, the part that absolutely had to be corrected. And Sazed's response was to become more suspicious of the document.) The mist spirit seems to be awfully limited in what it can do, and this seemed to be as good a way as any that was available to it.
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Brandon Sanderson / Re: ALCATRAZ und das Pergament des Todes
« on: September 03, 2008, 02:56:57 AM »Six types for Korean? I only know four... pan mal, middle mal, high mal, and scripture/prayer mal. What else is there?
Let me get my book... .... ...
HA it's not in here. Let me see, I am not going to remember the names like you have mentioned, but here is what I recall:
intimate (for lovers, or possibly for parents to very young children)
family & very close friends
'normal' day to day speech with classmates and friends
formal speech when speaking to professors, teachers, upperclassmen, etc. (polite informal, actually, was what my prof. called it)
formal speech when speaking to people far higher superior than you such as a master or other authority figures ('polite formal' she said)
and the scripture/prayer
*tries to look once more* The professor said we were only going to learn two (normal & polite informal) and that's all the book mentions. I recall a sheet she handed out and identified the rest and how to use them. She also frequently went on tangents regarding the differences between each and also at times their respective words in Japanese.
Ah, the book itself says it introduces the polite formal and the polite informal, but it says nothing of the rest. I can try to find the paper with conjugation rules for the others, if you like?
Good grief. How to the native speakers learn this stuff?
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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Reen's obsidian
« on: September 03, 2008, 02:52:37 AM »No, we generally do not. The magic in this world follows specific rules. We don't know all of them, but every last one that we have seen, every last one that has ever been found, *including the examples listed above* all involve metals, and only metals. Not only that, but trace metals play only the smallest part in the system and seem very unlikely to get involved unless crazy-strong allomancers get involved. Even if they do, it will still be the metal that is special.
In addition, none of these powers leave "footprints" in the usual sense of the word. Once pushing or pulling (physical or emotional) is done, the item (person) moves on its new trajectory following the "non-magical" laws of physics; it has been changed, but the change does not continue; there is no allomantic radiation given off, or any continuing magical change. I've heard rumors that internal pushing and pulling might leave permanent scars, but that's probably more like bending metal with a pull and leaving it be; there is no trace of pulling left over after, just the bent metal (or person).
What you don't seem to understand is that we don't expect EUOL to change the rules midstream. We expect the final picture to make sense in terms consistent with what we already know. You could keep saying things along the lines of "Prove that obsidian can't have magic powers!" and we won't have a final answer for you until we actually read the last book. That doesn't mean that our answers aren't sufficient; we logically cannot prove a negative. We just have to give reasons to think the negative is unfruitful and why we choose to ignore it. Your protests to the contrary aren't swaying anybody; they're just ticking us off, largely because they aren't really adding anything to the debate.
okay happyman, when did you read about the powers TLR acquired presumably from WoA? It's not in the two books, but you certainly know exactly how it happened and what traces of magic don't exist. Also, just because something isn't making itself readily apparent doesn't mean it isn't so - Mr. Sanderson likely has a better imagination than you & I so get off your dilly and use your brain. He hasn't forced everything into a petite little present for you just yet, so wait and see what other surprises he might have before mucking with a valid metal comment.
If the Ashmounts have anything at all to do with anything then I can almost assure you he was quite aware of what obsidian was made of.
I can't prove negatives. I can only say "I think that's likely" and "I don't think that's likely". And I'm sorry I got you riled up; perhaps I was a bit harsher than intended.
However, Ookla has made a good point. There are more powers in the world than we are aware of, and presumably the obsidian could be involved in those somehow. In fact, the power in the well apparently didn't focus on metal either, so I retract some of the more extreme comments I made.
Unfortunately, when we allow these kinds of speculations in, the field is wide open. The obsidian could be...anything. It could be the place preservation is hiding. It could be the focus for killing the inquisitors. It could magically open the door to the ashmounts so we can get to the lake where the last treasure is kept. That's the problem; when we go beyond what has been seen, the world is wide open. We can use imagination all we want, and as creatively as we want, but nobody will be able to argue for any one of the choices in any coherent way. Certainly not with the extremely limited screen time the obsidian has had.
As things stand, "nothing" is still the most coherent thing the obsidian does.
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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Reen's obsidian
« on: September 02, 2008, 08:31:04 PM »We know that Inquisitors can see based on trace metals in non-metal objects, but can they push or pull on them? I can't remember, did the Lord Ruler pull on Vin's trace metals during their fight? The trace metals in obsidian are probably also difficult to pull/push on.
I think, during the fight, two things happened that shed some light on this:
1) TLR pushed on the metals inside Vin's body. This took a *lot* of strength.
2) TLR managed to push the *glass on the floor*, but barely.
Thus we know TLR could push on the metals in generic glass. He could probably also push on the metals in obsidian. However I don't think there is any indicator that this a matter of anything besides TLR having crazy-strong allomantic strength, and I doubt we've seen any other character strong enough to duplicate the feat. In general it seems likely that obsidian is not unusually responsive to allomancy.
Quote
It was, albeit indirectly, created by TLR. You don't think the taint of magic can leave a footprint?
No, we generally do not. The magic in this world follows specific rules. We don't know all of them, but every last one that we have seen, every last one that has ever been found, *including the examples listed above* all involve metals, and only metals. Not only that, but trace metals play only the smallest part in the system and seem very unlikely to get involved unless crazy-strong allomancers get involved. Even if they do, it will still be the metal that is special.
In addition, none of these powers leave "footprints" in the usual sense of the word. Once pushing or pulling (physical or emotional) is done, the item (person) moves on its new trajectory following the "non-magical" laws of physics; it has been changed, but the change does not continue; there is no allomantic radiation given off, or any continuing magical change. I've heard rumors that internal pushing and pulling might leave permanent scars, but that's probably more like bending metal with a pull and leaving it be; there is no trace of pulling left over after, just the bent metal (or person).
What you don't seem to understand is that we don't expect EUOL to change the rules midstream. We expect the final picture to make sense in terms consistent with what we already know. You could keep saying things along the lines of "Prove that obsidian can't have magic powers!" and we won't have a final answer for you until we actually read the last book. That doesn't mean that our answers aren't sufficient; we logically cannot prove a negative. We just have to give reasons to think the negative is unfruitful and why we choose to ignore it. Your protests to the contrary aren't swaying anybody; they're just ticking us off, largely because they aren't really adding anything to the debate.
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Brandon Sanderson / Re: ALCATRAZ und das Pergament des Todes
« on: September 01, 2008, 08:45:38 PM »Harry Potter book 7 is Harry Potter und die Heiligtümer des Todes. Coincidence?
The similarities come because they both talk about death, which is, in German, "Der Tod". The "der" is simply "the", but in German, it indicates that the noun is masculine.
When you make it possessive, "of Death" becomes "des Todes", where "des" is the genitive (in practice, think possessive) form of "the" for nouns with masculine gender. It could also be translated as "of the death" except that we don't typically say "The death", unlike German.
The "und" is simply "and". So because both titles have "[Name] and the [item] of death" (in German, at least), there are going to be similarities between their titles. But most of the similarities are simply grammatical necessities in German. The content is in the blanks that are, in fact, different.
And yes, the "das" in the sentence is part of the noun phrase "das Pergament", which simply means "the parchment" ("pergament" is apparently neuter). "Das" can mean "that", but not in this context.
Incidentally, all my German is old missionary German, so while I've got the grammar, the vocabulary mismatch makes trying to read it a real pain.