Hey Cosmere Fandom, It’s Book Rec Time.

Here, have another of Iredomi's poems!  The text can be found in his original post here on sebrukiscrossbow. 

Oathbringer thoughts: Eshonai

What if, just maybe, part of the point is that we are supposed to be angry and bitter about Eshonai’s death? Maybe, given what we know right now, it is supposed to come across as completely pointless. 

It seems like no one (except Timbre and sometimes Venli) cares. Eshonai’s death happens off screen and the only reason we get confirmation that she is dead is that Ulim guides Venli and Demid to her to retrieve the plate. We learned all the way back in WoK that scavenging from corpses goes against Listener culture, and yet here we are with Venli being forced to do so anyway. The only reason we even find Eshonai’s corpse is that Venli is being forced to do things that go against her culture. Eshonai is dead. Their culture is being erased. 

There are various parallels between the Listeners and the native peoples of the Americas. Far too often their plights are ignored. Indigenous women are murdered or go missing at disturbing rates and yet it almost never makes the news. Their deaths are horrible and pointless and it seems like no one cares. When they do get talked about it is almost always (at least from what I have seen) as an after thought. Much like Eshonai. Maybe that’s part of the point.

But you know what? Even with Eshonai dead, this isn’t the end of her story. Just because her death happened off screen doesn’t mean that will continue to be true. One of the next two books is going to give us Eshonai flashbacks. We are going to get to know her and her world better. And, I suspect, we are going to get to see that awful battle from her perspective and be with her as she falls into the chasm.  

Ulim says it looks like she drowned in the flood waters, but my guess is there is more going on. She had plate, a blade, and storm form. We know she was at least somewhat trained with the plate and blade. Kaladin and Shallan survived spending a high storm in the chasms when they were both a mess and Kaladin didn’t have his powers and Shallan was wary of hers. Eshonai should have had the tools to survive. I can imagine a heartwrenching scene coming where Eshonai knows that she could save herself using the power that she has in storm form, but fighting that power and rejecting it. Or Eshonai being given the chance during that first Everstorm to become a fused and choosing to die instead. Some kind of intense internal struggle where she makes the choice to die rather than give in to something she can’t accept. 

Her death will still be tragic. We can (maybe even should) still be angry that she died, but until we get her flashback chapters I’m going to cling to the hope that there is more going on than we currently know. 

Rithmatics: Part 7, The Incenter and 9 Point Ellipses

In the last post, we determined that the incenter (the intersection of the angle bisectors of the triangle) is probably the most viable center option for constructing 9-point ellipses. Today we will look at what we can get by using different triangles.

The first thing to note is that for an equilateral triangle the incenter is the same as the orthocenter.  This is because the angle bisectors are also the altitudes of the triangle.  This means that the resulting conic is going to be the 6 point circle we are already familiar with.

When we were working with the orthocenter, right triangles gave us special cases because two of the legs of the triangle were also altitudes.  Since we are using angle bisectors instead of altitudes now, right triangles do not form a special case.  In fact, we will never have a situation where a bisector coincides with a triangle side.  

Another interesting thing to note is that, unlike the orthocenter, the incenter will always be inside the triangle, even if the triangle is obtuse.  This means that obtuse triangles now produce new 9 bind-point patterns.

The most interesting case occurs when we look at isosceles triangles. Here, the angle bisector for the different angle also bisects the base of the triangle.  This means that those two points coincide and we end up with 8-point  ellipses.  Furthermore, the  symmetry of the triangle means that the angle bisector of the unique angle will also end up being an axis of the 8-point ellipse.  If the unique angle is smaller than the two matching angles, it will be the major axis.  If it is larger, it will be the minor axis.  Both possibilities have potential strengths and could be used to design useful defenses.

Next time we will either go off the deep end with a crazy idea I have for Lines of Warding or we will dive into Lines of Vigor. I haven't decided topic I want to write up next.

