Shardlet

You know, I used to scoff at the attention people have paid to speculating on lerasium spikes as being not particularly pertinent. But, I am beginning to think that that is precisely the purpose to which Hoid has put the bead of lerasium he has. His line in the letter about protecting the element like his own skin is suggestive that he keeps the lerasium within him. I always have a hard time keeping in mind that a spike does not have to be very big (as seen with Vin's earring). I don't know how he would have gotten the knowledge of what one would do with a lerasium spike. But now I am paying a bit more attention.

Afraid Madrand is exactly right, not just partially right. Block polystyrene indeed has a greater density that foamed polystyrene (i.e., styrofoam). However, that is because most of the volume of foamed polystyrene is occupied by a gas (i.e., hollow as Madrand accounted for). You've got a bit of a red herring analysis. You are comparing two different volumes of the material in question (that is, volume of the material itself rather than volume of the block) and are failing to account for the porosity and different thermal conductivity pathways resulting from the porosity as well as whatever is occupying the pores (e.g., vaccum, gas, etc.).

Well, that's kinda a loose interpretation of AoF #11. AoF #11 is more a statement that we believe in not being hostile to others who believe differently than us. We recognize that we have been given free will and that, although we believe that we have the fullness of the gospel within the LDS church, we need to be respectful of other people's choices and beliefs. It is more of an affirmation of the importance of freedom of religion.

I'm not that keyed into the various racial differences on Roshar. I know Shin are the closest to caucasian and that the Alethi, and much of the rest of Roshar, have epicanthic folds on their eyes. But I haven't looked at it enough to get everyone straight in my mind.

I don't think of Ati-Ruin as evil or malevolent any more than I think Leras-Preservation was good or benevolent. Ruin wasn't destructive because he wanted to have power or control. He saw (because of the strength of his intent over him) the end of Scadrial as the natural completion of what Ruin and Preservation started so long ago. A natural completion which was long overdue because of Preservation's duplicity.

Although this is an interesting topic to discuss, I'm not sure that this thread is the appropriate place to discuss it.

Am I the only one who pictures Darkness as looking like the dude from the Mummy (Ardeth Bay played by Oded Fehr) that is also working to prevent Imhotep from rising?

First off, some housekeeping. Marsh didn't write the book. Quote That is me suggesting the author is Spook. Semi-ninja Weiry . I'm almost certain that the author is referring to the demise of Ruin and the rise of Harmony. There is no longer a destructive force taking over and influencing spiked folk to do destructive things. I don't see any indication that hemalurgy is any less 'messy'.

See, this idea never has set well with me. "Your brother came to kill me. So now I'm going to kill your steward!" Doesn't seem to hold water. For Luesh to be a target, he would have had to have been known to Amaram or his agents to be a member of the Ghostbloods. Even then, seems pretty awkward.

Baseless speculation is always acceptable on 17S as long as it is not presented as being solid or the basis for trashing other ideas. That is when things get awkward. It is weird when people knock a theory or an idea (which is based on evidence) using their own speculation which does not have supporting evidence. So, toss your idea into the ring, Theorymaker.

Ha, I forgot about that one. Good catch Mysty.

I am less sure of this. Such characterizations seem pretty common between armies during war. You dehumanize your enemy as a way of dealing with the horrors of war. It is far easier to kill a faceless 'devil' than it is to kill that guy over there who I can relate to as a person.

Hrathen (in addition to being one of my favorite characters that Brandon has written) is a great example of internal religious conflict and evolution. I don't see anything in his struggle, though, that strikes a particular chord with LDS doctrine of tradition. Hrathen is more of a general evolution from logical conversion to vital faith which is more or less equally applicable to most faiths. Sazed travels a similar, but broader path as he seeks to find logical proofs in the belief systems he has collected until he reaches a crisis of faith. The sad thing (to me) is that he never quite grasps and develops faith. So his quest continues onward even after he is now a Shard. Again, though, I don't see anything particularly LDS in Sazed's story other than what I cited earlier.

Yeah, I agree. It will be really cool to see how the mythology evolves going into the second trilogy and on into the third. A great opportunity.

ARRRGGH! Aztec, please edit your posts before posting. This is just painful to read and decipher.

Right, but Havoc's idea really has nothing to do with Szeth's status as a truthless or with the Shin at all. As Havoc said, it was the Parshendi who chose his outfit and therefore it would be them setting up the contrast. Taravangian could be making the same play; But I think it more likely that he is just piggybacking with Szeth's outfit.

