StarrFall

the floating cities mention for Ashyn had me thinking that was it, but just read further and now prepared to say I was wrong

Holy cow, lot of Hoid stuff to unpack with this one. Given the nationalities named, I'm wondering if we are talking about Ashyn (Yumi) and Braize (Painter) in the Rosharan system, possibly set in time prior to (or at the same time as) human settlement on Roshar. Also interesting how Painter traps the cognitive shadows in a similar way to how Rosharan scholars trapped flame spren by documenting attributes about them. Hion lines seem similar to those the Eyrie had sustaining their cognitive stronghold on the outskirts of Scadrial's cognitive realm, which may mean that we are talking exclusively about Ashyn (with Yumi in the physical realm and Painter in the cognitive realm).

I believe (been a minute, correct me if wrong) that he gave his name as Hoid to Kaladin as well, around the campfire, and was generally known as Hoid on Nalthis.

I'd be too afraid to if I wasn't fully caught up on Cosmere as I wouldn't want to happen upon Cosmere spoilers or references I don't understand yet, but I'm caught up so that's a huge YAY for me! Waiting until 2023 to finish the read won't be fun, but need new daydream material.

Glorious day. I see the Fry meme has been tended to already so I'll just mosey on over to yon Kickstartery and get to it.

Hadn't really considered that given he has so much going on, but a very fair point; he certainly makes more sense than Rlain at the very least. I had honed in on the others (excluding Rlain, more of a gut feeling there) because of their direct experiences with Odium's and Honor's investiture (or combo thereof), but there are few characters in the Cosmere who display anywhere near as much passion OR honor as Kaladin displays.

Dalinar, or less obviously Renarin or Venli (possibly even Rlain), are walking paths that could put them as the God of War by taking up Odium and Honor together, as Sazed was poised to assume the mantle of Harmony. Of course, that feels pretty obvious so it won't be so simple as that, but it's a tasty enough herring to enjoy while waiting what will certainly seem like eons for the next installment.

You been busy!

I figured that was a stretch; wasn’t sure that even made sense with the production timeline.

Finally hit the finish line; had to finish an epic re-read before I dove in. Holy. Crap. For me, this book was an amazing culmination of all things prior. Things that stood out: The inclusion of tidbits from all exposed corners of the Cosmere. Cosmere Science ("Stience"). Applications for gems, alumninum & Raysium with other Investitures 2 God-metals on Roshar still unaccounted for too Tones/Rhythms as part of a potential key to reassembling Adonalsium? Dual-fuel for multi-bonded? White Sand as an Investiture converter? Thaidakar. Oh yea. Nightblood. You already knew it what Nightblood was all about, but oh yea. Deadeyes have more to do? Socially progressive: I think that the huge nod to the significance/importance of mental health, the bucking of gender norms, and even how racism (and/or species-ism?) is addressed is all fantastically handled. I'm pretty sure I caught a coronavirus nod in something Lirin said at some point. I may have been looking into things there, but the thought made me chuckle. There is so much more...

Has anyone caught any Spren around Mraize when the Aviary is near, I wonder? If it is the common variety that shield minds from being detected then that might prevent Spren from reacting to his emotions... Makes me wonder what the effects one of that variety of Aviary would be for those in the cognitive realm too...

I had missed the bit about the baton, but I read more carefully and am glad to see you have covered the topic of transference of power through contact points on tool and gloves, because if you are going through all this trouble then you probably OUGHT to make it as cool as possible, lol. Cursory search of PZT warned that they likely were not super flexible within individual units; wouldn't be surprised if you could get others geared to catch what first line is throwing and step up even more, but also would not be surprised if that broke the bank. I've had no luck altering chips in the past, but have been party to (not driving) boot-loading of chips and it didn't seem overly onerous as compared to my expectations. Especially given real-estate is precious (and odd) in your use case, DIY may kill a few birds with one stone anyway.

