Beast_c_a_t

Maybe the Dawncities were built at the source of the Listener's rhythms and they used the the source at Stormseat to break free of Odium's control by basically cranking it to 11 and blowing out the speaker. This would also explain why the Dawncities are built to a pattern of radial symmetry, the patterns already existed and the cities were built around them.

"Rooted in" was the wrong expression, better to say it parallels magnetism. There can only be two explanations for ALU's investiture blocking properties, an intrinsic elemental property or magic. I think that a purely magical explanation is unlikely and a big RAFO, so that leaves speculating on uncommon or unique properties of ALU.

I think a driving factor behind any plot to destroy or shatter Adonalsium was direct access to investiture. All of the pre-shattering magic we have seen has/had been part of a natural system that require people to form symbiotic relationship to gain access to magic. On The First of the Sun people need Aviar, on Roshar the Listners need Spren and even in the published chapters of LoP people on Yolen, except Midius(Hoid?) and his master Hoid, need a symbiot use magic. Since the the one thing the Shards, that we've seen, have all done is provide investiture directly to people, is makes sense that is what drove them.

The way somebody said "ALU can't be seen" reminded me of something I learned when I lost my titanium wedding ring in 6" of snow. Unlike other metals, ALU and Ti can't be "seen" by a regular metal detector because they are paramegnatic(don't hold or oppose a magnetic charge). I'm not sure what significe this has, if any, but since the iron/steel push/pull seems rooted in magnetism, I feel there could be some.

I would think that the "area of effect" of ALU occurs in the cognitive realm, and wouldn't effect a "physical realm" power like steel pushes. Otherwise ALU would be seriously OP, if all that was needed to stop physical alloymancy is an ALU cover or surround.

Electric arc furnaces were invented in the late 1800's, and the higher quality steel they produced helped start to the modern industrial era. A ceramic bullet would simply be made from a fired piece of molded clay, a low friction ceramic coating however requires more advanced technology like vapor deposition.

The alloying wouldn't prevent galling, it would remain a serious problem as long as the aluminum content remained high enough to still be "aluminium". Galling is a problem anytime you have two metals moving against each other, and aluminium is one of the most problematic. The barrel and chamber could be lined with hardened steel or coated with a heat resistant low friction coating like some ceramics, but that causes other problems like defeating the point of an ALU gun or being well beyond the technology level of the steam age.

Something about the aluminum guns and bullets has been bothering me... They couldn't work. At least not more then one shot, because of the galling problem with aluminum. The barrel would be ruined and the cartridge would be jammed in the chamber. The problem with galling is why brass is almost exclusively used for cartridges. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galling As a professional machinist and amateur engineer I can thinks of ways to make it work without using other metals, but they all rely on technology that is far advanced of that in Scandal.

Shardblades vary greatly in look, and the one used for Nightblood could have been chosen to not stand out too much. I don't think these two are mutually exclusive. It's like saying because a bucket is too full of water to lift, no more water can be added to it. "Shardblade" is used for both living and dead spreen blades. They could have been trying to replicate a KR shardblade based off legend, and assumed, like the Roshrian scholars did, that the left behind shardblades where just invested artifacts. As per my rebuttal to 3, if Vasher didn't know shardblades are spren, but assumed that they were just magically augmented swords. His fear of mass produced awakened swords makes a lot more sense. Given that Nightblood has been corrupted from it's creation, it had to be made with a mix of different investitures, and the most likely explanation is an awakened dead shardblade.

I think the key to Hoid's magic is hinted at in LoP, unlike the other magic users we see, Hoid can use investure without needing an intermediary.

I just want to point out that SI units are the official US standard(so far as that being the standard NIST uses), and the American Standard Inch has always been defined as 25.4mm, since the British couldn't make an accurate copy of the Imperial Inch. We still use the inch mostly due to the economics (retooling a factory is vary expensive) and ease of use (it's a lot easier to pace off 10ft then 2.54m).

We see Demoux on Roshar in the Purelake interlude, and he most likely has a hemalurgic earring to contact Harmony with.

First, I'll point out that we have already seen two examples of Adonalsium's investiture, and in both cases the investiture was in a natural form. Avaons in the Sixth of Dusk, and the pre-shard investiture of native non-human life on Roshar. Second, Scandal is unique in the Cosmere, as the only shard world created after the shattering. This also means that the Metallic Arts are the only system of investiture that wasn't influenced by Adonalsium's prior investiture.

I would like to point out that in the Cosmere "seeing the future" and "predicting the future" are two different things. Apart from the Vorin superstition that all foreseeing is evil, Voinbinders are always said to have tried to divine or prefect the future. This is (locally) a power of Odium, and to a lesser extent Cultivation, but something Honor isn't any good at. This is most evident in Dalinar's visions, where Honor could see that the Everstorm would come but wasn't able to predict when, so he had to leave pre-recorded visions with the Stormfather to be delivered at the appropriate time. I think a Truthwatcher's ability to see the future is like Honor's, they can see the general "shape" and major events like the Everstorm but can't tell when or how likely unless it is unavoidable. Renarin's countdown doesn't seem to start until the Everstorm is already basically started(Listeners have decided to join with voidspren and it's only a matter of time), so it's more a warning of what's going on now then a prediction of the future. I don't think that the timing or Renarin's actions are the results of an outside influence, but the heavily invested nature of the Highstorm turning his foresight from a "whisper" into a "shout" causing him to be overwhelmed and react with compulsive behavior.