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Jasnah if it's a surprise, Shai if they have enough prep time. More of the traditional beauty queen traits (always described as superior beauty AND mind, lots of talent, and...that's all they want right? She's also experienced enough in high society to fake the parts that she doesnt believe in. The closest second for a rounded candidate is Vivenna, and by the time she might be socially experienced enough to beat Jasnah she was rocking face scars. But give Shai the time, and she could turn herself into the perfect Womanly ideal of the judges themselves, whatever it may be. EDIT: OOh, wow excellent point. She's a real Contender! I think she'd beat Jasnah, because at the end of the day Jasnah would find the whole idea a tiring waste of time while MeLaan would probably find the silliness amusing, and the difference would likely shine through. Actually, if we are examining the list, Siri probably beats her sister in a classic beauty pageant, though I suppose she's married these days (or long dead?).

That's a dirfferent thing (semantically I mean). Autonomy has awakened an Avatar on Taldain, so there is Autonomy Investiture Present. Per the same WOB, the Investiture on Taldain predates any shard fiddling with it, and while Patji is a Shard (his words) and some Shard had fiddled with the investiture before the story events, he also confirmed there was also no shard present during the events of the story. From what I can tell being present is not the same thing as being Invested in the Planet the way the other Shard are, which has implications beyond simply existing or acting there. Godmetals and shardpools will form, Major Shardworld magics will emerge, and most critically there becomes a huge consequence of the Shard trying to leave. For Example, Odium arrived on Roshar and was slinging slinging around his Investiture long before he was so Invested that it he'd need to rip himself out of the planet as he says he would now.

Adonalsium himself had all the Investiture, sure, he was a Super-shard or something, but Shards themselves dont use magic systems, they just manipulate reality directly. And besides, that's a completely different thing than trying to characterize how he might have interacted with literally anyone or anything at the time. And as @Pathfinder pointed out, the only pre-shattering magic we have confirmed is one that did have limitations.

Ah, cool. Ya, that WOB is along the lines I was thinking. WIndrunners as scouts and Advanced troops makes sense, but "shock troops" as I know them were usually the front line, High Losses group (also typically superior training and equipment), adn were often Heavy Armor folks. That just fits my ideas/guesses about Stonewards much better. As far as the Skybreaker thing goes, I dont know where it came from and am not at all sure of it. I thought I recalled that being said once, but the more I look at it the more I think that might have just been a carry-over from when we found out that some Orders got Squires and some did not, and were told that Skybreaker specifically were one that got squires (before it was later confirmed in OB). So I think I may have been confusing "Gets Squires" with "Gets Enhanced Squires". And it wouldnt really make sense if the Windrunner thing is a resonance, I have to assume that two different Surge combo's will never get the same exact result.

No, you cant. Thats what we are saying, that's not at all how Identity has been shown to work. The only way for a Metalmind to be accessed by somebody that isnt the Creator Requires that the original creator Blanked their Own Identiy when they filled it. That is what an UnKeyed Metalmind is. There is nothing anyone, even a Full Feruchemist, can to to access an existing Keyed metalmind, unless they a)spike the Identity out of the original Owner, or b) brute force through it, requiring massive, nigh shardic levels pf power (Im 90% 70% sure this second option has been confirmed in WOB). WOB Confirmation:

Historically Scouts and Shock troops are about as far opposites as you see on the battlefield, why do you pair them on the Windrunners? The Scout role fits, but Shock Troops are usually more heavily devastating than that. I see it as fitting Dustrbingers far better from a purely thematic role. And by power-set the Skybreakers more since they have Division with gravitation for all the same mobility, plus the (if imnot mistaken?) same extra Squire Advantage that Windrunners get.

I think I see two options, either he can but the Investiture is still Stormlight enough to leak naturally, so any Awakening (including type 4) would be innately temporary. Alternatively, if there is a full conversion, it's possible the process and exchange rate would require significant Gem storage to make it work, at least imposing a logistical challenge. But if somebody figures out how to convert stormlight to Breaths and can then store and awaken with them entirely normally, we'll be seeing a lot more Type-4's and Perfect Invocation.

Wait, so what you are proposing is that any Trueself can access ANY metalmind once they blank their own identity? Or that they'd need a full UnSealed medallion, but that once they had access to Feruchemy that didnt have their Identity in the mix, you would be able to access ANY metalmind fo the right type? Also, you keep citing "The Kadra Theory" where did you get this from? Id like to review the original statements, because this seems to directly contradict what we've been told about metalminds. Becuase it still sounds like you've mixed up and reversed where the Indentiy blank is used in medallion creation.

Right, you can intentionally CREATE a metalmind that can be read by somebody else, but there is no way to Hack the contents of a dead feruchemist's pre-exist metalminds, so @Raphaborn's idea of Mentalmind Archaeology isnt going to get very far. Era 3 or 4 could dig back and potentially find something Unkeyed from Era2, but there will not be any from Era1 since those metals and traits were not known (to anyone besides the Lord Ruler, anyway, he alone might have been able to leave sometime behind).

And just to add to those, This is the WOB that makes me think that the Dysian Aimians are a spren species, ebing the known sapient species that (by definition) cannot become Vessels. He hems and haws about it, and I think what he was dancing around is that while normal Non-humans can be Vessels, there are other WOB's that it would a whole other thing if a Spren tried to merge with or absorb a shard, since they are already Pure Investiture and not a full 3-Realm being.

