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Messages - Cheese Ninja

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31
It was an interesting read, some of it had already been discussed on here.  Mostly the bit about how each Order has access to two magic systems. 

Inkthinker's right though, um and ahs be natural in spoken speech, but in a transcription they are disruptive to the reading.  Also on the topic of Inkthinker:  if it wasn't for him, the Stormlight Archive wouldn't have the Shattered Plains in it.

I thought it was pretty amusing that Brandon had forgotten that he'd given us Cultivation's name, in these big book series, it must be pretty easy to forget minor things.  (Case in point: There is a climatic battle scene at the end of Robert Jordan's Winter Heart, but with all the characters around, he completely forgotten to mention the position of one of the minor ones, Erian.)

This is the 2nd interview where he mentioned that in Way of Kings Prime, Kaladin made the opposite decision he made in Way of Kings, and it happened at the beginning instead of the end.  Should I take that to mean that he took the Shardplate and Shardblade in WoK Prime, or is he talking about something else.

32
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Thunderclasts *WoK Spoilers*
« on: October 09, 2010, 01:08:20 AM »
Maybe on one of the illustration pages?  My copy of the book is on my computer, so the text on those pages is too small for me to read easily.

33
True, I slightly misremembered things, but here's the quotes:
Quote
The Blade sheared the thick chitin with barely a tug of resistance. As always, it didn’t cut living flesh, though it killed the leg as surely as if it had been cut free. The large limb slipped, falling numb and useless.
Quote
He got close and swung at the beast’s torso, cutting free a piece of chitin—like a person’s hair or nails, it could be cut by a Blade. Then Elhokar slammed his weapon into the monster’s breast, seeking its heart.

34
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Thunderclasts *WoK Spoilers*
« on: October 08, 2010, 06:36:03 PM »
Greatshells exist throughout Roshar (if I recall), but the ones in the Shattered Plains are particularly massive.  Something about the nature of spren or Highstorms in that region (perhaps as a result and/or cause of the final battle of the last Desolation) makes them able to grow much more effective gemhearts.

Sounds like a really good theory overall, but I feel we're still missing some important bits.  I'm glad you've found an explanation for the spren that leave a freshly dead greatshell,  I felt that was an important hint towards something.  I don't entirely agree about the Shadesmar connection, but I have nothing better. 

I'm not entirely sure chulls have gemhearts, Jasnah's and Sigzil's comments makes it sound like gemhearts are specific to greatshells.
Quote
There is a particular species of greatshell in the depths there. The creatures are known for their succulent flavor, and of course they have gemhearts. Not nearly as large as the ones in these chasmfiends, but still nice.
-Sigzil Chapter 40
Quote
When the lanceryn died off during the scouring of Aimia, we thought we’d seen the last gemhearts of large size. And yet here was another great-shelled beast with them, living in a land not too distant from Kholinar itself.
-Jasnah, Chapter 36
Jasnah's comment in particular, makes it seem like there's not very many easy to find greatshells anymore.

35
Hm - does it ever mention whether shardblades will cut through animals' flesh while they're alive?

They can't cut through a Chasmfiend's exoskeleton until it's dead.

The exoskeleton doesn't really count as being alive.  It's classified the same way as human nails and hair.  A shardblade can cut through it.  This comes up a few times in the book.  It's a big part of Dalinar/Elhokar/Adolin's fight against the chasmfiend.  Dalinar and Adolin were chopping through legs to limit its mobility and get it off balance.

36
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Timespan for Stormlight Archives? (Spoilers)
« on: October 07, 2010, 04:48:19 PM »
I'm tempted to answer things like how many hours in the day, how long those hours are compared to our hours, how many minutes to the hour, etc. But I think I'll hold off a few months (or years...) and see what you can come up with just from the book.

But I will say that the "XX years later/ago" chapter timestamps in the book are only accurate to half a year. (Except for the eight months one.)

Also, "ago" is a moving target based on the timeline of the surrounding chapters.

