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Messages - ryos

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31
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WOK: Horses
« on: October 07, 2010, 07:47:07 PM »
Quote from: Harakeke on October 07, 2010, 06:03:13 AM
Quote from: Stormblessed on October 07, 2010, 05:20:58 AM
Quote from: Fireborn on October 07, 2010, 04:57:48 AM
I don't think burrowing into solid rock is gonna work very well.

How about soulcasting owls. They have a limited power to soulcast stone in order to burrow, granted to them by a shard. Nothing powerful or useful except in order to dig through stone.
Badgermoles!

That's an interesting point, though -- can non-human animals use Rosharan magic?  Skyeels, for instance seem like they physically shouldn't be able to fly.  Could they be doing Lashings to stay aloft?  This might explain why they are accompanied by unknown spren.

I think the Greatshells, at least, do. I've read it theorized that there is a practical limit to how large an exoskeletal creature can be and still support its own weight. Greatshells are way the heck over that limit. I thought it a flaw in the worldbuilding until the gemhearts were revealed. "Aha," I thought, "they're Stormlight enhanced, and that's how they can be so big." 

32
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WOK: Navani's Notebook Translation *MAJOR SPOILERS*
« on: October 07, 2010, 07:39:09 PM »
Quote from: schneb on October 07, 2010, 03:38:52 PM
Is it possible that the gems in shardblades have death spren trapped inside?

That would make them devilishly difficult and dangerous to make. Apparently, only those very near death can see deathspren. So you'd have to bring yourself to the brink of death every time you made a new Blade? Yikes. Well, it could be. Still, yikes.

33
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WOK: Navani's Notebook Translation *MAJOR SPOILERS*
« on: October 07, 2010, 02:22:27 AM »
Quote from: Fireborn on October 07, 2010, 02:18:11 AM
How is that a stretch?  There's a lot of room for Shardblades to not be what we think they are.  Especially with Syl's only documented encounter with a Shardblade going the way it did.  I'm just proposing an idea that, to me, fits the information we have.

I wasn't disputing your theory so much as the statement that Szeth thinks his Blade is cursed. From where I'm sitting, that just isn't true.

34
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WOK: Navani's Notebook Translation *MAJOR SPOILERS*
« on: October 07, 2010, 02:00:04 AM »
Quote from: Fireborn on October 06, 2010, 08:46:50 PM
Quote from: Stormblessed on October 06, 2010, 09:36:20 AM
Quote
The Blade Szeth already carried was curse enough.
I feel that the wording of this sentence, taking into account the context of the chapter and Szeth's view on shardblades is that all shardblades are a curse, and that his (while being special) is cursed for the reason that it is so easy to kill with it, not that he may of made it out of his trusted friend and companion [insert name] the honourspren.

It could mean both.

Sorry if I sound unnecessarily argumentative, but that's a stretch. The sentence means that Szeth considers it a curse to wield a Shardblade. To extend that meaning to say "Shardblades are cursed" is putting words in his mouth. He doesn't say why he considers it a curse to bear a Shardblade, but I think it fairly obvious from his thoughts and feelings that it's because it enables him to kill so many people. He makes it clear that he wants someone to kill him, but the combination of his Surgebinding and Shardblade have so far made that impossible.

35
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WOK: Horses
« on: October 06, 2010, 07:45:14 PM »
Quote from: Pechvarry on October 06, 2010, 06:55:41 PM
If you start tumbling down the rabbit hole too far, you'll start asking yourself "do the humans of Roshar have exoskeletons like a crustacean?  Why wouldn't they have evolved like everything else?"  In the bridge thread, it was mentioned that Roshar doesn't have birds.  Do we actually know that?  Or did the book just never explicitly mention birds?

We know that chickens come from Shinovar. That's the only hint we get that there might not be birds on Roshar. We know there are Skyeels, so clearly not everything is crustacean. I think the bottleneck is actually the nesting; the birds themselves could probably find shelter in a highstorm, but where are they going to nest? Even birds that build nests out of mud would be out—where would they find mud? (Crem, maybe?)

36
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WOT Help
« on: October 06, 2010, 06:57:02 AM »
I'm glad I'm not the only one that avoids partial previews of unreleased books. Why should I hook myself before the final product is available?

37
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WOK: Horses
« on: October 05, 2010, 09:24:25 PM »
I very much doubt anyone is *that* good at soulcasting. I sorta doubt it's within human capacity, actually. You'd probably need to hold a shard to have that much capacity.

As for the question at hand, I think it's reasonably clear in the text that horses come from Shinovar, are rare and expensive to maintain outside their native land, and are used only for war or as an extravagant luxury for rich low-numbered-dahn lighteyes. Chulls are the beast of burden of choice most of the time, and even those seem to be imported from Reshi.

38
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Official WoK Fan Art (Here there be spoilers)
« on: October 05, 2010, 06:43:43 PM »
Quote from: Nightfire107 on October 05, 2010, 07:52:40 AM
the stick man pic was seen by a guy in my dorm on 4chan. he saw the stickman pic on my labtop and wanted to know how i got it. lol

Wait. My silly stick figure drawing is on 4chan?? What's the smily for "pure mortification"?  Something like all of these mixed together: :-[  :-\  :(  >:(  :-X

39
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Gavilier (spoiler)
« on: October 05, 2010, 04:00:11 AM »
Storm you Omelethead, you beat me to it. :P

40
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Brandon's Secret Project
« on: October 05, 2010, 12:58:35 AM »
If I were the gloating sort, I would point out that my suggestion that it's something entirely new that we haven't heard of before grows more and more likely with each new comment The Brandon makes about it. Nyah!

If I weren't the gloating sort, I'd still bring it up, since it is relevant to our interests in this here thread.

41
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Official Fan Art Thread **Don't create new threads**
« on: October 04, 2010, 11:54:21 PM »
I really like the mistcloak in that. Very well done.

42
Brandon Sanderson / Re: The Ten Focus Characters of the 10 SA Books
« on: October 04, 2010, 11:52:46 PM »
Quote from: Peter Ahlstrom on October 04, 2010, 06:40:27 AM
I hadn't heard that for the title of the Shallan book. Is that in the new interview? Someone should transcribe that.

If someone wants to, we'll post it to the blog and give said person credit. I think it safe to say that everyone on the staff is too busy at the moment, myself included.

43
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Brandon's Secret Project
« on: October 04, 2010, 02:38:55 PM »
My secret hope is that it becomes another free ebook like Warbreaker. That's only if Brandon decides not to give up on it and doesn't wrap things up in 4, and the publishing situation is truly hopeless. Big ifs, but one can dream, right?

44
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Shattered Plain War Questions (Possible Spoilers)
« on: October 01, 2010, 01:58:54 AM »
Quote from: Salkara on September 30, 2010, 11:55:34 PM
At several points in the book, the point is made that the Parshendi are not sophisticated warriors. Honorable, yes. Sophisticated, no. The answer you might be looking for is that they simply haven't thought to use fire in battle.

And indeed, the fact that they aren't good tacticians is the main reason they don't completely mop the floor with the Alethi. They have every physical advantage over them, but the Alethi can keep up because of their superior tactics.

45
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Shattered Plain War Questions (Possible Spoilers)
« on: September 30, 2010, 11:46:56 PM »
As for Caltrops, I'm not sure the Parshendi could make them. There are several indications in the text that their fine weaponry might be a relic of Natanatan. Where would they get the metal, and the fuel for the forge fires, when they're besieged in the middle of the shattered plains?

Actually, that's another thing. Where are they getting more arrows? Can wood be soulcast? I forget.

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