Rithmatics: Part 8, Intro To Lines Of Vigor

Welcome to the 2015 Cross Cosmere Rithmatics Olympiad!

The other night in FNCC I brought up the question of what would happen if someone drew a chasmfiend chalkling.  Things snowballed from there and dm-mo, ElderDragonMystic and I got carried away.  As a result, our friends from across the Cosmere are gathering to compete in games derived from one of Sanderson’s non-Cosmere magic systems.

Welcome to the 2015 Cross Cosmere Rithmatics Olympiad!  Teams are gathering from across the Cosmere to compete in an exciting assortment of rithmatic events! The games will be kicking off soon and we here at the Cosmere Chronicle will follow the action when they do, but in the mean time let’s introduce the teams.  

Roshar is fielding three teams this year.  

The first is their traditional team from the Alethkar Academy of Rithmatics.  This team’s roster is formed of brothers Adolin and Renarin Kholin, their cousin Elhokar Kholin, and Shallan Davar, a young woman who hails from Jah Keved.  As expected, these four all have solid groundings in classical rithmatics and should be a force to reckon with.  Rumor has it that there is some dissension in the group though and that they don’t always work particularly well as a team. It will be interesting to watch them and see how this plays out

The other two teams are a ragtag bunch known only as Bridge 4 that are not associated with the Alethkar Academy.  This motley crew appears to bring together students from nearly all regions of Roshar and has divided itself into a Division 1 and a Division 2 team. The senior team consists of Kaladin “Stormblessed”, Moash, Teft and Sigzil.  The junior team is comprised of Lopen, Rysn, Tien, Lift and Syl and coached by Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor “Rock” of the Unkalaki.  We know very little about the rithmatic background of any of these competitors, but if what we have seen in the practice fields is any indication, they could shake things up - they appear to be bringing a style unlike anything we have seen before.

Scadrial is fielding two teams, one each for Division 1 and Division 2.

Scadrial’s senior team should look familiar to anyone who follows Intra-Cosmere Rithmatics.  It is, as expected, comprised of husband and wife team Elend and Vin Venture as well as The Survivors, Kelsier and Spook.  In case you don’t  usually follow ICR, Scadrial rithmatics is known for working in pairs and they should help make the pairs dueling exciting to watch.  The Ventures work seamlessly together while Kelsier and Spook always seem to be able to recover no matter what mess of a situation they find themselves in.

Oddly enough, Scadrial’s division 2 team has an odd number of competitors: the established duo Wax Ladrian and Wayne and newcomer Marasi Colms.  We caught Marasi to ask her how it is working in rithmatics on Scadrial without a partner. She informed us very matter of factly that she simply hasn’t found the right partner yet, but that there was no way she was going to let that cause her to miss the opportunity to come to the games this year.  Based on the rest of our conversation, we expect her to hold her own in the theory competition.

Sel is also fielding a team for each division.

To form its senior team, Sel held a local preliminary competition where it ended up choosing a pair each from two very different parts of the planet.  It is comprised of Sarene, Hrathen, Shai and Gaotona.  It will be interesting to see how the four members blend their styles for the team portions of the games, but they all seem quite focused and determined to win.  One thing is certain - we can always expect precision from Sel rithmatics.

Sel’s division 2 team is possibly the most unusual team - its captain, Raoden, isn’t actually a Rithmatist!  When we found Raoden to ask about this, he calmly reminded us that one doesn’t have to be a Rithmatist to be a scholar of rithmatic theory. His team is rounded out by a particularly laid back young man named Galladon and an enthusiastic but clearly intelligent girl named Kaise who is, we believe, this year’s youngest competitor.  

Political unrest on Nalthis has disrupted its rithmatics program, so it has only sent one team this year.  Veteran Vasher is back and should be a powerhouse in any event he competes in,  though rumors suggest that he may only be here for theory this year.  The team seems to be held together by the lovely princesses of Idris, Vivenna and Sisirinah.  It is rounded out by Siri’s quiet husband Susebron. Keep an eye on Nalthis if you are interested in chalklings.  No one is quite sure how they do it, but in the past we have seen chalklings from the Nalthiean competitors that seem almost sentient.