So if their days are 17.5 hours in our time, we don't need to really need to make any adjustments for them having more days in their years.  It looks like their hours might be a bit shorter than ours.  I wouldn't be surprised if there were 20 of their hours in a day, with the way the love multiples of 10 in this series.

37
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Spren - (Major Spoilers TWoK)
« on: October 05, 2010, 07:19:50 PM »
Could it just be the body/speed/agility strengthening effect that they get from holding stormlight?  Doesn't really seem to have a system to it though, so maybe not.

38
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Timespan for Stormlight Archives? (Spoilers)
« on: October 03, 2010, 09:34:38 PM »
Not exactly, what I said was: "1000 days doesn't seem like enough time for the series to take place in, given the bit we have so far."
We have various things to contend with, the inaccuracy of prophecies and the ability to alter/disrupt/inhibit the manifestation of a prophecy. 

We don't know the actual dates during the series, only in the epigraphs, which cover nearly(?) 1 and half years worth of time while the events in book aren't more than a few months, if that.  (Dalinar only has 4 visions during the course of the books, while highstorms are supposed to come ever other week or so.) If the Everstorm is that massive wall of destruction that Dalinar sees in the Almighty's vision, then I can't imagine much happening after that hits in the series. Edit: Unless the vision is just a metaphor for destruction.

Even the epigraph that I consider to be prophetic about Kalidan's chasm leap might have actually come after the fact, despite us seeing it earlier in the book than the actual event:
Quote
“Above the final void I hang, friends behind, friends before. The feast I must drink clings to their faces, and the words I must speak spark in my mind. The old oaths will be spoken anew.”—Dated Betabanan, 1173, 45 seconds pre-death. Subject: a lighteyed child of five years. Diction improved remarkably when giving sample.
Quote
Map of the Battle of the Tower, drawn and labeled by Navani Kholin, circa 1173.
There's one of our few vague/if solid dates.

39
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Timespan for Stormlight Archives? (Spoilers)
« on: October 03, 2010, 08:30:52 PM »
1. “The love of men is a frigid thing, a mountain stream only three steps from the ice. We are his. Oh Stormfather…we are his. It is but a thousand days, and the Everstorm comes.”—Collected on the first day of the week Palah of the month Shash of the year 1171, thirty-one seconds before death. Subject was a darkeyed pregnant woman of middle years. The child did not survive.

1000 days doesn't seem like enough time for the series to take place in, given the bit we have so far.  I'm also a bit confused here, are the years 500 days?  (5 days a week, 10 weeks a month, 10 months a year)  And is a day in this series the same length as a day in our world?  Should we be multiplying their ages by 1.37 to get their age in our years?


40
Brandon Sanderson / Re: The value of spheres in WoK (no spoilers)
« on: October 03, 2010, 08:20:00 PM »
Bit confused here, you got tips working as a cashier?

I remember someone telling me that the a parking lot they went to gave the dollar coins as change. (Automated machine, I assume.)  The dollar coins are a bit more widely distributed than Susan B.

But on the main topic, do you think a broam is worth 3, 4, or 5 times a mark?  I think 5 is most likely, but 4 isn't out of the question, the only reason I think 3 at all is because Kaladin considered an emerald chip to be worth more than he made in two weeks.

41
Brandon Sanderson / Re: The value of spheres in WoK (no spoilers)
« on: October 03, 2010, 06:33:34 PM »
I've worked a cash register fairly often.  The "no one" was an exaggeration.  I actually found a 5 dollar bill silver certificate once.

42
Brandon Sanderson / Re: The value of spheres in WoK (no spoilers)
« on: October 02, 2010, 08:35:27 AM »
I did not notice that Talenelat was called that.  Found it in the book after looking just now.  Maybe people do know then?  Or perhaps they only know part of his story.

