Maarek

Perhaps he gained/discovered his powers during the attack, just in time to save Tia. I'll shelve the weakness bit as I just don't think there's enough source material yet to really nail it down one way or another. I am starting to see Calamity as being an invading force (alien or other world government [since we've been so America centric so far]) that conquers by offering up enormous power to achieve what the subject might want at the cost of being under its control/influence anytime you use it. Going Wheel of Time for a moment for the comparison this would be similar to the taint on saidin.... it's a power that once used is hard to not use more and the more you use it the more and more corrupted you become (the difference being that the corruption in this case seems to lessen fairly rapidly when not used). A pretty common trope in writing, since I think the corrupting influence of power is a major fear of most people, but as per usual Mr. Sanderson manages to frame a common topic in a way that is unique and interesting.

Almost all of my thoughts are probably spoilerish to full on red alert spoiler...soo....

Agree with you on that about the checks and balances. It seems that the less selfish the goal, the less corrupting it is. Conflux has no personal interest (other than not being hurt) to provide power and is super nice (however when he tried to power a microwave to heat a burrito he ended up killing his wife), Megan uses her powers to protect others AND herself and becomes kind of mean, Prof uses it to enable himself and others to get revenge and he becomes borderline unstable, other epics generally do whatever THEY want and are psychopaths. That kind of ties into the theory I read elsewhere of the ability being given as an answer to a strong desire (and the weakness being based on an aspect of their personality). Maybe some kind of selfish intent * degree of impossibility = craziness equation is in play. Man I love Brandon's worlds! Also I wonder if Brandon just wanted to write a story where giving up the power actually was the right thing to do.

I don't have the text (I have Mitosis, but I'm an Audible listener so research is more difficult) but the thing I'd look for was if any of the characters with Fortuity during his brief scene seemed more aware of their surroundings than would be normal. That's what I'd imagine Fortuity gifting would be like, but perhaps your way could be it as well...if so then possibly being able to hide others in an illusion would be how an illusionist would gift their powers. Here's a scary thought..... what drives people "crazy" is using the powers not merely possessing them (as evidenced by the diggers and prof's description of why he spread his powers out)... so would all the power that Conflux is gifting the city be a corrupting factor to everyone but just to a much much smaller degree (since its spread out)? If you've ever played or read about the "World of Darkness" games (Vampire: The Masquerade being the best known) there was a concept called "Paradox" that affected mages....the more abnormal and spectacular the abilities they employ the worse the punishment from paradox (here's a link describing: http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Paradox_(MTAs) ) .... To me that seems to be in line with what we are seeing. The more wild and abnormal the show of ability, the more twisted the person becomes.

I have the unfortunate Smedry talent of accidently spoiling surprises; however I managed to avoid it with Steelheart. So for me it probably is the identity of Firefight..... that said.... the following line was a bit of a shocker reveal (not because it wasn't possible to see it coming, but rather the extent to which it could go): "... Difficult things...yes I believe I told you, I've learned that lesson already. THANK YOU!" Perhaps it has to do with the fact that Kate Redding (and Michael Kramer) are the absolute best narrators ever, but the seething that came through that line opened up the floodgates on one of my favorite (non-broody) characters.

Steel is strong and resistant to damage/decay (assuming that it's actually stainless steel he turns things into which follows since the city is silver and not rust red)....but to a lesser degree than Steelheart himself is...not sure about his other gifts. He also can't gift it to living things (assuming the steel transference ability is gifting), only inanimate objects (that people then can use). Prof also can't gift to people directly but rather to object that they can use. Same for Conflux. It seems like they are able to (to use a cosmere term) invest into non-living objects. Back to Steelheart and his gifts, he can't fly rather he controls the wind which lifts him. Kind of odd that he would end up making a city known as "The Windy City" his home. Perhaps he did gift the ability to parts of the city, but we don't recognise it as no one is aware? I can't recall, but did the wind do anything odd apart from Steelheart in either Steelheart or Mitosis? Just spitballing here, but I am starting to also think that ALL epics gift their power in some way.

Perhaps it's a waterfall kind of thing? Power can flow down but not sideways or up.... Calamity being the highest level (literally and figuratively) can give to individuals who meet whatever requirements the gifting requires (heh....thinking Nightwatcher here.... Boon and a Curse...power and a weakness) but those given the ability to gift their powers (assuming that there are epics who can't gift...perhaps they all can but only certain ones find it advantageous with their granted powers) can only grant the power (in lesser amounts) to those without it. Calamity has the ability to create epics but epics cannot (similar to how a gyorn can't appoint another gyorn....only the Wyrn...I know we are not in cosmere, but these universes share a creator and he seems to have an affinity to rigid hierarchy).

I looked through and didn't see this speculated elsewhere, but based only on the naming of the books (Steelheart, Mitosis, Firefight, Calamity..all but calamity are confirmed epics) I'm curious if Calamity isn't some kind of alpha gifter epic. I realize that it could just be that each of these names could just be the name of the antagonist but they all have that similarity. It's probably way too early for any real informed speculation but I thought I'd see if anyone else had noticed it as well.

At first glance of the decoded message my immediate way of reading it would be like an encrypted telegram would be written by an agent to his headquarters. An intentionally vague situation update....something like: Hold the secret that broke the Knights Radiant. <stop> You may need it to destroy the new Orders when they return. <end message> So the way I read it....he possesses the secret (which would likely be information in that context) and he is letting others in his order know he has it. Cryptography necessitates a terse message (especially when said cryptographer is actually a talented author pretending to write as someone who is exceedingly intelligent).