Sandbox Discussions

[anthusiasm]

AndaisQ you have the best thread names.

[AndaisQ]

:D

This one actually doesn't apply as well, it's from an earlier draft of the intro post wherein she found no appropriate ladies at the bar and also got hit on by a bunch of guys and I forgot to change it. Still, I'm willing to bet she says that at least once per day regardless of actual circumstance, so I'm not too bothered.

[Bluelantern]

Johanna! She is the best-est <3 Any plans for more of her?

Who is this burning_gold person?

[AndaisQ]

Well, there's an idea floating vaguely in ideaspace of a cloudpine Ari doing something or other, and a JHWH would port pretty easily to Alethia. So stay tuned in case of that, I guess!

[Kappa]

burning_gold is a Sunnyvamp NPC I concocted once many years ago who got way too much character development for his tiny role in the RP I was doing at the time, and I dredged him up so Johanna would have someone interesting to interrogate.

[DanielH]

Chris answers the door.

"Hi, Johanna. Come on in."

I know she's incredibly ggod at protective magic, the home is a fortress, and she knows Johanna isn't a vampire. This still seems like a bad idea, on principle and habit if nothing else.

[Kappa]

It's broad daylight, also. I mean, yes, you're right, bad habit, but this is not an occasion on which that bad habit could feasibly have bit her.

[Nemo]

Preservation and Ruin aren't limited to the known three magic systems. Humans are, but that's just a way of accessing someone else's power (Except Feruchemy, which is accessing your own, hence why I thought it should work off-world). What Preservation's pool do is allow more and more access to the god's power until you're channeling basically all of it.

What exactly an unrestrained god does is kind of ambiguous. (They're called Shards, but I didn't mention it in-thread because there were already way too many proper nouns. Yes, this means the Admin could re-create the thing that they're shards of and nobody knows what that would do.) Well, Ruin's intent is obvious. Preservation's isn't. It did want to create humans and stuff, and it's stated to be the exact opposite of Ruin. But it's Preservation and not Creation, so my guess is that it made humans because the mind directing it used to be human and that's what came to mind when it decided what to make. It can't very well preserve a void. (Humans predate life on Scadrial. Multiverse shenanigans probably.)

The apocalypse is entirely me guessing. There are Shards without opposites elsewhere in the multiverse, and Endowment hasn't turned its planet into extremely artistic paper clips. I think it's an OK guess, because Preservation as a goal is less human-friendly than, say, Cultivation, and because preserving things is simpler. As for what it would look like, I'm picturing something like what the Auditors were aiming for in Thief of Time. Nothing happens, and then continues to happen. Unlike ToT a visitor would be fine until interfered with, which Preservation wouldn't do unless they looked like they were going to break things. It wouldn't be the Lord Ruler by that point; he'd be pretty much entirely controlled by its intent. Unless torching prevents that, in which case they totally could have made Ruin torchable and set it to do it automatically. The mind in question used to be a pretty nice human.

[Bluelantern]

Preservation and Ruin aren't limited to the known three magic systems. Humans are, but that's just a way of accessing someone else's power (Except Feruchemy, which is accessing your own, hence why I thought it should work off-world). What Preservation's pool do is allow more and more access to the god's power until you're channeling basically all of it.

Sorry for not remembering the thread, but it is possible to grant Feruchemy to other people? What could motivate Lord Ruler to do it? (In terms of payments?)

What exactly an unrestrained god does is kind of ambiguous. (They're called Shards, but I didn't mention it in-thread because there were already way too many proper nouns. Yes, this means the Admin could re-create the thing that they're shards of and nobody knows what that would do.) Well, Ruin's intent is obvious. Preservation's isn't. It did want to create humans and stuff, and it's stated to be the exact opposite of Ruin. But it's Preservation and not Creation, so my guess is that it made humans because the mind directing it used to be human and that's what came to mind when it decided what to make. It can't very well preserve a void. (Humans predate life on Scadrial. Multiverse shenanigans probably.)

The apocalypse is entirely me guessing. There are Shards without opposites elsewhere in the multiverse, and Endowment hasn't turned its planet into extremely artistic paper clips. I think it's an OK guess, because Preservation as a goal is less human-friendly than, say, Cultivation, and because preserving things is simpler. As for what it would look like, I'm picturing something like what the Auditors were aiming for in Thief of Time. Nothing happens, and then continues to happen. Unlike ToT a visitor would be fine until interfered with, which Preservation wouldn't do unless they looked like they were going to break things. It wouldn't be the Lord Ruler by that point; he'd be pretty much entirely controlled by its intent. Unless torching prevents that, in which case they totally could have made Ruin torchable and set it to do it automatically. The mind in question used to be a pretty nice human.

Are there other canon Shards? Inside of the Scadrial-verse?

I am having some ideas to sandbox with you, not all that complete at this point (if you want to discuss them my gchat is tharquiteto@gmail.com). sorry for being presumptuous >_>

Among the ideas to solve Scadrial-happily-ever-after-terribleness:
* Instead of outright world-wide stasis or destruction, maybe Lord Ruler made the mistake of trying to mix both powers. The result is a bubble of "super-preservation" that is containing a explosion of destructive Ruin, with Lord Ruler being unable to do anything but keeping the disaster locked inside. The rest of the planet is enjoying the dangers of free will for the first time in forever, which can only result in fun and puppies.
* Use some characters from my Luminosity-Fanfic and have them arrive on Scadrial and discover that the state of the world is far less than ideal. One of them can work as a mind-shield for the group; Another can give "restriction orders" which prevent people from doing things. Combining these two + some creativity + Lumipire advantages should make possible to solve the Scadrial-happily-ever-after-terribleness.
* Use some Aestrix!god alts for some of my characters (well, they are there >_>) and have them trying to make a deal with Lord Ruler to safely evacuate the world, with the obvious problem that my character don't like the whole mind control, but still need Lord Ruler's help.

[PlainDealingVillain]

Shards that exist in the broader Cosmere (which includes most of Sanderson's work, but it all shares a character - Hoid - and some basic principles of magic, and it is possible to travel between the various worlds) include Odium, Cultivation, Honor, Endowment, Preservation, Ruin, Devotion, and Dominion. There were 16 of them in all (probably), but the other 8 are unknown (also several of them have been 'shattered', mostly at the behest of Odium). Only Ruin and Preservation reside on Scadrial, though.

And Feruchemy can be granted to people through Hemalurgy spikes, as he does with Promise, but is otherwise pseudo-genetic. It's a little unclear how it works before the conclusion of the first Mistborn trilogy (someone takes up both shards and becomes Harmony, fundamentally changing Scadrial's magic in the process), but after that's happened, Feruchemy gets diluted into single powers as Terris blood is spread through the population, so that people just have one type of Feruchemy (i.e. just tin Feruchemy lets store your senses) or none at all.