@Quantus First off, this is way cool! Now for the inquisition: Are you shooting for fingertip to fingertip arcing only, or do you think you could get more range out of it? Can you serialize PZT Transformers to get the power shaped to your target (seems like they would be fairly particular about their input range and so may not chain well unless you get the right one in the right place) or is it a throughput issue that parallel transformers might address? Not suggestions, I'm too ignorant to suggest anything here and usually rely on off the shelf parts and microcontrollers for my fun, just questions to sate my own curiosity and you are clearly educated in this arena

This could take a lot of forms. Herding families could amass spikes with various animal traits and create an ever increasing super-charged heard of work/defense animals. Or straight go into the custom monster building business.

This has crossed my mind multiple times and it made me wonder if long lineages with one hereditarily-prevalent power could amass an enormous amount of potential ability with that power within a single spike; has it been discussed whether one can use the same spike to spike out the same trait from multiple sources and stack/increase the ability that can be passed on via the spike by doing so?

Random thoughts on this topic that brought be back to the forum: Scadrial is a planet where the perpetual motion machine should be 100% achievable with minimal human effort and without any fuel at all, Allomantic or otherwise. (F)Iron Feruchemists could simply sit in a counter-balanced elevator and then fill and drain their metal minds all day long while turbines capture the energy from the rise and fall of the elevator/ballast. Could be geared to gently rise with no weight (filling metalmind) and gently fall when the Feruchemist's natural weight is restored. If the Feruchemist has enough stores from that method (and MASSIVE metalminds could be dropped in or the elevator itself could be solid iron, to provide maximum capacity), then could re-gear to speed up the cycle/generation rate by adding a bit more ballast and having the Ferucheminst use stored weight to power the downstroke and natural weight for a gentle ride up or filling the metal mind for a more adventurous ride up. Could even make the elevator into an office or shop or something with desk/chair metalminds to accommodate teams, as long as it is counterbalanced properly. Generating free, if somewhat limited, electricity could be a byproduct many indoor jobs for any (F)Iron Feruchemist, and where being being grotesquely obese could actually be enormously beneficial in some ways. If you wanted to go all "Rick and Morty" on it, you could even make "Gooble Box" stair machines for Feruchemists, lol!

Those are pretty crisp lines given the methodology you mentioned! Did you paint the solution on or do a stenciled soak of some sort, @rhavek?

More likely that Odium would try to alter all of the systems to eliminate the possibility for any potential threats that might rise up to challenge him, and on Scadrial specifically would try to expand on Sazed's work of changing Feruchemy/Allomancy to break those systems down even further. Not sure if he can achieve that in short order without actually taking up Harmony, but he'd probably eventually win that battle (and all others across the board) by building up his Investiture on the planet over time.

I figured it was something like that, but I don't like to make uninformed assumptions where scientific facts are involved (at least not when I know I'm ignorant on the topic). Makes sense that it would be more efficient too as the mass of antimatter required to destroy is the mass of what you are destroying, where an explosion is an omni-directional event with a lot of energy going to waste (in this context). In Cosmere terms, I'd guess that the energy released would be Investiture, so could be some cool implications there too. If this all stands up then I'd view that ability as the most likely to destroy a Fullborn without trickery, insane luck/Shardic assistance, or destroying a large chunk of the landscape the Fullborn is standing on at the same time. Roshar will need to seriously up its' science game if it will ever produce an individual who figures that little trick out though...

Think Miles' execution: even without any ability to compound metals other than gold, he was able to survive a few volleys from the firing squad due to the F-Gold embedded somewhere in his body that the law wasn't able to find/remove. If Miles could compound almost any single physical attribute in addition to health then he would likely have been able to fight his way free and would never be caught on Scadrial during that age; if he could compound every physical trait and further use Allomancy... Regardless of the relationship between Harmony (the Ruin half) and embedded metal, it stands to reason that if Miles can bury that much metal in himself in the age of Harmony then a Fullborn could also embed at least one strategic set/subset of emergency metalminds completely within their body without too much detriment, which could be used to avoid even powerful Allomancers and escape. A Fullborn could literally regroup at the bottom of the ocean at their leisure if they wanted to, so unless they are completely destroyed in a single blow then there is no way. We know that at least some Shards cannot directly affect an individual to the point of destruction (even if destruction is their Intent, as Ruin's is) and that they must work through the constructs of their Invested worlds/people, and it may be that is how they all are (Nightwatcher??), so maybe not even a Shard could do that job directly. Not sure what affect antimatter would have as I am ignorant there, but going gamma should blast the body apart enough that embedded metal minds would no longer work and dropping a fullborn on a stable black hole would probably kill them the moment their F-Iron filled up. I'd guess that any modern bomb that is capable of vaporizing a body would do the trick too (nuclear, MOAB-esque or otherwise) but the Cosmere is unlikely to see that kind of tech until the end of the Scadrial arc, if then.

