"Magic is what makes fantasy fantastic," someone says, "you can't apply rules to them or else it loses wonder!" I respond, "Sure, but if you want to write them you will certainly want to know how they work." Writing is all about execution, and I find applying some basic laws of physics to magic systems make them more understandable and realistic. Here, I'm going to outline my basic method for developing a magic system.
Column by Chaos2651
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and he had to edit the Hobbit after the fact to make the Ring of Power make sense.
Now in regards to Roshar, I might be remembering wrong, but I remember the number 17, in regards to the Desolations or the Voidbringers? Is that right? I do for sure remember different names regarding the desolations with Odium being the final Desolation. If Odium is being considered one of these shards what of these other names mentioned? I don't have my book with me to give examples as I'm writing from my phone, but I believe proof was in a few of the transcriptions before each chapter.The Chapter Epitaphs from Chapter 2 are what you are thinking of, they are a letter we assume is from Hoid, and is being sent to either The Almighty (unlikely) or Cultivation (the other shard (god) on Roshar)Quote from:12 - Old Friend, I hope this missive finds you well. Though, as you are now essentially immortal, I would guess that wellness on your part is something of a given.
13 - I realize that you are probably still angry. That is pleasant to know. Much as your perpetual health, I have come to rely upon your dissatisfaction with me. It is one of the cosmere's great constants, I should think.
14 - let me first assure you that the element is quite safe. I have found a good home for it. I protect its safety like I protect my own skin, you might say.
15 - You do not agree with my quest. I understand that, so much as it is possible to understand someone with whom I disagree so completley.
16 - Seven and a half years ago
17 - Might I be quite frank? Before, you asked why I was so concerned. It is for the following reason:
18 - Ati was once a kind and generous man, and you saw what became of him. Rayse, on the other hand, was among the most loathsome, crafty, and dangerous individuals I have ever met.
19 - He holds the most frightening and terrible of all of the shards. Ponder on that for a time, you old reptile, and tell me if your insistence on nonintervention holds firm. Because I assure you, Rayse will not be similarly inhibited.
20 - Seven years ago
21 - One need only look at the aftermath of his brief visit to Sel to see proof of what I say.
22 - In case you have turned a blind eye to that disaster, know that Aona and Skai are both dead, and that which they held has been splintered. Presumably to prevent anyone from rising up to challenge Rayse.
23 - You have accused me of arrogance in my quest. You have accused me of perpetuating my grudge against Rayse and Bavadin. Both accusations are true.
24 - Neither point makes the things I have written to you here untrue.
25 - Seven years ago
26 - I am being chased. Your friends of the Seventeenth Shard, I suspect. I believe they're still lost, following a false trail I left for them. They'll be happier that way. I doubt they have any inkling of what to do with me should they actually catch me.
27 - If anything I have said makes a glimmer of sense to you, I trust that you'll call them off. Or maybe you could astound me and ask them to do something productive for once.
28 - For I have never been dedicated to a more important purpose, and the very pillars of the sky will shake with the results of our war here. I ask you again. Support me. Do not stand aside and let disaster consume more lives. I've never begged you for something before, old friend.
I do so now.
Parshendi are not dozens of feet tall, and the armor is not hard as rock either, though. Remember that we still have no solid evidence that Jasnah is actually right. What is described in the quote from the Prelude above sounds like a thunderclast.The parshendi shardbearer that fought Dalinar was "a seven-foot-tall giant" (page 930 of the orignal hardback (chap 68)). Like the Red and Black skin became Fire and Ash, the impressive stature became a Dozen Feet, then Dozens of feet, and the hard Carapace became rock.
This discussion lead me to a new idea about the voidbringers: The other beings described to have rock-like skin, or shells, are the chulls! Chasmfiends, too, but chulls are also described as having rock-like shells, plus red claws and legs. This may be a little far out, but most of the prophecies could also fit chulls... Music when they kill does finger the Parshendi though.
