Maths

I wonder if there's some kind of intent involved with what Taravangian was capable of doing in terms of the memories.

It'd be pretty hard to argue that e.g. removing all of Hoid's memories wouldn't harm him, but maybe just removing the previous conversation and rerunning it was a small enough change (and for some motivation that we don't know about) that Taravangian could convince himself it wouldn't harm Hoid?

I think you need to include compounding in the mix to get the effects we've seen. There are two phenomona where we see these medallions provide and "end-positive" effect based on Feruchemy:

• Giving warmth to SoScads: storing heat and using it later wouldn't help anybody survive in Scad-artctica (Antarctial? I'm trying to find a good combination of Scadrial and Antarctica), there needs to be an external heat source. Bronze compounding would be able to create as much heat as you need, recharging the medallions.
• Creating additional metalborn. Each medallion creates a ferring, sometimes with two or three powers. (Outside of the Bands themselves, we haven't seen anything that grants Allomancy, but I'll assume that's possible). Feruchemy stores what you have for later; the usual rules would indicate that, by storing up one person's Feruchemical ability, you would only produce one Feruchemist later. That's where I think compounding Nicrosil comes in. It lets a Nicrosil ferring store an ability in a metalmind without losing it himself.

So, that makes me think that the SoScads have compounders.

I'm not sure if Firemothers/Firefathers are devices or organizations; they could be individuals or machines who compound, it doesn't much matter to me. I think that one fills the brass with heat, and the other fills the nicrosil with Brass Ferring ability. (Remember, memories outside of a coppermind degrade, so it would make sense that Metallic-Arts-ability would decay as well. These compounders would refresh existing medallions that had been used a lot and create new medallions to support population growth.) Both of these compounders would need to store Identity as well, giving them three abilities - the most that Allik says he had seen in a medallion.

I wonder how the Excisors fit into that, though. I hope it's not their name for Hemalurgy. (Excise the power from a Brass misting into a Brass ferring, and there you have your brass compounder. Yikes.)

 

Ettmetal, however, and primers... I need to mull those over a little more. Do some research on Group 1 and Group 2 metals. But I think that the "Allomatic Grenade" ability is a side affect. The primer cubes (as Allik calls them) draw their power from the ettmetal in the ship, acting as a key to guide how the energy acts. The cubes hold a little bit of energy, but just enough to hold the buzzing for a moment until they come in contact with the main power source. I thought of it as trying and failing to start up a lawnmower. You pull the cord, the engine turns over a few times, but it doesn't sustain the motion.

My impression from the book was that storing in nicrosil works like storing strength or whatever - you store your ability to use a particular metal for a particular length of time.

For example Wax presumably hasn't permanently turned himself fullborn by tapping the bands themselves. The impression I got was that you stopped being able to use the metals when you stopped tapping.

So you shouldn't need nicrosil compounding.

Similarly for brass you could just have the firesouls providing the stores to be underground where it's warm, storing so that other people can go outside.

Not to say they definitely don't have compounders but I don't think they're required.

I'm in awe.
I've also read about 600 pages of mistborn books today, so I'm slightly exhausted.

Going to take me a few days (weeks?) to comprehend all the stuff Brandon has thrown at us.

what in the name of Harmony is the language on the plates written in?

I assume the language of the southerns.

EDIT: Though that would presumably be related to the ancient languages, so maybe not...

I don't recall us seeing anyone else Push or Pull on Atium, so the ease with which she did it could just be due to a Vin-ism.

Kelsier pulls on atium in the pits of hathsin to shatter the crystals

(or at least, he thinks he does).

We also have this from the 2014 State of the Sanderson:

 

 

The full [Elantris] sequels will need to be finished before I can do the contemporary (1980s tech) Mistborn novels because of behind-the-scenes Cosmere bits.

Presumably this means something important in the Era 3 trilogy will rely upon us knowing what's been happening on Sel.

I will attempt to attend this.
(This has pushing me into finally registering an account on this website)
Does anyone happen to be coming via Paddington?

Hi

Been lurking a long time and reading theories and thought that I'd finally get around to registering.

I've read (or listened to) every published Sanderson book (I think?) and have just finished rereading Mistborn and started on Alloy of Law.

I am also bad at writing posts on forums introducing myself, so I'll stop there.