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In The Lost Metal, Marsh states that Identity contamination prevents the Set from compounding. I wonder, then, if you could overcome this limitation by having the donor blank their Identity via Unsealed Aluminumminds, or via a Hemalurigc spike. This also makes me wonder why it is that Marsh can compound, even though he doesn't (presumably) have Identityless spikes. Did Hemalurgic spikes just permeate the Spiriweb more in Ancient times, and now the spikes are more "contained" within their separate Identities? I know that we have the Ars. Arcanum, but I'm just curious about the mechanics of Hemalurgy's change, and how they can be overcome by a clever individual (not that I personally claim to be such an individual, just a curious one).

So, this is mostly just a random idea I had. I'm not generally much of a theorizer. Autonomy is attacking Scadrial because it's a threat to her future plans, but the primary reason she had was aside from Autonomy's primary planet (whether that's Taldain or somewhere else), Scadrial is the most scientifically advanced. TLM shows they've got big guns, electricity, cars, radio, railways, and early motion pictures and missile technologies. And that's not including the Invested technological advancements, which include airships and nuclear weaponry. Autonomy has access to better technology (most likely including her Men of Red and Gold), but Scadrial is close. The thing is, the Final Empire had halted Scadrial's technological advancements for over a thousand years. We know that Scadrial had gunpowder weaponry before the Final Empire from the HoA Epigraphs, and two other benchmarks of advancement from that point - Scadrians advanced to Industrial Revolution-level technology in under 400 years after the Catacendre, and us humans on earth only started using gunpowder for weapons around 700-1000 years ago, and went through our Industrial Revolution 200 years ago. And depending on the definition of "gunpowder weapons", it could also be a lot more advanced than that. They also had pocket watches, an invention only made about 500 years ago. So if the Final Empire hadn't inhibited technological advancement, then Scadrial wouldn't be at Industrial Revolution era during the time of TLM, they'd be about 400-800 years more technologically advanced than the modern world. That would presumably throw them pretty far into the steampunk Era 3 level. And presumably, a civilization designed to be superior by Autonomy didn't pause technologically for 1000 years to let Scadrial catch back up. Could it be possible that stagnation had something to do with Autonomy? We know she had a hand in pre-Era-1 Scadrial from Trell showing up there. Any thoughts?

Was anyone else expecting Harmony to offer Wayne reincarnation / immortality as a kandra? Wayne's death felt pretty heavily foreshadowed, so I was not surprised when it happened. But I was anticipating Harmony would say something like "Since you died while heavily invested and in the presence of a large quantity of Harmonium, I can offer you the same choice Rashek offered to the first kandra. You are already more talented than many who have had centuries of practice, and I believe MeLaan could use a partner on her mission. Will you join my faceless immortals?" It certainly would have been interesting; I can only imagine the shenanigans Wayne would get up to with a kandra's abilities. And giving Harmony the ability to create new kandra, if only in very unique circumstances, would address the concern that they are going extinct.

In The Lost Metal, the Set scientists don't know how to program the Investiture in the spikes they make from non-Allomancers. I bet that you could take a Hemalurgic spike that already had an Invested power, then split the spike into multiple smaller spikes. Even though each spike now has a fraction of the power it once provided, you could refill it by spiking some non-Allomancers, possible while using a specialized Command to have the new unprogrammed Investiture use the previously existing investiture as a model to follow. OR, you skip the splitting step and just fuel up a Hemalurgic spike with extra non-Allomancers, and supercharge the power to Lord Ruler levels.

In The Lost Metal, we see that Trellium spikes are used by Set Members to sidestep being Controlled by Harmony, but they are still able to be controlled by Autonomy. We also see that Allomancers with Trellium spikes are still able to use Allomancy, which is powered by utilizing a Connection to Preservation to draw on Preservation's Investiture (or possibly Ruin's, if the power is granted by a Hemalurgic spike). This left me confused, since an individual would need a Connection to Harmony in order to utilize their powers, but that leaves them open to influence and even outright control if they bear more than three Hemalurgic spikes. Trellium must then, I figure, rewrite one's Connection, transferring it from whatever Shard they were Connected to before and Connecting them instead to Autonomy since an individual must be Connected to something. The Set's Allomantic powers are probably powered entirely by Autonomy's Investiture, since Allomancy would still need a Shard to fuel them, and those pierced by Trellium wouldn't be Connected to Harmony anymore, and thus wouldn't be able to draw on its Investiture. I bet that if this is the case, Trellium-other Godmetal alloy would rewrite one's Connection to any Shard that the Trellium was alloyed with, similar to how Lerasium can grant a Connection to and powers from any shard when alloyed with that Shard's metal.