Thunderclast are beasts of rock, they have no skin and would not be described as having skin as hard as rock, but rather beign described as having skin OF rock (or more likely as having a body made of rock). Also the "Skin as hard as rock" quote includes nothing about triangular heads.
Chasmfiends are not "Beasts of rock and flame" Even their blood isn't red, they are a much worse match for the Voidbringers then the Parshendi are, and they are not intelligent. No animal foe, regardless of how strong, fast, or powerful, is as dangerous as an intelligent Foe.
sacrificing a few to save many? and the 'few' are mostly people who are dying or terminally ill or so ill they wouldn't survive on their own. pretty messed up, but what he's doing could end up saving the world.
Considering that, I see him like Szeth: good at heart but sorely misguided. Used.
That bit reminds me of the phrase, "I know I'm sane, because the voices in my head tell me so."
My theory is that it's related to what I've come to call Geranid's Certainty Principle. Namely, that measuring an attribute of a spren (and recording that measurement) fixes said attribute for as long as the record stands. Kaladin serves as caliper and record for Syl. Remember when she left him, and almost lost herself? Somehow, he is measuring her, and she evolves along with his "record" of her attributes.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the blatantly obvious parallel to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, from modern Quantum Mechanics.
Basically the idea is that a particle can be in any one of eight different states UNLESS you actually measure it - then it is DEFINITELY in one state. But until it's measured, it can be in any one of those eight states (or perhaps even eight at once?).
There are already working computers that take advantage of this theory. Things that shouldn't work... and yet they do.
-e-
I got Heisenberg mixed up with Schroedinger
- What shattered the shattered plains? It is described as if something heavy fell on the land there. Must have been quite the impact, but they are not a crater. I originally figured they were created by erosion, but that statement hints at something else...I know I put out a theory (unfounded) above, but I have been re-reading and came up with a new theory.Quote from: WoK - Prelude to The Stormlight Archive(about halfway down page 15 of the original hardback)It is possible that the Shattered plains were created when thousands of Thunderclasts were animated from the stones. (Picture voidbinders standing still in rings, animating thunderclasts from the stones all around them. Where the Voidbinders stand you have a plateau, around them you have chasms. You create an army (of thunderclasts) and at the same time a defensive matrix of dry moats)
Less frequently, he passed cracked, oddly shaped hollows where thunderclasts had ripped themselves free of the stone to join the fray.
Theories aside, Sanderson has said that the Shattered plains were lifted from Dragonsteel and put into WoK, so how they were shattered is likely to be either world neutral (meteor for example) or back filled (the area was needed, so it was created, then a story of how it was created was written into the book as an after thought).
While it's true that Ruin needed to be free to exert any actual control over creatures like the Koloss or the Inquisitors, he was still able to move things along fairly well without just body jacking someone.
Remember he manipulated Vin into freeing him, manipulated Vin's mother into spiking and played Zane fairly well with his "You are insane" God voice. Ruin could certainly effect people without being freed, it was just more of a subtle game.
It would make sense that he would be slowly pushing the Inquisitors to take more control of the church since in the final empire the church is basically government. Additionally, Inquisitors have a much larger number of Hemalurgic spikes than anything else, so it's possible that Ruin could speak to them more or grant greater influence. I'm not entirely sure what Ruin would have done with control of the church, it just seems like he was kind of betting on the long shot with Vin killing TLR and then releasing the Well's energy. It makes sense that he would have a back up plan to use Vin even if she died
I believe you, but can you point me to the source? (I am assuming a Brandon Sanderson interview or blog post)
- Dalinar is doing something with his Shardplate during the fight with the Chasmfiend. At one point, where he is jumping up, it says his armor almost found the right direction to land on its own. This could well be Dalinar using something stormlight-related without knowing it - just like Kaladin did exceptionally well in combat and at the bridge before realizing what was going on.
- finally, what are the Tranquiline Halls? Just the Rosharian equivalent of heaven? Or is there something - as Jasnah said, I am now looking for natural explanations for supernatural beliefs... may they have some form of a (far-away) historical basis?