*WoB standing right behind me making me look dumb* I just figured if he could hack one type of Investiture then he can hack others. I suppose I really shouldn't shoot from the hip when "betting about anything"...

I'm not sure what the "Stormlight to Breath conversion ratio" is from a raw Investiture perspective, but my guess is that it's entirely plausible that it would not take much Stormlight to satisfy a Returned's weekly need for Investiture and that a modest collection of smaller gems could hold enough Stormlight to get them through the weeping (Edit: upon further thought I remembered small gems lose Stormlight after a time, something even the OP mentioned but that did not register with me until just now ). I wonder if it could also be possible that Vasher/Returned are able to hold Stormlight directly and without leakage, like a Radiant (I'm speculating it would be a virtue of having been Returned if so), and that they may not even need many/any gems to store Investiture for the weeping (though presumably holding too much would make him glow like a Radiant too, so seems less likely). Regardless, Returned can presumably take in Stormlight if Vasher can make use of it to stay alive as BS has stated, but the Nalthin Spirit Web will likely prevent use of Stormlight for any purposes other than feeding Diving Breath (or however that should be phrased) so I don't think Returned would get the strength/speed/healing boons Radiants get while holding Stormlight. Given that, I don't think they would passively burn through Stormlight to feed those boons and, if my logic stands up and Returned can actually hold Stormlight without leakage, then they may be able to hold Stormlight for much longer periods of time than Rosharan Radiants, who are keyed to consume Stormlight directly. I'm sure @Calderis is 100% correct that Vasher keeps stockpiles of Breath and for a multitude of reasons, not least of which would be to keep him alive in a pinch, but if he is off of Nalthis then he has a very strong motivator to avoid using that stockpile for staying alive, else he'd have to occasionally jump back over to Nalthis and find more Breath (which may be happening for all we know). Better to save Breath for sustainable use in Awakening. Edit: I'd bet about anything that Vasher/Returned could also subsist off of Investiture from the Everstorm if they knew how.

Now I'm desperately hoping to see is Szeth and "Azure" square off in Stormlight 4...

I'm pretty sure this type of Awakening requires inorganic materials and a short command to keep Investiture cost down. As such... I'd combine these concepts by Awakening a flying drone that is bionically wired to receive visual signals from the eyes of a mantis shrimp (for range of light spectrum) and an eagle (for distance of vision), audio signals from the ears of a bat (duh), and olfactory signals from the nose of a dog or pig (also duh), and I'd use the words "Augment Me". The hope is that I would be bonded to the drone such that I can control it telepathically and that it doesn't have to "report" and I just get the sensory information in real time. Being able to see through the eyes of a mantis shrimp could open a whole new world of potential colors to exploit for Awakening too (though it could be that this color spectrum is already being used for Awakening and we just don't see it), and all of the other boons are pretty obvious. Hoping for a potential side effect of the drone being able to run off of my Investiture.

I have suspected that the 10th Heightening Color Distortion effect could hint at 2 potential flavors of an Endowment version of Lightweaving: Awakening + controlled Color Distortion = physical puppet show made by projecting specific coloration onto Awakened objects that can actually perform actions Auras shaped directly without need for projecting onto a physical object, to produce insubstantial illusions I'd imagine the first to be more likely (and frankly more practically useful), but both are wild speculation. Not sure how much control would be possible here if this suspicion proves true to any degree, but most of the new Returned are unaware that they can control their physical forms as Vasher does and ignorance regarding Endowment abounds on Nalthis during the Warbreaker era, so who knows...