radren

I figured the Cosmere was going to have a Cold War-type era with an arms race and predicted that Scadrial would lead in said arms race. Sigzil confirmed this is the case. Kelsier emphasizes the need to catch up to Autonomy's people in the epilogue of TLM. Whatever Harmony and Kelsier do in Era 3 is going to work. I'm almost as excited for Era 3 as I am SA5.

Obviously there are more questions than answers in The Sunlit Man. One question that ate at me throughout the book is why Sigzil switched from the Windrunners to Skybreakers. One theory I have is that Hoid asked him to switch so he could spy on Nale and the Skybreakers. Remember that the Skybreakers are on Odium's side.

Sorry if this topic has already been discussed. I was thinking about Kelsier's physical form. I don't think he returned to his rotting corpse. However, Marasi describes him as resembling the statues of the Survivor. Hemalurgy is similar to the Fused's magic in that both require a physical object inside the body that holds investiture. Both require some sacrifice - taking a life to give power to another (or at the very least some part of a soul, as we learned in TLM and also Warbreaker). When a Fused takes over a body, they are able to physically transform it somewhat to resemble their true form. This mechanism could explain how Kelsier looks like Kelsier. If Kelsier is a Fused, then whose body is he occupying? The actual Fused can only take over the body of a willing participant. Is that true on Scadrial? Is it Spook's body?

Maybe it's presumptuous to assume that the industrial revolution on Scadrial was directly caused by Autonomy's intervention. But both Autonomy and Kelsier talk about how struggle creates the right environment for innovation to flourish. Electricity was brand new in Alloy of Law and by The Lost Metal, it was everywhere. Radios and photographs were common. The Set even had colored motion pictures. That's a lot of advancement in 7 years or so. I think Harmony knows that by allowing Preservation to be the dominant force, he has made things too easy. There has been a lot of talk here about Discord. Harmony tells Kelsier that he will take his suggestions into consideration. I wonder if Harmony makes the conscious decision to become Discord knowing that the chaos it causes will provide the tension needed to continue the pace at which Scadrial had advanced technologically during Autonomy's intervention.