Shardlet

Nope, the vacuum and the higher pressure opposing the vacuum would hold the object in place independent of friction. Reducing the friction would only better enable an outside force to overcome the attraction. Edit: The applied force (whether from an induced vacuum or an increased pressure) is an applied force which keeps the object in place.

What alternative would you propose? A single direction of pressure which could be overcome by slipping past it with reduced friction should have pretty much the same effects that you just described? Please forgive the double post. It appears that you posted just before I clicked and I wanted to include the quote as a reference point.

This is a great thought. It is of course functionally the same as increased pressure pushing since the force would be applied because the higher pressure area trying to eliminate the vacuum.

Ok, fine. For the sake of illustration, lets represent pressure as jets of water on a 2D grid. To hold a person or an object in a location on the grid, there should be jets of water coming from every direction on that 2D grid focused on the point of holding (not simply a single direction normal to the grid). There is equal pressure in every 2D direction pushing the person or object to the point of holding. Decreasing the friction between tha person or object and the grid would reduce the capability of the person or object to move in opposition to the pressure. It seems that you guys are assuming that the pressure is coming only from a single direction. I personally think this is unlikely.

The friction surge at least.

To the first point, the gravity that Lift is experiencing is Rosharan gravity meaning that it is essentially focused at the core of the planet. So, relative to the focus of that gravity, 10 feet away is not substantially different than where she started. Consider, would she be able to slide up to the top of a hill? Not likely, it would be expected that she would slide down hill. To the second point, even if it is solely pressure (and I am not suggesting it is not), that pressure is pushing her to a specific place. If she was facing a powerful wind, would she be able to slide into the wind? Not likely, it would be expected that the wind would push her. In either case, a force is pushing or pulling her to a specific spot. It seems a reduction in friction would make it harder for her to escape the lashing rather than facilitate it. As a side not, since we are discussing material beyond the Lift reading, it may be appropriate for this thread to be moved to the Steelhunt forum.

in the cosmere. One time, when a Mistborn was going to a Dragonwasp Legion meeting, he saw a grey Shardbearer in a dark alley, brutally slitting open a gigantic watermelon with a rusty Sliver of Honor. So, of course, the Mistborn burned the watermelon, lighting the Shardbearer's cape on fire, blue flames concealing it from his view. The Shardbearer turns into a duck, ripping open the cosmere, and seeing a locked door emitting dark shine and Stormlight. The Shardbearer ran to get his Blade, tripping over duck beaks that littered the ground, breaking his neck. The Mistborn howled at a monkey's attacks on his Mistcloak. Thrashing and struggling, he broke free, hitting the door with a llama and a koloss head, breaking it into splintery bits. The door floated down the river and ended in a black shardpool. Meanwhile, the Shardbearer thrashed on the floor and died. A shadowy figure hopped out of the Cognitive Realm and into the river. The Shadowy figure glowed with dark light and quietly said, "Where is Hoid?" The Mistborn answered, "Where isn't he?" At the same time, the Cognitive Realm was torn asunder by a massive Voidbringer. It killed many sprens that tried to intervene. His metals spent, and his stormlight stolen by a small green larkin, the shadowy figure, named "BLACKIE" the Evil Librarian, began building an altar out of cheese! This brilliant choice made many Epics weep with tears From the smell of their weakness. Ookla the Mok rebuilt the door with the most evil thing possible in the cosmere.

I would say that it is improbable. The lashing apparently effectively alters the gravity you are subjected to rather than actually bonding you to a surface using some sort of Friction. The location of the lashing is effectively down (the gravitational core if you will). Trying to slick your way out of it seems like it would be like trying to climb out of a giant plastic bowl coated in vegetable oil.

