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So at this point we are all pretty aware of the map of Shadesmar found in the endpages of The Way of Kings: As we can see it is bordered by four "expanses": the Expanse of the Densities, the Expanse of the Broken Sky, the Expanse of the Vapors, and the Expanse of Vibrance (the name of which does not appear on the map because it is beneath the "Shadesmar" label). We also know that these expanses correspond to different Shardworlds, if one were to walk in the direction of the Expanse of the Vapors for example they would eventually reach Scadrial. We've also long known that the Expanse of the Densities corresponds to "a world [we] know". The conventional thought on this was that Brandon is referring to one of the currently published worlds, Sel, Scadrial, Nalthis, or Roshar. Roshar was obviously out as Shadesmar itself is its analogue. As we know know Scadrial is also out. Another common consensus is that the Expanse of Vibrance corresponds to Nalthis (what with its focus on "vibrant" color and sound "vibrations"). Which would just leave Sel, right? Well not necessarily. My current Random Speculation du jour is that it instead corresponds to Ashyn, the setting of The Silence Divine and one of the other two inhabited planets in Roshar's system (the other being Braize of course). "But wait," you might say, "didn't Brandon say it was a world we knew? We haven't seen Ashyn yet!" Well, yes you are correct. However I'm going to cry technicality. Brandon said that it was a world we know, but he did not say it is a world we've seen. And at that point in time we did "know" a little about Ashyn (specifically that it had a disease-based magic system, it was the setting of The Silence Divine, and that it was in the same system as Roshar). Could I be wrong on this? Definitely, but for now it's enough for me to continue in this line of thought. So what exactly is my thought process here? Well in reality it is a synthesis of two things. One, Ashyn, as a planet, is mostly barren with a few fertile patches. And two, distance in the Cognitive Realm reflects the amount of "thought" going on in the Physical (which does not necessarily have to be sentient thought). I believe that this would result in a region of the Cognitive Realm that is mostly empty with localized "dense" spots (corresponding to the fertile bits). In mind it makes a sort of poetic sense to call it the Expanse of "the Densities". It also fits with my personal belief that two of the Expanses should correspond to Ashyn and Braize, since they are Physically close to Roshar and have been an influence on it in the past. Granted that could mean Ashyn corresponds to the Expanse of the Broken Sky. I could see that working, as we learn in the reading from The Silence Divine that Brandon did a while back that (putting this in a spoiler tag for people who don't like reading stuff like this):

So, with the revelation from one of the new signings here that.... My mind has instantly raced, and something clicked, to let me come up with this quick little mini-theory about something we've been curious about for a while. Why Harmony hasn't done more to help the Southern Scadrians? He created the Basin for the North, but essentially left the South to freeze, and aside from - BOM spoilers has seemed to not do much for them in terms of development, from what we've seen. I could get into all kinds of rambling about Ruin and Preservation, that he's preserving the North while letting the South fall to ruin, him protecting Scadrial from the Red Haze, etc, but my current thought and random speculation is this. Harmony has been unable to actively help or influence the Southern Scadrians as much as the Nothern ones.... because he's been in the process of Investing his power in the South. The Well of Ascension was in the North, and we've seen that the Pits of Hathsin don't have any Atium, and therefore Ruin's Investiture/power in them. We've had WOBs before about the existence of Harmonium and Harmony's Shardpool, and I believe that if Sazed was actively trying to imbue his power into the South, or at least more south than the North to balance the distribution of it, he would be unable to overtly take action aside from sending the help I mentioned above. This would explain the abundance of Ettmetal, Harmonium, in the South, and why there's none of it in the North, because Harmony was already Connected/Invested there and helped them as much as he could with the Basin and books, and then moved his power to begin Investing/Connecting with the South to be able to help them. This naturally creates his Godmetal there. Thoughts? This is just a quick, off the top of my head connecting of dots so far.

If I recall, TLR kept the sDNA of the southern people of Scadrial free from allomantic and feruchemical abilities, like an experimental control. Which makes me wonder how they would have seen any of the Metallic Arts manifest? It seems reasonable that, in order to develop something, especially something mechanical, like a mechanical way to utilize Investure, observation or some knowledge of its existence would be a prerequisite. One possibility could be that somehow, someway, someone intentionally or unintentionally demonstrated allomantic, ferchemical, an/or hemelurgical abilities to them. Well, who do we know that has this knowledge and seems to be involved, usually in subtle ways, with providing knowledge to key people at key points? Granted, that knowledge is not necessarily something that the people even realize is important at the time given, but we the passive viewers of the Cosmere do. It’s known that we’ll eventually get Mistborn: A Cosmerian Odyssey ® with FTL travel. And, many of the theories seem to involve some sort of use of the mechanical access to the Metallic Arts. This FTL and spaceflight seems to be critical to the final phase of the Mistborn story as well as the Cosmere as a whole. Additionally, we know of someone who’s essentially immortal, has lerasium, likely feruchemistry, and can worldhop. I theorize (with no evidence to site whatsoever J) that our ol’ buddy Hoid provided the seed to the southern Scadrial to develop the “more mechanical” way of using the Metallic Arts, whatever that ends up being. I would presume that he did this so that the people of Scadrial would have FTL/spaceflight by the time his final plan, whatever it is, comes together, and well, because he’s Hoid. First theory post, but there’s no need to be gentle; please rip apart if there’s something I way off on here. Haven’t come across any speculation on how the mechanical Metallic Arts developed while spending (way too much) time here at the 17th Shard, so figured I throw this out there. EDIT: Thanks Voidus and Unhinged for corrections & input there. So, it looks like the folks of Southern Scadrial were the same as pre-TLR Scadrials from the North: some Mistings popping up here and here, little to no Mistborn, and likely some more developed level of Feruchemistry since it was more prevalent in the population pre-TLR. This does weaken the "theory" quite a bit , but I'm of the opinion that Hoid's influence in development of Mechanic Metallic Arts is still an interesting suggestion, still has no real evidence to support it, and is still in the realm of the Hoidish