I figured that you were above board and in earnest in creating this topic, agrooster. I was more concerned about those that may follow. And I wanted to encourage people to be more thoughtful in their responses lest this become a bash of someone's faith or religion (or atheism) in general. I know that we have a number of members here who have very strong feelings about religion and I hope that everyone can speak about this topic in a respectful manner. I would hate for people to driven away from the site because another member got a little heavy-handed. I have seen it happen over things that engender much less passionate feelings than matters of faith.

Ah, but note that Szeth only wears white on his assassinations directed by the Parshendi and Taravangian. It seems clear that Taravangian wants everyone to connect Gavilar's assassination with Szeth's more current handiwork.

On top of which, note the difference: herald v. Herald. The capitalization was intentional and critical in identifying that I meant one of the Ten Heralds of the Almighty.

Well, I'm a little bit leary about this topic since internet forums can get pretty brutal and offensive when it comes to religion. So, I would ask that people be respectful of other's beliefs (LDS, Catholic, Buddhist, Atheist, or whatever). That being said, there are some tidbits which may have some source in LDS scripture and theology. Perhaps the most obvious one is Taravangian's comment to Szeth that it is better for one man to sin than for a nation to perish. This echos a story in the Book of Mormon where a man (Nephi) is commanded by the Lord to slay another man (Laban) who is fallen down drunk at Nephi's feet. Laban has in his possession a record that Nephi has been commanded to retrieve. When Nephi balks at killing Laban, the Lord says that it is better that one man should die than a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief. Other parallels that has been raised is the idea within LDS doctrine that pretty much all churches have at least a portion of the true gospel and that they are worthy of respect and praise for at least this reason. We see this idea most pronounced with Sazed's journey in Mistborn. As near as I can tell, there is a lot more philosophy than religion in Brandon's books. To be sure, he uses religion frequently. He draws from general religious themes often. Such as tradition v. doctrine (safehand, etc.). But, I don't see many LDS themes surfacing so far. I remember reading Mistborn knowing that Brandon was LDS and observing Sazed's journey somewhat closely out of curiosity about how religion was going to play out in the trilogy.

The rub with this idea is that this did not come from Brandon. It came from Peter who, to my knowledge, doesn't play Aes Sedai games. I doubt that such a powerful cultural tradition came from a single picture without having some other background to support it. @Moogle- I know you're mostly tossing out ideas, but those would make Voidbinding extremely powerful. Those abilities all have direct offensive implications. In contrast, none of the KR surges (except for transformation as shown by Jasnah) are directly offensive so far. In other words you don't kill someone with a lashing, they are instead killed by the fall, etc.

My favorite non-cosmere is the Rithmatist.

It's hard to say, blood. I can't really think of anything for or against this really since we know nothing about the chart except that it is a reproduction from an in-world stained-glass window, as per Peter. I suspect it is voidbinding, but there are a number of puzzling aspects such as the two 'orders' which are not connected to any 'surges'. Some key features would be that each of the 'surge' symbols demonstrate inverted symmetry. I also would suspect that the window is found in a Vorin kingdom since the border woman has her safehand concealed. There is much lightning and smoke. And that giant red gem slaps you right in the face. Overall the chart gives a feeling of chaos and violence. I am disinclined to think that the 'order' symbols are meant to be visually representative of the visual appearance of the various bonding spren. I just don't see the base spren-types as being that complex in appearance.

Here are some of the quotes which I have been blindly citing. This one is from the HoA annotations (chapter 80 part 2): So Mistwraiths breed true. This one is from the Q&A with Brandon here on 17S: Brandon: This is feasible. One thing to keep in mind is that mistwraiths are people who have a blockage between the physical and the cognitive realm, messing with their ability to think. Think of them as mentally-stunted people. There's enough there to train, but then you have to dig into the ethics of it... So, Mistwraiths are people (not to be confused with humans) who have a blockage which appears to be bypassed or bridged by their blessings. These blessings also provide an extension of their lifespan. Kandra are still Mistwraiths since they revert if their spikes are removed. Thus being the foundation for my statements that Kandra (that is to say, cognitively unblocked Mistwraiths) breed true.

Ah, thank you kind sir. I wasn't sure how drag-and-drop a kindle was. That is also nice that Calibre has that additional functionality.