happyman

Which, given that it is possible to use non-verbal commands, suggests that it is the cognitive component which is most important. In other words, the focus is the knowledge of what the object should do. There is already evidence for this in Warbreaker. As for Awakening, I really, really want to go with it being end-neutral, because the defining feature of Breath on Nalthis is how it is transferred. This is the interesting limitation on the magic system, just like the need to store attributes is the interesting limit on Feruchemy. It may make physical things more efficient, but I don't know if it actually increases the amount of investiture in the world. I would say no. (This is not the same as, say, increasing the amount of energy in the world, which it seems to do.)

Oh, that trick? I've seen stunts like that pulled in anechoic chambers a few times. The key point is that when you get a standing wave on a surface, some parts move and some parts stay put, according to the geometry of the surface. Any sand or other materials on the surface gets bounced off the moving parts, accumulating on the still parts. About all Kabsal's little demonstration proves is that the dawn-cities were created by some sort of standing wave in a two-dimensional geometry. Actually, it doesn't even prove that; the symmetries that the sound obeys might be obeyed by other things as well. But the patterns are quite pretty.

As one of the folks who was involved with the "time bubbles interact with light" thread when it first popped up, you are quite right about what the effects should be. The real trouble is, you don't take it far enough. Realistic red- and blue-shifting in time bubbles would make time bubbles unusable in the real world without serious preparation. For instance, in Alloy of Law, the characters would have gotten dangerous doses of radiation during Marasi's little trick at the end. You would be unable to see things outside/inside the bubble. None of it works at all well, and directly contradicts the notion of allomancy as being intuitive to the practitioners.

Yes. Mathematically, for any continuous curve, you can assign it a "local" radius of curvature at each point. (For the mathematically inclined, this is based on the second derivative of position with respect to distance along the curve at each point). I suspect that it is the relationship between this local radius of curvature and the global average radius of the curve that determines the strength. (For other conic sections, if they are even possible, there is an analogous definition for "global radius," but it is clearly more complex since they all go to infinity in the ideal case.) Specifically, the smaller the local radius of curvature is relative to the global size, the stronger the curve is there. I suspect that it is a little bit more complicated. This is the relationship if the circle is *actually* an ideal geometric shape, like either a circle or a very-close-to-circular ellipse. I suspect that not having perfect geometry also weakens it, but in a different way.

It's also possible that the strength of a line of warding is determined by the ratio between the actual radius of the circle, and the local curvature. The larger this ratio is, the stronger the line of warding. After all, the effectiveness of many Rithmatic drawings depends on the global shape.

I would be very surprised if other conics didn't have a role to play in Rithmatics, somehow. Circles are special, but as soon as you say "circle or ellipse," there are very few mathematicians who wouldn't follow up asking about other conic sections. I suspect that partial conic sections also have roles to play, although I would be surprised if scholars in the United Isles hadn't looked at it. Knowledge of the conic sections goes back to ancient Greece.

Only if homophones are the same in the languages of Roshar as they are in ours...

The dawn-cities shapes apparently represent some of those symmetries, if they can really be produced by sound!

The real questions are, are they based off real historical figures or were they invented at some point by Vorinism? If they are real people, was their opposition to the heralds shoe-horned in by later historians, or were they actual opposites in a meta-physical, or at least truly contemporary sense?

All possible. Or the white ones could be a different form, or a variant on a form. (Note: All I know about forms, I have found out on this site. I am not keen on spoilers, but I consider this pretty minor, all things considered.) I'm just saying, it's significance is very hard to fathom indeed.

Possible, but I would say that it is more likely that Taravangian's spies say that Dalinar is the one with real power, with Elhokar being a puppet. Whether that is true or false, it certainly bears some resemblance to the truth! As he is, I cannot imagine Elhokar uniting the Alethi without Dalinar's constant prodding.

I actually think this is more likely. You would take an enormous beating during a high-storm. I'm not sure that one gem would be up to the task of keeping you alive during it.

The pigmentation found in people (and many other species) in the real world varies wildly. Why this should be different or confusing for Parshmen/Parshendi/whatever, I have no idea. Of course, it may be significant, given the Parshmen/Parshendi's odd physiology. But at the moment, that's just a good detail to catch.

I agree with this. There is actually an illustration in the book (sorry, don't have it with me) where one of Prof. Fitch's drawings is a triangle that resuts in a six-point circle. (Equilateral is easiest, I believe.) As for two-point circles, I would add that there is an element of math known as degeneracy. For instance, a straight line with two ends is technically a triangle with internal angles of (0, 0, 180). The length of one of the sides is the sum of the length of the other two sides, and the two short sides lie on top of the long side. Of course, if this were true, you could place two bind points anywhere on any circle, and it would be technically valid. Of course, it's possible that the strength of the circle is maintained by the area of the circumscribing triangle... Edited to replace "circle" with "triangle" at a key point, and thus have this post make any sense.

In some ways, lifeless and drabs are perfect opposites. Lifeless are essentially dead bodies which have a breath which animates them, while drabs are living bodies which are short their "standard-issue" breath. If you could somehow get the breath away from a lifeless and into a drab, you would get a whole person. So I'm not so certain if this is a weird side-case, or somehow gets at the essence of the question "What is breath?"

This seems most likely.

Curved surfaces are definitely not unpassable barriers in Rithmatics. Otherwise most of the "fighting" in Nebrask would consist of carefully designed Earth-working.

I actually quite like the real ending, instead of the climax with the scribbler (although both were good). I feel that it was absolutely necessary to show Joel and Melony working together. From Nalizar's reaction to their teamwork, I suspect that it will result in many other side effects in the larger world as well! It may have felt like a prologue, and in many ways it was, but I suspect that the book (and *sigh* the series) would not hold together nearly as well without it. It was YA, which in some ways was mixed. The scale of a story doesn't always have to be epic for it to work, but I kind of missed the epicness. On the other hand, there is a solid foundation for more intense stories to follow, and the background on the world shows a lot of promise.

Not in the Cosmere thread, no.

As far as I can tell, on each of the worlds we have seen so far, the magic systems just exist. Sure, they're affected by whether the Shards are splintered or not. They're affected by the nature of the world and the nature of the meddling shards. But once all that is given, it seems like the "magic" just is, and the inhabitants of the respective worlds are then left to understand and use them more or less on their own. There are arguable exceptions. The Returned would seem to be the biggest potential one, with Endowment apparently taking a role in Returning them. Honor is also seemingly meddling directly. All of these are relatively small, though. For the larger part, people are left to make their own way, with any Shardic influences being either science-y or subtle.

And for the record, still totally posting, just under his own name now. And yes, it's just as frustrating as it ever was. The only good bit is, he's usually too busy to torment the rest of us with details only he knows.

I consider this to be easily the most likely. If Shai starts sending out feelers on Sel, it wouldn't be remotely surprising for the 17th Shard to find her and interact with her, especially given her stunning expertise on Forgery.

Yes, but making the body alive again is Harmony's job. I'm thinking he would be pretty good at it.

I suggest you become more Cosmere-aware before speculating further. And this is a really good question. Do the Seons/Skaze have a religion?

What I remember is that there will be a book based around Taln. I always assumed he would have a bigger role to play in the future. Even if he's dead, I suspect he will get involved again. I mean, Kelsier gets to play god after a single lifetime. Why wouldn't Taln after what were probably hundreds of lifetimes?