We here at the Cosmere Chronicle look forward to sharing the Cross Cosmere Rithmatics Olympiad with you in the coming days.  We will bring you the results from the events, analysis of different rithmatic styles, and stories from around Olympic Village.

For your consideration: Adolin, Evi, and Fashion

Consider: Evi moving from Rira to Alethkar and learning to cope with the new culture and all of the safehand nonsense. Then marrying the blackthorn and collecting and analyzing fashion folios to figure out how she can be a Good Vorin Wife while still trying to be true to herself.

Consider:  Smol Adolin sitting with her, only half understanding, as she talks half to him and half to herself about balancing traditions and current fashion. And then when he shows interest - because if mom cares then so should he - she starts also getting the fashion folios for boys and young men and altering Adolin's clothes with ideas he likes from the folios.

Consider: Evi encouraging Adolin when he starts fashioning himself play armor out of the rockbud shells he finds laying around. Evi teaching smol Adolin knots and the very basics of sewing.

Consider: An older Adolin trying to follow his father’s example and getting into dueling. Adolin coming home with tears in his clothes from roughhousing and fighting his friends/rivals and Evi sitting him down and teaching him how to mend his clothes. Not just how to mend them, but how to do it in ways that make the mending look intentional and fashionable.

Consider: Evi at the war camps feeling like she is losing control of everything and her life is falling apart, but still making sure she is put together and trying to make sure her boy has his jacket because that's one of the few things she CAN still control .

Consider: After Evi’s death, Adolin seeking out the folios himself and growing closer to his tailor while he continues to improve his sewing skills because it's a connection he has to his mom that he doesn't want to lose.

Consider: Adolin taking the group to his tailor, not just because he is into fashion but because she filled something of a surrogate mother role for him after Evi died and he truly does trust her completely. And THEN in Shadesmar when he is feeling useless and helpless on the ship he sits down and sews himself a halfway decent outfit because, storm it, even if he can't control anything else, he can still control THIS and the process of the sewing reminds him of his mother's strength even when she felt helpless and that helps him keep holding himself together and doing what he can.

Hey guys, let's think about bendalloy ferrings, aka Subsumers, for a minute.

We know they can store nutrition and calories in a metalmind which means they can eat as much as they want when there is lots of food and then tap it later.  

Think about a Subsumer at a Scadrial eating competition.  "Sure, I can scarf away as many hot-dogs as you want. No problem."

Think about a Subsumer at an all-you-can-eat buffet.  They get to try everything and then go back for as much more as they want of everything they like. Such restaurants would have to have special rules for subsumers...maybe a pay by the hour thing?

Imagine if Lift gets a hemalurgic spike that lets her become a bendalloy ferring. She would have the best stormlight storage system.   She could eat loads, store most of it in her metalmind(s), and then tap into it whenever she needs stormlight.  Unlike spheres, it wouldn't leak away and if she is tapping it from the metalmind she isn't sucking the energy out of her body.

On the darker side of things, you probably also get the occasional Subsumer who is desperately afraid of gaining weight and always stores everything they eat in their metal minds and never taps them.  Most people don't know that they are a ferring and everyone sees them eating, so people don't realize there is a problem until it has gotten really bad.

Sisters

After some thought, she decided that the concept of loving siblings was a little like the Allomantic pulse lengths she was supposed to be looking for - they were just too unfamiliar for her to understand at the moment.

Oh, Vin. Your brother may have helped you survive, but he was a horrible, horrible brother. And she HAD a baby sister that their mom killed.  I can't even...

