happyman

Dros is upvoted for asking the right questions.

I like this theory. Also, I suspect that the Returned forms and forging have a lot in common. How "strong" the underlying forms probably constrain how much the Returned can change their shape. In other words, the form "uber-healthy God" (or whatever the current fashion is) is really, really big and easy to access, and so most Returned default to it. It takes effort to go away from this default. However, some changes from this default seem extremely plausible, and so some of the reformed make those changes, mostly unconsciously. This would include things like age, which seems like it would be flexible (old-looking gods are also a very common image, just not quite as common) and related things. Other changes are probably harder, just like some forgeries are tenuous. Some of the changes are probably entirely impossible with the energy they actually have.

I thought that was the WoT omnibus.

I'd add one caveat to this: TLR and the ministry actually probably could do experiments on Atium alloys. They had the resources. My guess, though, is that TLR didn't want people to be trying it. That would have brought up too many questions and made the shell game he played with Ruin much more difficult.

The human understanding of force is notoriously unintuitive. Don't feel bad that you don't get it; most undergraduate introductory physics courses are essentially "Understanding Dynamics 101". It took humans roughly 2000 years from understanding statics (building things that don't fall down) to dynamics (being able to predict in detail where a flying arrow will go.) We tend to make a lot of mistakes when we rely on intuition. That's why this has been such a tricky subject in the forums. Edit: Hope nobody really minds the double-post. The topics were different enough, I thought they deserved different focus.

Since I see you are now getting to the correct essence of the problem here (free-body diagrams for the win!), I think it important to add all the basic, relevant forces involved. The relevant forces for this discussion are: (1) Gravity. This pulls you to the center of the planet. The feruchemy might might be able to modify the strength of this. (2) Pushes and pulls. As far as we know, these mostly act on the center of mass, although it has been speculated (and there is some evidence that) this is not absolute. (3) Friction. When you are standing still relative to a surface, there is so-called static friction, which resists motion even beginning. This one is tricky: Static friction is exactly as big as it needs to be to stop acceleration. Typically, there is a limit to how much force static friction can apply; once this is exceeded, you start to move. Static friction's key property is that how much force it resists is (roughly) proportional to how strongly you are pressing on the surface. Thus increasing gravity and pushing would increase the upper limit of force that can be absorbed by static friction, making you a better anchor. This does not apply at all when flying. That's when it becomes really tricky. Edited to fix typo.

This is both possible (check out Shai's soul-stamps; one of her stamps is, essentially, a form of this) and useful.

So Taln's scar is another section of the galaxy they are in which is far enough way that individual stars can't be easily told apart, but close enough it's not another galaxy? Those tend to exist primarily in spiral galaxies. Not sure what that means for the Cosmere. Possible, I suppose.

It's true that waveforms can be huge. This is a subtle point in quantum mechanics, often ignored. Technically, when we look at the world, we are looking at a quantum wavefunction which just happens to be almost perfectly deterministic and match our intuition. (Of course, there is no actual coincidence in this.) I won't say much more on the subject, because this is an area where there is still active research happening. Long story short: Our mathematical tools for QM work fine. Our intuition throws a hissy fit and has to be physically dragged out of the room in a straight-jacket. Connecting these two has proven tricky, but progress has been made. We are not there yet, though. I would add, though, that if you ever want a real quantum mind-bender, try multi-particle states. They quickly disabuse you of the idea that wavefunctions are physical a-la our personal intuition. However, Spren act nothing like quantum-mechanical states in detail.

It's an interesting idea, but I'm pretty sure the Cosmere is a truly alternate world with no connection to Earth whatsoever.

Yeah, there is definitely a physical limit on holding investiture. On the other hand, this probably gives a scale for how big that limit is. I seriously doubt that any of the metallic arts have ever interferred with each other "up to this point" in the canon.

Some general cosmere comments in here, nothing really spoilery, I hope. I'd just like to comment briefly on the Investiture issue with metals: I consider it possible (maybe even likely) that there is an upper limit on the amount of Investiture any specific physical object can hold. This seems like a good global contraint on the cosmere as a whole. However, I'd also point out that some of the other forms of Investiture that we have seen are clearly much more powerful than, say, a hemalurgically charged piece of metal. If you didn't know the metal contained Investiture, it would act normal. This is emphatically not the case for other invested objects we have seen. Thus although I believe that there is indeed a limit, I suspect that in the books published so far, no Feruchemist, Allomancer, Hemalurgist, or any combination of the above, have come even close to hitting the absolute limit. Thus I suspect that in practice, the investitures haven't interferred with each other, even if they could in theory.