I was thinking of the bookseller again, with the conversion rate we're guessing at right now, 2 emeralds 3 sapphires, could also be expressed 3 emeralds 1 sapphire 4 garnet or (3.875 emeralds)

43
Brandon Sanderson / Re: The value of spheres in WoK (no spoilers)
« on: October 02, 2010, 04:33:24 AM »
Ah, you're saying things backward, you mean that you think sapphire is the 2nd most valuable, and ruby is 3rd.   I don't agree with that, because there's too much space between their supposed values, given the wide variety of gems that we have.  On the other hand, when Shallan was buying those books, the man responded with "Two emerald, three sapphire" which would be most natural if, like you said, it was the next most valuable denomination.

I also assume that soulcasting usefulness isn't the only thing determining relative worth of the gems, their respective rarities are probably a big part as well.

So far I'm not a big fan of the currency system in SA, look at US currency for example.  we've got pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, $1 bills, $5 bills, $10 bills, $20 bills, $50, and $100.  So, that's 10 different denominations (no one uses $2 bills, or dollar coins), the difference between a penny and a hundred dollar bill is x10000.  In SA we've got 27 or 30 different denominations, and the difference between emerald broams and diamond chips is only x1000.  It seems to work fine, but it's pretty cluttered.
Looking at the quote saying that Shallan used all nine colors of sphere, I think she means actual color, I don't think she counts white in that, so that would be nine colors plus white, and so we're back to ten types.  This really makes the most sense.  I mean, why wouldn't they use all ten types of gem as currency?  Why exclude one?
It might have something to do with Talenel.
I don't think the Heralds advertised after that last Desolation that they'd left one of their own to an endless cycle of torture.  Besides the readers, I think only the other Heralds, Hoid, and maybe a few others knew about Taln.

44
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Spren - (Major Spoilers TWoK)
« on: October 01, 2010, 11:29:22 PM »
I wonder if Jasnah really needs to visit Shadesmar for smaller transmutations, or if there's some shortcut she can use.  Visiting Shadesmar really seems like too big a deal to do over the minor things I've already listed (running out of ink and needing a paperweight.), plus it seems like it would be pretty disorienting to use when she killed those bandits.

I agree that once they get to Shadesmar they do the same thing, and that it produces the same effects.  Pretty sure Fireborn disagrees.

Oh yeah, in the picture, the green on the bottom probably represents Jasnah's assumed Order (Palah, Learned/Giving (this is what it should be, according to Peter it was misprinted)) and the red to the left is Shallan's (Shash, Creative/Honest)

45
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WoK: Shalan - near end of book **SPOILERS**
« on: October 01, 2010, 11:18:24 PM »
I think the majority of Soulcasting is done using fabrials, there might be a few special cases besides Jasnah and Shallan though.

Can't tell you exactly without knowing more about soulcasters, but it is likely that the spren imprisoned in the soulcaster is gone, released (or destroyed?) when the soulcaster was broken.
That is, of course, if soulcasters follow the examples of more modern fabrials in relying on imprisoned spren.

According to Harakeke's translation (thank you) of Navani's notebook:
Quote
The cut and type of the gem determines what kind of spren are attracted to it and can be imprisoned in it. There must be thousands of possible combinations.
Once a spren is captured and the gem infused with Stormlight the fabrial can be used in machines.
It's the gems that attract and imprison spren, and by infusing the gem with stormlight the gem becomes usable.  The fabrials themselves (Soulcasters and Shardplate included?) aren't what's imprisoning the spren.  I wonder if this is related to how cut gems store more stormlight than uncut.
Because it hasn't been put back together "perfectly", just well enough that visual and tactile inspection can't tell the difference.  It is an ancient magical device, and mere physical reassembly is not sufficient to repair damage to the magical portion of its workings.
This is what I'm going with.

Also: The Soulcaster was found in an inside coat pocket, sheared through a chain and a gem setting (I believe there are 3 gem settings and 2 chains that connect to 2 rings, quite a bit like the angreal that Nynaeve used in WoT, which is a possible influence on its design).  They had a jeweler repair it to the degree that Shallan can't visibly tell that it was broken.

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