Rithmatics: Part 3, The Potential For 8 Point Defenses

Rithmatics: Part 8, Intro to Lines of Vigor

Let's start with what we know for sure from the books:

Lines of Vigor can only affect chalk creations

You have to draw at least two waveforms to shoot a Line of Vigor

Lines of Vigor can damage or move Lines of Warding (and other chalk creations)

"smaller curves" are stronger [1]

A "large arc" lets them move other lines [2]

Lines of Vigor can bounce off of Lines of Forbiddance

We have previously established that the source of the illustrations in the book is playing fast and loose with the definition of curvature, so the notions of "smaller" and "larger" in the above are not entirely clear.  I know what I want them to mean though...

Theory Time

You know what this sounds like to me?  This sounds like electromagnetic waves.  EM waves are often modeled with transverse waves (the sine curves all of our examples of LoV look like are transverse waves). Higher frequency radiation, such as UV rays is better at penetration than lower frequency radiation, like infrared.  Infrared, on the other hand, is much better at transferring energy, which could very reasonably lead to a transfer of momentum here and thus lead to things moving.  As long as velocity is constant, frequency and wavelength are inversely proportional.  This means that the tighter the curve is the higher the frequency. Theory: Lines of Vigor are based on EM waves.

Possible Implications:

A EM wave with a larger amplitude has more energy.  This would suggest that a Line of Vigor with a short wave length and high amplitude would be better at punching through things and one with the same wavelength and small amplitude.  The effect could be even more pronounced with high amplitude long wave length waves that are trying to push things around

EM waves follow the law of superposition - if you stack two on top of each other you can add them at every point to get a new wave.  This would suggest that there might be more interesting LoV. Instead of just sin(x), we could get things like sin(x)+sin(x/2).  The more complicated ones could be tricky to get right, but might be able to do interesting things.

Related to the previous point, you could get interesting effects if LoV could have interference patterns like EM waves do...

EM waves travel with different speeds through different materials and you get refraction when they move between materials.  Since LoV only affect chalk, it is possible they are only affected by chalk, but if the material they move across affects their velocity, you could get refracted LoV when they move from the sidewalk to the asphalt.

Lines of Forbiddance would be playing the role of mirrors. I have lots of ideas here, but those are for a future post or this one will end up ridiculous.

OMH THAT IS ABSOLUTELY STORMING ADORABLE!!!!! You’re amazing :D

“anything about axehounds or chulls or skyeels or other stormlight critters”

For kalynaanne! Here’s an axehound pup taking a nap in the afternoon sun. :D

Gunnerkrigg Stormlight Mashup

Because I saw the first panel of today's Gunnerkrigg Court update and my reaction was "Dude!  When did Paz become a Windrunner?" I don't think Paz is actually a windrunner though.  She would hang out with Shallan and they would go meet all of the creatures.  Paz would absolutely be up for tracking down a chasmfiend for a chat. (Oh man, Shallan in Gillitie Wood.  She would be so excited.) 

More below the cut, but it kinda got long.

Eglamore, on the other hand, would totally be a Windrunner. Parley might be as well, but she also might be a Willshaper.  I'm not sure. 

Kat would hang out with Navani and they would be awesome engineers turning magic things into technology together.

Annie is half Horneater and inherited the ability to see and interact with all of the spren.  She discovers she is a Lightweaver (I guess, unless she finds a way to get transportation and illumination, but that doesn't appear to be a thing) and quickly learns to navigate Shadesmar.  (Blinker stones are totally infused spheres).

Zimmy is a Lightweaver who didn't have a mentor to teach her to navigate Shadesmar and sometimes she gets sucked in unintentionally and sometimes she accidentally pulls other people in with her and sometimes she managages to only get partway pulled in and accidentally projects an image of Shadesmar into the physical realm.  The whole situation is a mess. She finds it relaxing to stand out in the riddens after each highstorm. It helps to ground her.

Ysegrin would be one of the Parshendi leaders.

Coyote is Wit. Or...no... maybe Jones is Wit and Coyote is the Stormfather.  Yes, I think that works better.

I can't decide where Reynard would fit in and it's bugging me.

EDIT: I figured Reynard out.  He is totally a Kandra.  

Pixely critters from hanging out in the Steel Ministry on iscribble.

 All hearts that are gems do not glitter,      Not all those with blackbane are lost; Slaves that are old do not wither,      Rockbuds by the storm are not crushed. From the crem a fire shall be woken,      From the chasms a new hope shall spring; Renewed shall be Oaths that were broken,      Tanavast again shall be King.

Last night, taisharnumenore, Leinton and I reworked this J.R.R.Tolkien poem for the Stormlight Archive.  taisharnumenore posted it with the Bridge 4 patch, but this is the scene we really wanted to illustrate it with :-) (I also tweaked it slightly so the 4th line doesn't completely break the rhyme scheme..)

Hey Cosmere fandom, it’s book rec time.

The book series in question is the Imperial Radch Trilogy by Ann Leckie. In order, the books are Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword, and Ancillary Mercy.

It’s a space opera with significant focus on character and relationships. The POV character is Breq, an aro-ace space warship AI in a human body who sets out on an impossible journey to kill the Lord of the Radch (the local 3000 year old space emperor) to revenge her beloved Lieutenant. Along the way she (unintentionally and reluctantly) collects people (humans, ships, aliens,...) in a gloriously messy found family.

* It’s super queer 

* Characters actively struggle with depression, anxiety, addiction, etc.

* Almost everyone is a PoC

* For the sake of Propriety everyone wears gloves and bare hands are super scandalous. 

These books are amazing and you should strongly consider reading them. The audio book versions are also fabulous.

If you’ve already read them, I’ve been Radch posting on my other blog (RithmatistKalyna) and I would love to talk with people both about the books/characters/tea sets/etc and all of the Cosmere crossover potential.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1268017280/potions-a-curious-tale/widget/video.html

Potions: A Curious Tale - Adventure through an enchanted world where your wits are your greatest weapon and combat is not always the answer. - http://kck.st/1oIP0qQ

The leading creative director of this project is Renee Gittins. She was a frosh at Harvey Mudd my senior year so while I didn’t know her well, she and I have several mutual friends who are excited about this. From what I’ve seen on the kickstarter, this game looks like it has a lot of potential so I wanted to spread the word.  

I'm slightly late, but here you go!  Have a little story :-)

Adolin's first reaction was to stare blankly at her. After what felt like ages, he shook himself and asked slowly, “I...don't think I heard you right...could you say that again?”

Shallan rolled her eyes, “I want to find a way to actually watch and document the highstorms.”

He took a deep breath. “Ok. That's what I thought you said... Why?! Wasn't being stuck out in one in the chasms enough?”

She laughed, “Nope – it just made me realize how much we don't know.”

"Of course it did." Adolin groaned. “If I don't help you with this, you're just going to find a way on your own, aren't you?” He sighed. “Fine. At least this way I'll know what's going on. Knowing you, you already have at least half of a plan. Let's hear it.”

Ok.  Completely new post because the other one keeps reverting to the cut off version.  This is my interpretation of Shallan's Lullaby from Words of Radiance. So far as I am aware the tune doesn't belong to anything else.

Badger and I were contemplating what color axehounds should be and then they said there should be sparkle axehounds and that reminded me of My Little Pony and then Badger drew this and it is EXCELLENT. 

my little axehound, my little axehound ~