Timewaster's Guide Archive

I'm definitely not doing anything productive, but hey, summer only lasts a bit longer! I need to read read read!

And what have I been reading? A crapload of Dresden. I found my copies of Fool Moon and Grave Peril (which I had previously thought vanished into aether), so I finished those yesterday. I read Summer Knight today, and I will probably start Death Masks momentarily...

I know. There might be a little less science in the next one compared to the first and second one (depending on which idea I pick. One is sciencey, one is mathy), but it will definitely be more sciencey than this one. This was just a writing article, which after Toy Story 3 I felt needed to be written.

Plus, c'mon. An article on threequels when it's episode three? I couldn't pass that up.

Ee, if you repost that in this thread in three years, you'll probably get in trouble for necromancy, but it'll totally be worth it. >.> <.<

Oh my god, that made me laugh so hard. It would've been the funniest thing I've read today, but I've been reading Dresden, so...

I wrote 2800 words on Rebirth. Holy crap, you're amazed.

Okay, quit complaining, falcon

The primary issue is that the Delving doesn't seem important, as little information is unveiled to us. Sure, we figure out that Roethe knew his way around the Consulate, but that's heavily implied in chapter one. We know he was important. So, the Delving didn't reveal much that was necessary.

No, your goal with showing Delving here was obviously to display it early, because it's going to be important later. You wanted us to see that Delving was cool. But its less cool and more disorienting. I was always fairly clear on what the external action was (see below at the line edits), but your explanation for why James couldn't leave the Delve were lackluster. I think what you meant is that the trance Roethe was in to protect himself from the torture prevented James from leaving, but I'm not certain that actually makes sense.

Roethe, in that first memory, placed his mind in a trance. This has the effect of him being okay. I'm not understanding how this forces James to experience it. Such transferrence seems almost counterintuitive. Also, the phrase "He took himself into the Heartglass" almost gives the impression that the real Roethe placed his entire mind into the Heartglass, in effect still being alive. The sentence "Follow Roethe" supports this notion. Since there's no other evidence of Roethe being "alive", I'm fairly sure this was not the impression you wanted to make.

And then, once in a more peaceful memory, James could escape, I guess? Yeah. Delving's "cool" logic is in fact, very confusing. (Mostly, the two paragraphs here pulled me out of the story in a "what?" moment: "A trance. He took himself into the Heartglass. That cheap bastard. And he was stuck here, to experience everything Roethe never had. He wished the knife he'd stabbed Roethe with had been dull.
   An idea crept into his head. If he couldn't get out, maybe he could go deeper. Follow Roethe. Surely he had gone to a more peaceful memory.")

I don't know enough about the mechanics of Delving and Heartglass to see the significance of the inconsistencies James notices, like being able to focus away from Roethe and the extra clarity. It less sets up an intriguing mystery and I am left with a passive "that's nice". Everything here could be interesting, and I'm vaguely intrigued, but you'll definitely need something fantastic in the next chapter or two to pull the reader totally into the story.

For positive things, your blocking is quite good. Most always, the principal action is perfectly clear (see line edits for the few unclear ones). The parts in prison are the clearest and most immediate, so its no wonder that I liked that segment of the chapter better. The prison scene had consequences. The Delving, not so much.

There's not a lot of character voice from James specifically, but that does not make him less interesting to read. I just focus on the external events more. Since there is tension (at least with the prison), this works. Good job on the character front.

Line items:

The first page is slightly disorienting--which I know is your intention--but I think it could be clearer by replacing some of the "he" with "James". One or two of those would clear things up considerably.

Instead of "It had streaks of pink Aerendai blood spattered against it." use "It had streaks of Roethe's pink Aerendai blood spattered against it." I reread Chapter One, too. We could use more reminders that Roethe is not human.

I believe it is NOT confirmed. But it is a popular theory that has not been denied.

Okay, maybe I do need to find my quote 

Aha! There we go, found it. It was on the Barnes and Noble Q&A. And hey, the reason I remember it was because I asked the question.