Vin still needs to have Lift as a little sister.  Then, one night when Shallan is out on a mission as Veil she needs to come across them and bring them in off the streets and eventually be accepted into their little group as the big sister. She would try to tame them somewhat and teach them things like writing, but they would spend just as much time corrupting Shallan.  They would create an alter-ego for Lift so that the Ladies Davar, Valette and [I'm still trying to come up with a good name] could go out together, but they would also create a third alter-ego for Shallan (beacuse they wouldn't want the ghostbloods to recognize Veil) so that they could sneak out in the streets together.

Now I really want to know if burning copper affects lightweaving at all... Can Vin see through lightweaving if she is burning copper? or maybe if she is burning tin? hmmm.... Also, if Shallan weaves a disguise for another Radiant, can they maintain it with their stormlight even if they aren't a light weaver?

So I saw @ultimateinferno theorizing about this, and I want spoilers hidden under a cut on my blog, so I’m making a new post rather than reblogging to add to his excellent theory/meta. There are *major Rhythm of War spoilers* mixed with theorizing under the cut.

Ultimateinferno makes a good argument that Lift is the one who is eventually going to deal with Taravangian!Odium. This is *perfect*.

Lift’s “I don’t want to ever change.” You know what? If she kills Taravangian she’s going to get the opportunity to absorb Odium and ascend. Either her boon is going to give her the strength to resist taking the power so that she can deal with it some other way (maybe she could team up with Rysn??? I wonder what kind of affect shattering Odium would have...) OR she *will* take the power, but because of Cultivation’s boon it won’t affect her ability to think clearly.    

Heh, although, Lift, as she is right now, but with the power of a shard might be a whole different kind of problem. As Yanagawn points out, “She often does what she isn’t supposed to.”

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

Shallan's Journey: Chapter 2, In Which Shallan Meets a Fire Chicken

A sudden whooshing sound made Shallan spin around and her jaw fall open in shock at the resulting vision. A burst of flame quickly resolved itself into a person and the most brilliant chicken she had ever seen! After a few moments, during which she and the new man studied each other, Pattern drifted into her view and buzzed “Shallan. Your mouth. You are staring.”

Her jaw snapped shut and she quickly looked down as she began thinking frantically. This new man was certainly pale enough to be Shin, but he had far, far too much hair and she had never heard of Shin being able to travel in fire. For that matter she had never heard of anyone being able to travel in fire. Oh storms! She had no idea what was going on or what she should do next... but... but she had gotten through unfamiliar situations before... she just had to decide how to play this. Surely it wouldn't be worse than her first few meetings with the Ghostbloods. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to center herself. Confidence. She could do this. Pattern's gentle buzzing as he floated near her head was reassuring. He was often good at helping her sort through things and if everything went completely storms up she would at least be able to defend herself. She held her sketchbook close to her chest with her sleeved safehand and her traveling bag to her side with her freehand as she looked back up at the man and the fire chicken with what she hoped was an expression of wary confidence.

She realized that he seemed to be just as curious about her as she was about him. Well, she supposed that if he was typical of the people here, then she probably appeared quite unusual. His sparkling purple dress thing was nothing like men would wear anywhere on Roshar.

Dumbledore wasn't accustomed to being speechless, but he truly wasn't sure how to react to the young woman he found when he arrived. She seemed startled, so he kept his face serene as he stood quietly to give her time to compose herself – and him time to try to make sense of the situation. She was wearing a style of dress he had never encountered despite his many years and extensive travels and seemed to be accompanied by a small whirling mass of black lines. Most curious indeed. When she looked back up and didn't seem inclined to either attack or run away, he took a step toward her and gestured in greeting.

“My dear girl. I noticed unexpected activity here at Stonehenge and came to investigate. Would you mind telling me who you are?”

Shallan looked back at him in confusion. His language was unlike anything she had ever heard before. She opened her mouth planning to say something formal and productive, but what came out was “Who on Roshar are you and where are we?” Pattern buzzed in a way that sounded almost like a snicker. “Mmmm...There's my Shallan. The strange man probably can't understand us anymore than we can understand him.” Shallan glared at Pattern.

