happyman

Possible? Theoretically yes. In practice, though, like others have noted, on the surface of a planet, friction and gravity would make it difficult. Also, we have to take the size of the resulting orbit into account. My guess is that for anything that it would be possible to make orbit you, the orbit would be really, really big, and least compared to human size scales.

This is an interesting thread; the sheer physical limits of what would be possible can be mitigated enormously by Allomancy. I'm seriously impressed. On the other hand, I have to agree that using Allomancy to keep yourself alive in space is probably more expensive and difficult than figuring out how to make a simple pressure suit. Sure, people on Scandrial might be able to send Allomancers/Feruchemists into space earlier than we could because not as much protection is needed if they use their abilities effectively, but having a mechanical backup would probably be necessary for long-term operations. And absolutely none of this solves the faster-than-light problem. We probably don't have all the pieces we need yet.

Good analysis, Inkthinker. It makes a lot of sense. I would have posted more in this thread on the subject, but I was stuck with an extremely slow input device for the past couple of days, and would have gone stark raving mad trying to do a careful analysis. Now you've gone and done it for me. Well, it all sounds reasonable to me.

Really, all this means is that Dalinar could have been drawing Stormlight from his gems, and we would have no evidence either way. We have to look elsewhere to discover if he is doing anything unusual.

I'm not the original poster, and I would describe things rather differently. I'd much rather refer you to better sources on the web for "Redshift" than try to actually explain myself (Wikipedia probably has a good basic description). However, I do like to see civil dialogue and people trying to learn, so I encourage both whenever I can.

Doesn't surprise me at all. Since the humans have a tradition of having been kicked out of heaven, it sounds like a really good question. On the other hand, we have Shin as a contrast. Life as a whole seems much more "Earth-like" there. We've got some really interesting twists coming up, no question.

Brandon was once asked why Susebron didn't just grow his tongue back in order to get around his limitations. He said there are limits on how much the Returned can change themselves, and that they would be explained in a later book. Thus these statements you make seem to be generally correct, but I would also guess that there is a baseline of some sort that he can't deviate from "at will." However, it seems that hair color is something that can be changed at will. More study is needed.

This seems like a good start, especially when considering Sazed's commentary on TLR's use of the power. However, I would say that the intent is definitely outward-looking. Just like Preservation was driven to Preserve everything and Ruin was driven to Ruin everything, I suspect that their pools would have much the same effect. Your attitude towards yourself would probably not be affected. Thus taking up Ruin's power alone would make you destructive.

My memory of that thread was that there was no consensus except for the general sentiment that "Brandon is tricksies, yes he is, my precious."

@Sir Read-a-lot, sure the story (and hence the magic) come first. I'm just saying that I hope he did enough research to know what he doesn't know, so that the relationship with Quantum Mechanics is analogical, instead of trying for anything "realistic." No offense, but most attempts I've seen wheel they try to use Quantum Mechanics in fiction end very poorly. @Captain cosmere: That's really not fair. What he's describing is fairly complicated. It takes time to understand, no matter what you do. Once again, though, I must say that the common idea of photons is wildly misleading. In this case, it is far better to think simply in terms of waves. The answer you get will make a lot more sense.

I wonder if pulsing could be used to slow down someone falling from a great height, giving other people time to rescue you? How it interacts with gravity is an interesting question.

Now I am officially going to start using the phrase "aluminum foil hat." It's just too good to pass up.

As someone who actually knows practical quantum mechanics, I hope the principle involved is more allegorical than an attempt to bring in "real" quantum mechanics. Efforts along those lines tend to end poorly in fiction, at least for those of us who actually know our way around the field.

It seems very much in Hoid's character to have founded both groups, especially given their tendency towards both scholarship and storytelling. Perhaps most telling is just how important the Worldbringer's legacy was at the end of HoA. I can support this as a decent hypothesis.

Sir Read-a-lot, that theory may be correct. With the Shards, their expanded consciousness would allow them to much more accurate visions of the future. However, I do not believe that theory because the true temporal metals affect time directly, and I would be rather disappointed if Atium didn't exceed them in some way.

As the only evidence we have, I think the theory that the Shareholder is male is best supported canonically, especially because Siri gets many points about shardhood correct. On the other hand, it's too early to really tell.

It's true that the scientific definition of species is sometimes muddled. However, the state of the word race is much, much more muddled, and frankly I don't think it clarifies the situation at all.

I was thinking primarily of Baxil's mistress and some of the Worldbuilding might be important. Also, there may be hints we can't catch yet because we don't know enough. In general, though I agree that we won't see most of the folks pop up as main characters.

Dunno. This sounds more like a good example of mundane utility, at the very least. It seems to me more like Brandon sat down and thought about how Allomancy would be used in a world which wasn't slowly falling apart, but rather growing in many directions at once. The idea that people with these special powers would use them to make themselves rich (by providing an emotional service for the wealthy) seems extremely probable. I think it's just natural world-building.

Y'know, human nature being what it is, this wouldn't surprise me all that much. The more we discuss this stuff on this forum, the more impressed I am with the magic system Brandon created in Mistborn. It's so amazingly rich and versatile, even if some of the side effects could be quite nasty (like in this case.)

I have to go with Sir Read-a-Lot on this one. It's entirely possible (in fact, it's the best theory I've seen) that the focus is Spiritual on Roshar; this is contradicted by nothing I've seen. However, since Vin was burning metals instinctively, I don't think physical Foci necessitate being conscious of what you are doing.

Given that we see Sazed pulling the Feruchemy side of this stunt in TFE (he says he swallowed his metalminds), this seems like a very reasonable theory.

If Sazed hadn't described them as a new species intent on creating more of themselves via killing Mistings, I would be more likely to agree with you.

Good point. Maybe the commands aren't to forget, but to hide. Of course, that always leaves the possibility that that poor girl will remember what she went through eventually. Of course, it probably won't happen while she's alive---I can imagine few situations where she would want and be able to even try.

Well, with enough breath, you could probably do just about anything. (In fact, Endowment and his/her power is probably the end limit of having infinite breath). To a certain extent, though, language doesn't just express thoughts---it shapes them. This is far from absolute, but having no language at all might make it harder to think about what you want things to do so that you could awaken only at a ridiculous extreme, like the seventh heightening.