How many Koloss can they control?

[Mushroom Catalog he/him]

Does anybody know how many Koloss Vin can control and how many Koloss Elend can control?

[+Invocation]

A lot. Solid numbers? I haven't a clue.

[Karger he/him]

Thousands or tens of thousands.  I believe that Elend has controlled about 50 thousand at his best although he found that a bit of a strain.

[Pathfinder]

I am going on recollection as I do not have my book in front of me at the moment, but from what I remember is it was more like hundreds, with the upper limit reached a thousand. Not hundreds of thousands. The lord ruler kept them low in number on purpose to keep them controllable. Any new koloss made after the Lord Ruler's death was from reusing spikes. 

 

edit: although I do not have hero of ages on me, I do have well of ascension, and at least as of the time of the siege of luthadel by the koloss, the number was at 20,000. I believe since the siege the number had been reduced further. the reference is page 295 of well of ascension. 

 

edit 2: then again there is this, so I will hold off commenting further till I have the book in hand:

 

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Eighty-One - Part Two

Charging Them Is Madness

Vin probably should have figured out what Elend was doing, being kind of a god now and all. (Or at least she has a fraction of a god inside of her.) However, remember a few things.

She doesn't know that many of Elend's troops have been turned into Allomancers. She's also been very distracted lately. On top of that, the man she loves is charging two hundred thousand koloss. Even if she'd connected that he'd be burning atium, her opinion would still have been that he couldn't fight that many and survive.

In the end, she was right. So her concern was warranted.

Edited May 15, 2019 by Pathfinder

[Mushroom Catalog he/him]

All right. I guess there really isn't a way to find exact numbers of their maximum controlling limit, just guesses. Well, thanks anyway!

I was going to try and figure out how much allomantic power was lost each generation, but that is difficult without solid numbers or tests. Seeing as how the cosmere doesn't include us, we can't really figure that out.

[Pathfinder]

1 minute ago, Mushroom Catalog said:

All right. I guess there really isn't a way to find exact numbers of their maximum controlling limit, just guesses. Well, thanks anyway!

I was going to try and figure out how much allomantic power was lost each generation, but that is difficult without solid numbers or tests. Seeing as how the cosmere doesn't include us, we can't really figure that out.

If you have the book on you, there is a scene when they are laying siege to Fadrex City with the koloss. Vin comments on passing a certain number of koloss over to elend's control and how he can hold more than her easier. But again as I do not have the book on me at the moment, I cannot pull up to see if they mentioned exact numbers. 

[Mushroom Catalog he/him]

I do actually!

Elend at one point is controlling 37000 total

As far I was able to find, that is the only exact number...

 

[Ryan Diggory he/him]

How long is a piece of string? However strong the mistborn