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Okay, final numbers are in. Sorry for the confusion(s)... Originally I was going to post this as a reply to Joe ST's comment in the Brandon Sanderson AMA thread, but my reply started getting just a bit long and technical, so I figured I'd post it separately. Not necessarily because it merits discussion (though it might merit a reaction), but because I wanted to keep it independent of the AMA. So. Turns out, as far as our viewpoint characters know, the population of the Final Empire was about 100 million people before the events at the end of The Hero of Ages, so we are talking Era 1. By the time The Alloy of Law rolls in, Era 2, we are down to about 15 million (again, as far as our protagonists know). This is enough information for us to make some educated guesses about how impactful Ruin's release, as well as Vin's and Harmony's tinkering with the planet was. Let's look at our Earth as a baseline. According to World of Meters' page on World Population, we entered the Industrial Age with about 770 million people (a number we don't actually care about here) and exhibited a population growth rate of about 1% (1.0059% for the period between 1760 and 1804). The Final Empire takes place during a kind of pre-Industrial era, skaa were created (or modified) to be more fertile, but I find it likely that more of them were dying when compared to our history, so I think establishing a 1% population growth rate for the Final Empire is, if not accurate, then at least a good starting point. Given that about 300 years have passed between The Hero of Ages and The Alloy of Law, knowing that we reach about 15 million people, and assuming the 1% (1.00596%, actually) population growth, we can calculate that all of (known) Scadrial had about 750 thousand people when it began repopulating. From 100,000,000 to 750,000. That's 99.25% of the population gone. Over. Ninety. Nine. Percent. And you know what the worst part is? I don't know if 1% is not too low. People tend to, um... get active after surviving disasters, something about the human spirit likes to celebrate the death of others and its own survival with procreation. Harmony had just remade the entire world, I would be surprised if he didn't try to make things just a little better for his people. You know, kill and infectious disease here and there, boost people's immune systems, maybe even tinker with the fertility rates so that people have an easier time repopulating the planet. If we raise that 1% to 1.20% we end up with 420,000 people surviving the apocalypse (99.6% extinction)! You know what the population growth rate was in 1965? 2.19%. If Scadrial had the same annual growth rate during the 300 years between Era 1 and Era 2, Harmony would've had only 22,500 people to work with! Twenty-two-fraking-thousand! Want this as a percentage of the Final Empire's population before that? 99.98. How crazy is that?! So, two edits later, we are back where we started - if my estimates are anywhere near correct, we are talking about 99% extinction rate. You know, no big deal. For comparison, the Permian-Triassic extinction, Earth's worst extinction, wiped out only 95% of all land-based animal life on the planet.

As the title states, which team do you think would win in a duel, given that all of the magic systems work simultaneously. Team 1: Pre-Radiance Kaladin; unconsciously uses Stormlight as he did in Bridge Four, and has no shards. Vin at her strongest (But not as Preservation); plenty of Allomantic stores. Hrathen, ability as shown in Elantris. Enough said. Team 2: Raoden at his best, able to make use of AonDor. Denth in Warbreaker, plain beast. Eshonai in Warform and in full plate. Place of Battle: Elantris, Sel. Who do you think will win? Feel free to justify below

Brandon recently released a statement about what he's doing this year, and in it, he mentioned that when he finished the Stormlight archive, he would write what he dubbed the 'big' Mistborn trilogy, a sci-fi one. That got me thinking, what would happen if allomancers visited other planets in the Cosmere? I imagine there would be battles, perhapse some revelations about Investiture. What does everyone else think?

I'm going to pre-order it and Bands of Mourning soon. Is that a good idea or should I wait until it gets cheaper? Is anyone else going to order it?

I am getting the Mistborn Adventure Game, but right now I only have two other friends to play it with(I would probably narrate). Anyone in the Midwest/Tristate/Ohio/Cincinnati area who is interested in playing? If so, reply to this and I'll shoot you. (a PM)

So for English I need to write a persuasive essay, and I can do it on any topic, so I figured I'd write about who would win in a fight Kaladin or Vin. One I thought this would be a fun thing to do,and two it gives me an excuse to reread way of kings + words of radiance, and the mistborn series. Your thoughts and opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Just wondering...

So the last week or two me and my good buddy(irl) Sirce Luckwielder have been having a discussion about Atium and how it is linked to the Lord Ruler's staying young. It led to some other discussions and I was wondering if any of what i suspect has been confirmed. Or maybe some of you who are smarter than I am can help credit or discredit this theory. I don't see how we will see Atium again at all and this is why. Atium was the physical manifestation of Ruin but it was either all used up to fight the Koloss or destroyed by Kelsier in the pits of Hathsin. He thinks that since Sazed has both shards there will still be Atium that will regrow. I disagree. Anyways, all of this discussion got me looking in to things that i haven't really cared about in the past (I'm a Roshar guy!) and I have firmed up in my conclusion that Ruin and Preservation no longer exist or are on the verge of no longer existing as two seperate shards. In The Emperor's Soul, Shai tries to teach Gaotona about the Physical, Spiritual, and Cognitive realm and she says this: All things exist in the three realms, Gaotona.... The Physical is what we feel, what is before us. The Cognitive is how an bject is viewed and how it views itself. The Spiritual Realm contains an object's soul- its essence- as well as the ways it is connected to the things and people around it.......Here is the point. The longer an object exists as a whole, and the longer it is seen in that state, the stronger its sense of complete identity becomes.. Do citizens of Scarial see Sazed as Ruin and Preservation? I do not believe so(my memory isn't perfect) They see him as Harmony. Sazed is seen as one entity, not to. So I believe that if the shards haven't already been merged, they are on their way. Anyways, I was wondering what people think about this theory. Sorry my post might seem all over the place, I have a hard time typing out the thoughts in my head. This is kind of new to me as I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about things on Scadrial, I've mostly kept to Roshar. So please forgive anything I might have misunderstood. Also, I'm sure when Sirce has a minute he can write our discussion better, he's a lot better with words than I am.

Hey guys, its been a long time, but I have finally made my second theory! It regards to the function of aluminum feruchemy. we all know by now that aluminum stores identity and we have all questioned exactly what that does. My completely foundationless theory is that a trueself ferring can use his powers to become a jack-of-all-trades. the aluminum would store his identity, which would result in losing everything that marked him as unique, then he would revert to normal when he stopped storing. Then, when he tapped, he could become a master at any skill he had studied in a book. So Trueself Tim, a famous engineer, spent the last few days storing his identity, during which, he couldn't have designed a popsicle stick bridge. Also during this time he read a book about fending off multiple attackers, the only experience he's had with the skill. on his way to work, three toughs jumped him. drawing on his aluminummind, he instantly became a master of self defense. this is my theory in its entirety and has no evidence to support it whatsoever. However, if it is true, then keepers just became a LOT scarier. At the very least, you can use this in the MAG, where the players can make their own rules about the metals of they wish.