Dumbledore's eyes widened as he watched this exchange. She spoke a rather curious sounding language and her friend seemed to be able to communicate directly with her. This was most unusual. He began contemplating how he could communicate with her. There were spells to ease translation, but they all required the caster to have some knowledge of both of the languages they were working with, a condition he usually easily met. They would not work here though.

Shallan narrowed her eyes in thought. She had no idea how to get back to Roshar (it was clear by now that she was no longer there) and as a Lightweaver she was fairly certain her surges wouldn't be particularly helpful for getting back. As much as she didn't like it, this most likely meant that she was stuck here until Jasnah figured out what had happened and was able to rescue her. Unless Jasnah showed up soon, it wouldn't be practical for her to just sit here waiting for her. This meant that, at the very least, she needed information. Right now her best hope of information was this strange man. Shallan made eye contact with him and then pointed to herself. “Shallan.”

The man smiled and nodded to her as he repeated, “Shallan,” and responded with a similar gesture and “Albus.”

Shallan nodded slightly, “Albus.” Now what... Shallan bit her lip and then sat down as she opened her sketchbook and pulled out a pen. They couldn't communicate in words, but pictures didn't have a language. Her pen flew across the page as she quickly sketched Urithiru and the portal they had been experimenting on. She sketched the palace of Jah Keved and added lines that would hopefully suggest that she was hoping to travel there. She then drew a large slash through Jah Keved and firmer lines from the portal into a solid black blob with further lines leading to a quick sketch of her current surroundings. As she finished, she stood and turned the sketchbook toward him hopefully.

Albus studied the image thoughtfully. Whoever this girl was, she had quite a talent for drawing. That quick sketch of Stonehenge was quite remarkable. He turned his attention to the rest of the picture. There was an interesting tower that she seemed to be suggesting was the starting point of her journey. Next to it seemed to be a traveling device of some sort with the indication that it was supposed to take her to the other large building. Instead it apparently took her into a void and then dumped her here. Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully and slowly pulled out his wand.

Shallan watched with fascination as the man, Albus, she reminded herself, took out an oddly uniform stick and began weaving it through the air. To her astonishment, he began to form the image of a large stone castle in the air between them. Was this man another Lightweaver?! Was that stick some strange fabrial? The image zoomed into a room where there was an image of Albus sitting at a desk... Shallan squinted, was he...writing? The image man then looked up and over at a small image of the fire chicken. The fire chicken image flew to the image of the man, which appeared to grab the fire chicken's tail before they both disappeared in a flash of fire. Albus waved his arm and the castle also vanished.

He then wove an image of what appeared to be a home with several other people around and then added an image of himself, the fire chicken and...and Shallan... appearing in a burst of flame.

Shallan frowned. Aside from questioning the brilliance of going anywhere in a strange land with a strange man she had just met, Shallan was worried about what would happen if Jasnah made it here and she wasn't nearby. She turned back to her sketchbook and flipped to the next page. This time she started with an image of Jasnah next to an image of Urithiru with her hand up to her eyes as though looking out of the page. She followed it with an increasingly hasty series of places around Roshar with a flowing line connecting all of them in sequence. Then a picture of Jasnah at a desk surrounded by books and finally an image of Jasnah at in their current location looking sad and confused.

Albus nodded slowly. Shallan seemed to be indicating that someone would be frantically looking for her and didn't want to miss them when, if, they made it here. While he was contemplating the problem Shallan turned to Pattern. “Do you know of any way we could leave a message here for Jasnah? Maybe in Shadesmar?”

“Mmmmm... Jasnah will be tracking you, not just your path. Moving around shouldn't interfere much.”

“You are sure?”

“Nothing is sure. Sure is truth, but truth is based on lies and always changing.”

Shallan rolled her eyes. Someday she would learn not to try to get a straight answer out of Pattern. “Do you think we should go with the man and his fire chicken?”

“Mmmm... he makes good lies. ”

Right. That would be what Pattern focused on. Well, Albus had been reasonable so far and she didn't exactly have any other options. Now, how to tell him that she was willing (or at least had resigned herself) to go with him...