Just for the record, I don't actually believe they get power by just burning the metals, but the quote itself is awesome. Can I sig it?

Just when I think we've found the obvious synergy in the systems, something like this comes along. Could you imagine Savant!Spook with the ability to selectively dull or enhance his senses at any time?

My answer to this question is that the term End-Neutral is a technical term. It refers to the details of how Investiture is transferred, not to what you are able to do by moving the investiture. These kinds of misunderstandings happen all the time in the real world. My specialty is physics, and there are a lot of terms used in physics which are also used in everyday life, but which have much more specific meanings in physics than in colloquial language. Some examples are: Energy, Force, Power. This makes it easy for confusion to happen. In this case, the author is almost certainly referring to the nature of Investiture, not what the effects are of moving it around. Note that just like sometimes turning off a machine or switching off a light-switch may have the desired effect, removing investiture may also be a very useful power, tactically. This doesn't change the underlying dynamics the Ars Arcanum author is presumably trying to understand.

I've never seen that interview before, but that does clarify things somewhat. Please note that not all of us follow every interview that carefully, though. I'm a fan and I like discussing Brandon's books, but I've got other things to do as well. I appreciate being told when I am wrong and glad to see that we can end discussion on this subject.

I think it is very important, when thinking about this, to remember that the way the Lord Ruler managed most of his power was just like most rulers, through his beauracracy, armies, and propaganda. He had an enormous number of people willing to work for him. This is a force multiplier hard to avoid in any world. The linch-pin of all this were his personal powers. He could survive an enormous amount of damage (although not as much as he claimed---see propaganda), fight like nobody's business, and otherwise intimidate just about anybody one on one, or even in large groups if they are untrained (and most large groups are). However, he wasn't nearly as invincible as he claimed. He'd be stupid to say anything else, though, especially at the end of Mistborn. Maybe to say it more clearly: His extraordinary personal prowess and mystique made it more likely others would follow him. This almost automatically limits the amount of brute force you can bring in without being opposed. In practical terms, this was more than enough to keep him alive for one thousand years as a hated ruler. An impressive feat.

I've felt this way for a long time. If nothing else, it would explain why the world is so extreme compared to the others. Three "benign" shards which don't directly oppose each other---there's a lot more room for interactions and conflict (less lethal than the desolations) in a situation like that.

...Seriously, folks, I've been saying for ages that there was a lot more backstory that we weren't privy to. I haven't speculated about it much because the evidence at the moment is almost non-existent, but clearly there was some kind of supernatural conflict going on even in the deep past. Hoid's comments on his backstory in Warbreaker, the Letter (Hoid authorship or not, it clearly references said past), and Liar of Partinel are more than enough to make that clear.

I have to agree with folks that the mechanical aspects of a gun--essentially controlling and optimizing the bullets paths and speed, including rifleing--are the reason he carries them. Just like an awful lot of our technology improves our natural abilities, guns enhance coinshots. No reason not to have them.

I inferred from this comment that Kaladin would actually have an edge over Szeth in a fight. From the point of view of having the story continue with all the characters intact, this is a good thing, I'd say.

...Now that would be an interesting metalmind to tap. "Lessee, what do I have? Fifteen copies of Eye of the World? What? Why do I have so many...oooh, I like it. Maybe I can reread it..."

Dunno. It seems likely. I do wonder, though, if it would affect written language. I suspect that if it is possible to change language in the cognitive realm, you could make words that used to seem modern seem outdated, or something like that. Very strange effects. I am still not sure it can happen at all, though. As others have pointed out, a common language is huge and complicated. If you could observe the cognitive aspect of, say, a language as common as English or Chinese, it would probably dwarf mountains.

A bit, yeah. But given the list of things that could have been brought back in a way which was awesome, and the amount of actual time available, I didn't complain. Every fan has a list of things that should have been done in more detail. They make for a very long list, all together, and it would take roughly the entire length of the series to do them all justice. Just not possible. Sigh.

Which would make sense as shards of Dominion. They probably keep part of their parent shard's intent. After all, Aons seem to embody selfless devotion to their master, including precisely carrying their words across long distances. They obey and bond out of love. I dount Skaze have the same behavior. They probably tend towards being in control. It just all fits together with what we know. I doubt any of them could subordinate themselves to somebody else long enough to carry their exact words like a magical telephone system. Edit: After posting, I see Windrunner had essentially the same ideas I did. Yeah, that quote makes it seem pretty likely, huh?