Invesiture Mass Production

[SteelBagel]

So, as a thought experiment, lets say you want to create the strongest invested army possible. You can start in any era on any planet, have unlimited uninvested materials, and 1000 completely loyal members of the local population(who have powers at the rate you'd expect for that group.) You have 100 years with these resources to produce the strongest possible army, ideally one which can continue to grow after the 100 years are up. How do you do it? No ethical concerns. 

Personally, I think farming people for their breaths is the best route. Hemalurgy may produce stronger soldiers faster, but the ceiling is much lower since you can't stack too many spikes before your army becomes ruin's army. 

[Ascended Grubberfly He/Him]

1 hour ago, SteelBagel said:

So, as a thought experiment, lets say you want to create the strongest invested army possible. You can start in any era on any planet, have unlimited uninvested materials, and 1000 completely loyal members of the local population(who have powers at the rate you'd expect for that group.) You have 100 years with these resources to produce the strongest possible army, ideally one which can continue to grow after the 100 years are up. How do you do it? No ethical concerns. 

Personally, I think farming people for their breaths is the best route. Hemalurgy may produce stronger soldiers faster, but the ceiling is much lower since you can't stack too many spikes before your army becomes ruin's army. 

Ah, more arguments about soldiers! (I jest, I jest)

Hear me out: Elantrian Singers! 
I bet scholarform or nimble fork would ease up the aon learning curve, and if we knew the exact mechanics to make aons work off world it would work even better.

And as we learned from Venli in RoW, we might even be able to use Dor to power the Surges, so that opens another way to make super soldiers.

EDIT: I guess I should respond to @SteelBagel’s idea. Farming breaths could be a good idea, making an army of Phantoms was tossed around, and imagine if they had Awakened Blades.

 

Edited 18 hours ago by Ascended Grubberfly

[Frustration]

Arelon.

It might take a second but given enough time one of my guys would become an Elantrian, and then they can just invite everyone else in, and at that point I have an army.

45 minutes ago, Ascended Grubberfly said:

Ah, more arguments about soldiers! (I jest, I jest)

Hear me out: Elantrian Singers! 
I bet scholarform or nimble fork would ease up the aon learning curve, and if we knew the exact mechanics to make aons work off world it would work even better.

And as we learned from Venli in RoW, we might even be able to use Dor to power the Surges, so that opens another way to make super soldiers.

EDIT: I guess I should respond to @SteelBagel’s idea. Farming breaths could be a good idea, making an army of Phantoms was tossed around, and imagine if they had Awakened Blades.

 

How do you connect the Singers to Arelon so that they can be taken by the Shaod?

[Ascended Grubberfly He/Him]

1 minute ago, Frustration said:

Arelon.

It might take a second but given enough time one of my guys would become an Elantrian, and then they can just invite everyone else in, and at that point I have an army.

How do you connect the Singers to Arelon so that they can be taken by the Shaod?

They won’t, but their kids will. I’d prefer to keep the singer genetics pure in case the benefits decline with interbreeding, so maybe have one group marry in and those kids can marry back into the original group of singers.

[BinarySecond]

Hear me out. Sho Del and Elantrians. 

4 hands, twice the efficacy with drawing Aons.

 

Or worse - Sleepless Elantrians, somehow. Each one drawing it's own line - Winged hordelings to form the complex shapes rapidly.

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

3 hours ago, BinarySecond said:

Hear me out. Sho Del and Elantrians. 

4 hands, twice the efficacy with drawing Aons.

 

Or worse - Sleepless Elantrians, somehow. Each one drawing it's own line - Winged hordelings to form the complex shapes rapidly.

You, my good man, are a genius 

[The White Drake]

13 hours ago, Frustration said:

Arelon.

It might take a second but given enough time one of my guys would become an Elantrian, and then they can just invite everyone else in, and at that point I have an army.

Hoid says it takes an invite from a particular group, not just any Elantrian.

The limitations in this scenario are quite notable. 

Since we get unlimited ordinary stuff, but only 1,000 random people, I think the era matters a ton. Take me to Scadrial, space age. Even without the Invested bits, they still have futuristic tech, and cloning is usable to grow the numbers fast- exponentially even. (Plus I can still sell some of my unlimited non Invested materials for Invested Scadrial stuff). Near-infinite troops with unlimited supplies and top tier technology (including Ralkalest). The clones are also subjects for Hemalurgy. I’d wager this force against any of the others proposed thus far with total confidence.

Edited 5 hours ago by The White Drake

[Frustration]

13 minutes ago, The White Drake said:

Hoid says it takes an invite from a particular group, not just any Elantrian.

He never says it couldn't be any Elantrian, and the implication is quite clear that the group is referring to is Elantrians as he said he needed an invite in and had been trying to join them for a long time.

[The White Drake]

41 minutes ago, Frustration said:

He never says it couldn't be any Elantrian, and the implication is quite clear that the group is referring to is Elantrians as he said he needed an invite in and had been trying to join them for a long time.

The implication is very clear it’s not just any Elantrian. “An invite from a member of an exclusive group, of which she was one.” If he’d just meant ‘any Elantrian’ (not that exclusive) he’d have said so, and wouldn’t have needed to get cursed for a bet on a backwater world or seek out a malicious, cruel being.

Before we have a repeat of last time, let me cut to the chase. Do you have any proof that he meant any Elantrian, or do you just choose to believe it? If the latter, bar WoB, I don’t think either of us can make useful arguments.

Edit: the most relevant WoB is clear as mud…

u/Lobologo3

How did Hoid get Elantrian powers and access to the AonDor simply through an invite by Riina?

Brandon Sanderson

Just a little help for those in this one: new Hoid-centered epilogue to the 10th anniversary Elantrisfrom ten or so years ago is relevant here. It's not going to tell you the specifics, I'm afraid, but what happened here should be seen in the context of that scene.

 

Does imply it’s not as simple as it looks though.

Edit 2: I thought I’d seen a WoB like this…

Questioner

Why can't they just increase their numbers. Because their numbers increase over time?

Brandon Sanderson

...The number of Elantrians had certain thresholds and upper limits, that I haven't described in the books yet.

Edited 4 hours ago by The White Drake