Hemalurgically, atium steals Allomantic Temporal Powers. But, that seems unlikely, since atium is a god metal. It wouldn't fit in with the rest of the magic system. Did Preservation, in addition to switching Cadmium and Bendalloy for Atium and Malatium, also switch atium's Feruchemical and Hemalurgic powers with Cadmium? Because it seems to me there's not a lot of atium Marsh can use to live for hundreds of years into the next Mistborn trilogy.

Preservation wanted Atium and Malatium to be of use to the people, as he recognized that it would be a very powerful tool--and that using it up could help defeat Ruin.  But he also recognized that sixteen was a mythological important number, and felt it would make the best sign for his followers.  So he took out the most unlikely (difficult to make and use) metals for his sign to his followers.  But that doesn't have much to do with Hemalurgy's use here.
 
Remember that the tables--and the ars Arcanum--are 'in world' creations.  (Or, at least, in-universe.)  The knowledge represented in them is as people understand it, and can always have flaws.  That was the case with having atium on the table in the first place, and that was the case with people (specifically the Inquisitors) trying to figure out what atium did Hemalurgically.
 
Their experiments (very expensive ones) are what determined that atium (which they thought was just one of the sixteen metals) granted the Allomantic Temporal powers.  What they didn't realize is that atium (used correctly) could steal ANY of the powers.  Think of it as a wild card.  With the right knowledge, you could use it to mimic any other spike.  It works far better than other spikes as well.

As for Marsh, he's got a whole bag of atium (taken off of the Kandra who was going to try to sell it.)  So he's all right for quite a while.  A small bead used right can reverse age someone back to their childhood.
 
But this was a little beyond their magical understanding at the time.

Emphasis mine for the specific piece of interest.

All of Brandon's answers from that specific Q&A have been reposted here: http://www.timewastersguide.com/forum/index.php?topic=6953 This one was midway down on the second page.

Quote from: Chaos2651 on August 11, 2010, 08:47:20 PM

It's important to note that people don't actually burn lerasium. Elend never burned lerasium, he ingested it, which gave him a permanent link to Preservation (ie: making him an Allomancer). This is separate from actually burning lerasium as an Allomancer. When you burn lerasium, that doubles your Allomantic power.

A subtle difference, I know, but an important one.

Wow. I didn't know that. That does change things. That actually really helps. I'd always assumed that since everyone had a greater part of Preservation than Ruin in them, they instinctively recognized Larasium enough to Allomantically burn it. Almost as if Larasium did most of the burning for them. I didn't know that ingesting it was enough.

So do we know why people don't get some power out of simply ingesting atium?

Brandon's RAFO'd it, but I'm sure there is some sort of other effect.

Quote from: Chaos2651 on August 11, 2010, 08:47:20 PM

Atium spikes actually steal any power (if used in the correct positions, of course)

Didn't know this either. I don't suppose you know if atium has it's own correct position do you? Or do you simply substitute it for any other spike? Can a atium spike imbued with an Allomantic physical metal power be inserted in a pewter-point?

I wouldn't be surprised if you don't know though. I don't think we know enough of about Hemalurgy to make any kind of accurate guess.

Atium can act like Hemalurgic wild card and can be substituted for any spike, I'm fairly certain.

Quote from: Chaos2651 on August 11, 2010, 08:47:20 PM

It's cadmium because it and its alloy take the Temporal External Metals slot on the Table of Allomantic Metals. Preservation also chose cadmium because it's rarer on Scadrial.

But again, has this been confirmed, or is it just assumed? I know in the books they thought Atium to be a Temporal External Metal, but is that why we think Preservation chose Cadmium to ignore in favor of Atium, or is it stated in a Q&A or annotation somewhere?

I do believe that it is confirmed. I don't have a link for you, so feel free to say [citation needed] But I do believe that Preservation did it for those reasons.

I've been doing a bit of writing, but not on my story. It's for the mistborn forum rpg. I figure it all counts toward the million or so practice words I need, no?

That's kind of what I'm banking on.

Ooh, that's a valid point. That very well could be the case, where he was never totally beheaded, but it sure looked like it. A cool way to conceptualize that particular scene, for certain.