Shallan turned back to her sketchbook and made a sketch of the fire chicken with both her and Albus holding its tail and then got Albus's attention. He gave her a questioning look and pointed back at her Jasnah sketch montage. Shallan shrugged and pointed at Pattern. There was no point in trying to explain her rough understanding of what Pattern had tried to tell her. Albus smiled, nodded and looked around carefully to make sure they were alone before saying slowly and carefully, “The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.”

Shallan raised her eyebrows and cocked her head. Was she supposed to have gotten anything from that? Albus sighed and repeated the first word, “The,” and then gestured to her. Shallan repeated it back to him. They went through the whole phrase that way, first with the individual words and then with subphrases until Shallan was able to repeat the whole thing back to him. The words felt strange in her mouth and she had no idea what they meant or what their importance was, but she could say them.

Fawkes, who had been flying a sort of dance in and about the standing stones, now flew over to them and dangled his tail feathers between them. Shallan held out her arm and, to Dumbledore's astonishment, her friend seemed to meld into the sleeve of her dress. This girl came with no end of surprises. Shallan took a deep breath and confidently but gently took hold of Fawkes's tail with her freehand. Dumbledore joined her and they vanished in a flash of flame.

After the events of the last year, Shallan thought she had about had her share of new, unsettling experiences. The process of traveling by fire chicken wasn't actually that shocking – she felt a little warm and a slight tickling before suddenly arriving in a dark gloomy hallway – except for the simple fact that it had happened. Shallan had accepted the fact that there were fully sentient spren. She had, very reluctantly, accepted that she was on track to become one of the new Knights Radiant – the order whose previous incarnation had betrayed all of mankind on the Day of Recreance. She knew that Jasnah could use Shadesmar to travel quickly around Roshar and that Kaladin, that storming obnoxious but fascinating bridgeman captain, could use stormlight to fly.

If the fire chicken had been a spren, she might have been able to just accept that Albus had some unknown surge that let them use fire to travel. The chicken, however, was clearly not a spren. It was a chicken. A flashy, brightly colored, singing chicken, but it was a chicken. Chickens did not travel in fire. If chickens and fire went together they became food.

While Shallan was still mostly out of it as she tried to come to terms with the idea of traveling by fire chicken, Albus gently led her down the hall to a staircase and then down into what appeared to be a kitchen. The sound of several people talking over each other startled Shallan out of her confusion just in time to notice a woman wearing short sleeves with both hands and arms exposed standing at what seemed to be a stove. She scanned the room and saw that there were boys, girls, men and women sitting together at the table eating the same food. She groaned, took a step back so that she was against the wall next to the stairs they had just come down, slid to the floor and buried her head in her arms. Oh storms. This world was nothing like Jah Keved, Kharbranth, or Alethkar.  

Alloy of Law:  make Sherlock and Watson vigilantes from the wild west and then send them to a steampunk city where they acquire a brilliant but somewhat naive badass girl apprentice.  Oh, and they all have magic.

Literary Hub

The Brooklyn Public Library is giving eCards to teens nationwide to challenge book bans.

Like we needed another reason to love libraries: with book bans ramping up in school systems around the country, the Brooklyn Public Library

Right now, and for a “limited time,” anyone in the United States between the age of 13 and 21 can apply for a free Brooklyn Public Library eCard, which gives access to 350,000 eBooks, 200,000 audiobooks, and online databases.

Teens who want to apply for the free eCard can send an email to BooksUnbanned@bklynlibrary.org or a message to @bklynfuture on Instagram.

I finally got around to reading Sanderson's Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell (I've had the anthology checked out from the library for a couple of weeks). It has a lullaby. My brain provided a tune for the lullaby (I do not know where the tune came from, I don't recognize it and if it sounds like anything it was unintentional).  Getting this file into a form tumblr would take was a stupidly convoluted process and I'm not entirely happy with the recording quality (I really don't know what I'm doing with recording), but, here, have a cosmere lullaby.