In the chasms in Way of Kings, Dunny creates an insult poem by making the rhythm fit the song Mari’s Two Lovers. Rock then goads Dunny into singing it before joining in.  Ashiok and I have been working on lyrics for the song.  This is what we have so far, but this is a Rosharan drinking song and we are pretty sure it has many, many more verses, so we are releasing it into the wilds of the cosmere fandom to see if anyone else happens to have any verses to add. Current lyrics under the cut.

Dunny’s poem:

Hey you big buffoon, 

you smell like a wet hog,

so go out by the moon, 

And jump yourself in the bog.

Mari’s Two Lover’s (lyrics by Kalyna and Ashiok)

Gather round and hear

this tale I have to tell

of our young Mari dear

and the men she loved so well

Mari was a lass

Though Not the brightest sphere

She often cut her class

to a wander far and near

There she met a lad

who took her out for wine

But she arrived with Khad

and left with his brother Stine

Khad and Stein were twins

who looked  so much the same

it was beyond her ken

that the two had different names

The twins had a tell:

two eyes of different hues

they were distinguished well

cause their eyes were switched, it’s true

Their town had a dance

And Mari begged to go

While there she whirled and pranced

Always watching for her beau

As she spun around

She fell/came into Khad’s arms

She was extremely proud

Khad had fallen for her charms

Then she came to Stine

And danced with him a turn

She stared into his eyes

Oh but still she didn’t learn

Khad had brown and blue

While Stine had blue and brown

But our dear Mari knew

Her beau was the best in town

Over in a lait

An axehound pup bit Stein

To keep up the charade

Stein cut khad with some fork tines

Now this song must end

I sadly have to go

But Mari and her men

Oh their tale goes on you know

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.

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.

PSA: Brandon Sanderson is holding a T-shirt design contest for the release of The Lost Metal. 

There are 3 design prompts to choose from:

*  Wayne’s Haberdashery 

* Take anything from the books and give us an Art-Deco design 

* An in-world product (you can also make up your own in-world product for Mistborn)

More details on Sanderson’s site at: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/design-contest/

Pattern pumpkin

It blows my mind that Brandon Sanderson managed to create a character that fits seamlessly into the stormlight world despite basically being a sentient fractal.  It also makes me really absurdly happy.  I love Pattern so much.  Here is my jack-o-lantern for this year :-)

Kickstarter

Spacefunk!

Space is the place! A collection of science fiction stories and poems by authors of African/African Diaspora Descent.

Hey tumblr, I stumbled across this kickstarter for a sci-fi anthology featuring stories and poems by authors of African and African Diaspora Descent. It sounds cool and when I tried to dig up a tumblr post to reblog about it I couldn't find one, so I'm making it myself.

The kickstarter is running through noon eastern on July 19th, 2024. The pledge level for the ebook with over 40 stories and poems is just $10. For $30 there's an ebook bundle with this new anthology and their previous anthologies (Steamfunk!, Dieselfunk!, Cyberfunk! ,and Spyfunk!). There are also options to get a physical copy of the anthology, cool posters, and more.

If you are interested in sci-fi from voices that are currently underrepresented in the community, go check it out!

I just finished Brandon Sanderson's The Rithmatist. Now, any time I read a fantasy novel with an interesting magic system, I imagine what it would be like to have said magic (don't we all?).  This magic system seems particularly well suited to me - it calls out to both my math and artistic sides.  I think I could make a rather good rithmatist.  The freaking 9 point circle is an important part of the magic system.  I can't even.  

I bet that the 6 point defenses don't actually require that the 6 points be equally spaced.  I bet they could actually be anywhere as long as you build the rest of the defense properly.  The Mystic Hexagon theorem has got to be relevant to this magic system.  I bet you can even use the Mystic Hexagon theorem to build 8 point defenses where the extra two points come from the line dictated by the Mystic Hexagon.  And when that line doesn't intersect the circle, it would be a natural (possibly required) place to put a Line of Forbiddance. There will probably be rithmatic drawings showing up here...

Also, my math notes often have non-math doodles in them.  <3 chalklings

Melody and Joel are fantastic. I like them a lot. There are things I need to process before you get more about them though.