Enter the self-proclaimed Thrill-Meister. This is one of my favorite pet topics and I have asked Brandon several questions about it. Kaladin is indeed immune to the Thrill and during the sparring with Jost in the flashback, "something odd is happening there". Dalinar has many times over the years experienced the Thrill, but at the Battle of the Tower, something different is beginning to happen. The Thrill does clearly seem to be sourced from Odium by it's nature and effect. Source Source Quote Quote

1) Heralds- Just by way of clarification, it is 'Dawnshards' rather than 'Dawnblades'. It is unclear what their nature is. It was initially thought that they were a flavor of shardblades, like the Honorblades (which are/were carried by the Heralds), but it seems that the community is largely moving away from that idea. As to where the Heralds are now, you have seen a number of them. Brandon has said that each of the Heralds was either mentioned or seen in WoK. You will find many ideas regarding where they turn up. 2) The info on the forms comes from a reading from WoR that is a Parshendi POV. If you are interested, you can read a transcription here. 3) While we are not sure when the Almighty died, most of us believe that the Almighty was alive during the time shown in each of Dalinar's storm visions except for the last one. This would mean that the Almighty died sometime after the Recreance. As to Taln, those are million dollar questions which we will not know the answers to any of which until March,

Sazed has shown that he does not like to deal with a heavy hand. He apparently seeks to not limit the choices that people make. He really only seems so far to exercise minor tweaks to assist an outcome. He even doesn't want to strongly direct his followers.

I think this thread might be better suited for the WoR subforum since it directly discussed WoR information.

My point is not that all or even most Shin would know anything about the blades, but rather that some at least would. Some body (not to be confused with somebody) of Shin are going to be in charge of the care and keeping of the blade(s). And there is no statements that I know of either WoB or in the text that Szeth was Truthless before he ever held the blade. And neither you or anybody else has any real idea (beyond conjecture) about what ways a Truthless is prepared to be sent out into the world. I doubt that Szeth's fighting skills were obtained only upon being booted from Shinovar. He clearly has has some substantial training. There is plenty of room to speculate about what knowledge he may or may not have. You have proposed one possibility, I have proposed another. You disagree with me, I disagree with you. I'm sorry that you got the impression that I thought the text proved anything (I studiously try to avoid this, by the way). So far, the text proves not much of anything in terms of any of the theories produced on this site. I freely admit that much of what I have said is conjecture. If you will once again review my comments on this issue (as I just have), I think you will find that I have made very few positively affirmed statements and each of those statements is clearly established by the text. If you have a specific statement, I'd be happy to address your concern. And, as to the flimsiness of my supported evidence, yours seems to me at least as flimsy. I really don't wish to rehash this any further. Like I said, if you have a concern with something I have set forth and feel that something that I addressed as fact should not have been addressed so, I will be happy to respond to that. Otherwise, it seems this aspect of the discussion has become unproductive.

I am not saying that the vast population of Roshar is well schooled in everything about shardblades. The example you gave was spoken of by darkeyes, most of whom have never even seen a shardblade. Contrast that with a group of people who have, and frequently use, shardblades. The Alethi duel using shardblades. Dalinar thinks about the potential for injury with blade. He says it rarely happens in duels, but says nothing about actual battles. Again however the Shin possess and at least one shardblade and Szeth is well trained in its use by the time he assassinates Gavilar. The Shin (not every individual) are likely to have some substantial knowledge about the use and physical effects of shardblades. I also think you are unjustified in saying that shardblades rarely wound. We simply do not have the information about this. We have a flashback scene and a battles with parshendi where shardblades are used. The POV for the flashback scene is from someone who largely cares for his squad above everyhthing else. He just saw nearly his entire immediate world collapse in the shardbearer attack. He does not see or contemplate any of the wounded from the battle, so we have no information from him there. In the Parshendi battles, we have only the observations of Dalinar and Kaladin. There is no information on Parshendi wounded at all. Again no information to rely on about shardblade injuries in battle. The information is simply not there. Again, you are welcome to your opinion. I simply disagree with it.

Well, I think you are selling Roshar and the importance placed on shardblades short. But, you are of course entitled to your opinion. I am fairly comfortable in mine.

That is about the gist of it, bartbug. By way of clarification, the southern inhabitants use the metallic arts in a mechanical fashion (to me there is a subtle difference). The Lord Ruler (TLR) left these folks unchanged as a genetic reserve of sorts and they survived Vin's bumbling attempts to shift the planet. If I am not mistaken, we'll be learning about these people in the next Mistborn trilogy.

People have made the assumption that the divine attributes are exactly what is required by the spren for bonding. In my opinion, while this may well be true, perhaps even likely, many are too entrenched in this idea to where they are discounting people's ideas based on this assumption.

I didn't notice anyone making these two points about the Alendi mist spirit and the Vin mist spirit. 1) Vin and Elend both, having read Alendi's logbook make the assumption/connection that the spirit they are seeing is the same as the one Alendi saw. And, 2) Could not have Ruin changed the logbook to say that the spirit Alendi saw was black manipulate Vin and Elend into not trusting the mist spirit?

I think that the Dawnshard example is very out of step with shardblades. Shardblades are objects which have been the source of and used to carry out conflict for the last 4500 years. It is not like a single civilization having a technology or knowledge which is lost when that civilization falls for whatever reason. While Shardblades are not (at least currently widely disseminated throughout Roshar, there are nearly 100 of them known to be spread throughout Roshar (about 40 in each of Alethkar and Jah Keved, leaving 20 to the other 8 kingdoms). Further, there is current scholarship and libraries in various localities throughout Roshar which undoubtedly carry a great deal of current knowledge. Shardblade wounds are not likely to be closely held secrets. On top of which, the Shin clearly are in possession of a minimum of one shardblade and by all appearances have sent the at least one shardblade out into the world multiples of times. The Shin at least are very likely to have some significant knowledge of the nature of shardblade injuries.

Without having seen what has been termed to be purple, I would find that a bit presumptive. If the color of the binding approximated the color of the garnet on the KR table, I doubt anyone would simply describe it as being "purple". At best a deep purplish-red.

I don't think that we'd have to make that assumption unless we make the same assumption regarding Cultivation and Odium. So far, I haven't seen any evidence that the old magic uses either gemstones or stormlight.

Some housekeeping notes. -ium does not refer to metals specifically but rather is a common suffix for most elements. There are several elements (i.e., selenium, germanium, tellurium, and polonium) which are either non-metals or metalloids. Most of the nonmetals were named well before the -ium convention was established and therefore were not named using this convention. Most elements which do not use -ium were named before -ium was conventionally used. Furthermore, -ium has far broader use than just elements (e.g., gymnasium, symposium, etc.).

Just for the record, I do indeed believe in absolute standards and principles of morality. This stems from my religious beliefs and my faith in them. My points were mostly presented to highlight the factors that might affect the moral standards in the cosmere and their absoluteness or lack thereof. My intent was certainly not to take a position as to whether or not hemalurgy is or is not absolutely evil. I personally don't think we can make that determination in a practical manner until Brandon gives us more information on the cosmere, Adonalsium, the Shards, and whatever else is there. It is Brandon's universe. I actually doubt that he wants to make it absolute (as in directly establish it through positive info in the books). It seems, that he prefers to create a framework that may evoke thought and perhaps even introspection. If he does decide to give us the info to make an absolute conclusion, I expect it won't be until many many books have passed. Hah, I will now switch tracks back to shardblade injuries. I think there are some important framework points which ought to be discussed. If we are to determine that shardblade injuries are effectively a nervous system blockage or severance, then it should be pointed out that shardblades do not damage living tissue. Thus, blood should still continue to flow and thus continue to provide cells with oxygen and 'food'. Given that, we may look at a shardlade wound as a form of paralysis. It is very clear that in the case of paralysis, the tissue does not die, it simply cannot be acted upon by nervous impulses. The only way that a shardblade wound would result in rotting flesh is if the flesh could not survive separation form the spiritual aspect of the body in spite of continued blood flow. Frankly we just don't have the info yet. As to Szeth or anyone else having knowledge as to how shardblade injuries behave, even if Szeth or anyone else is new to a shardblade, there is at least 4500 years of shared history where shardblades would have been used against people (i.e., the KR were not likely to have spent there time fighting greatshells between Ahrietam and the Recreance). This is a lot of time for a pretty solid base of knowledge about shardblade wounds to disseminate throughout Roshar.

It is important to note that it is likely that there are spren other than the 10 (presumed) types that grant surgebinding abilty. We know that greatshells are able to reach their large size due to the lower gravity on Roshar (0.7 G) and a bond with a spren. It would be reasonable to assume that there are other types of bonding spren as well.

Presumably, yes. There is evidence (such as the KR table in the front cover and the table in the Ars Arcanum) that suggest that each Herald was associated with a different order. If I recall, there is info in the book that suggested that each Herald led one of the respective orders during the desolations, but there is much debate here about how closely the Heralds worked with the KR and others.