There is degradation of the stored memory's integrity. This is not a function of Investiture Loss as with Hemalurgy, it's a fundamental fault in the way grey matter stores memory.

It's complicated. The First of the Sun is classified by Brandon as a Minor Shardworld, despite there currently being an avatar present there, which makes it uncertain which shard might be the source (or if it's even associated with any specific Shard). Autonomy is not Invested in a Single System, rather they have Avatars in several, but we dont yet know how that works in terms of normal Shardic Investment into a Planet, where the limtations have a lot to do with having a single Vessel and and finite Cognitive Aspect to channel the Power; Autonomy appears to have sidestepped some of that with whatever "Avatars" turn out to be.

Ruin (the shard) still exists, it just happens to be Roommates with the Preservation. Metalminds of the past are as reliable as they ever were, in that they are only as reliable as the memory of the person storing it, and there is degradation each time they cycle it in and out. But there is still no way for somebody else to access normal (Sealed and Keyed) metalminds once that person is gone. But to your point, the current own is less likely to use this sort of thing, but since he's clearly not beyond deceptions, he still might.

Ya, it was very much part of the Stoneward shtick.

"Kill" will depend on what their true nature is. Im of the opinion that they are a special breed of possessing Spren (probably Cultivation's Kandra equivalent) that use a Hive as their Physical Form rather than a single Singer or something (along the lines of what Nergaoul did to the army, when their flames changed to Red). If Im correct, killing their physcial form will banish them to Shadesmar but not true End them. For that you'd need something that would affect Spren directly, so a Shard-blade or maybe Invested Surges that do spiritual Damage. Also Nightblood, as always. Waiiiiit. What happens if Nightblood hits just one? Will a single hiveling pop, or will it Connect the shared Spiritweb and kill the whole thing regardless of physical location?

It's one of his know Vorin titles, kind of like how Ishar is also know as popularly known as the Binder of Gods or Shallash is called the Lady of Dreams. Bearing agonies would be thematically appropriate for the Stonewards even without knowing the specifics of his abandonment by the other Heralds.

That's an interesting theory, though Im not sure it jives with the whole idea that too many powers actively interfer with each other, which is why Fullborn are impossible in Nature, for example, and why Mistborn and Full Feruchemists dont develop resonances. Huh, interesting thought. One possible outcome is simply that cycling the Connection through a Metalmind might replace the Type of Investiture is forming the Connection, swapping Stormlight out for Preservation's power. The reason this might be significant is the fact that Stormlight innately leaks and bleeds away and want to return to the pseudo Water-Cycle. This is why nearly every surge is a temporary duration (there's WOB that Breaths stick better, for example). So if the F-Gold Bondsmith created a Connection with Stormlight it would wind down relatively quickly. But if he store and withdrew it from a metalmind, it might replace the Stormlight investiture with Preservation Investiture, that is less prone to leakage.

Agreed, there will always be a place for Hemalurgy, for several reasons: It's waaaay easier than medallions, and the only downside is a moral argument, not a practical limitation. Hemalurgy can steal Traits as well as Powers, medallions cannot. Hemalurgy can increase/mulitply the strength of Allomancy, and I dont think Medallions are capable of this Healurgy only requires Knowledge to use, no sDNA or Connections required. Hemalurgy can Interact with ANY magic system per WOB, it was specifically designed to be broadly useful across the entire Cosmere. Humans are not the only way to Charge spikes... Personally, I think that by the time Era 4 rolls around Hemalurgy will have evolved into a known and accepted scientific practice of Spiritual Surgery, viewed as wildly hazardous and subtle (and with odd philosophic implications) but lacking any particular moral slant; just like Brain Surgery, in other words.

No, I think we are agreed. The only case Im aware of where the Gem Type makes a difference is with making and using Fabrials, including but not limited to Soulcaster Fabrials. The actual Essences are still important to the Soulcasting process at least regarding relative difficulty and the "default" functionality, though I think it could be debated whether that is innate to the system or the result of Cultural (mis)understanding.

Probably, but maybe not. You have to have the Intent or it simply doesnt work, but if you hit the wrong bind points it will still accomplish Hemalurgy, you just may or may not steal what you where after. He said this is less of an issue if the spike has fewer options, but becomes increasingly more of an issue with options, up to Atium that can be anything. So the flip should be true, and with aluminum the specific Bind Point shouldnt really make a difference so long as you hit one because there is only one possible outcome. And you'd be hard pressed to miss the bind points if you hit the Heart. I think it would basically be like when Wax fired a Spike at that kandra, all he had to do was get the spike into it's spiritweb, so any bind point would serve.

As @Karger's WOB shows, aluminum in a wound will prevent healing. Of course, if you Know what you are doing, the same Aluminum Bullet could be a Spike and "Remove All Powers". They'd be unable to Heal anywhere, at least as long as the Spike in Implanted and maaaybe permanently.

There is a quirk of Shadesmar (Rosharan regions) that always caught my attention, and I expect it to take a more central role over in Vibrance. There were odd plant-like crystal growths, and while most of them were monochromatic, there was occasionally one that was in full, vibrant Color. Separately, WOB has it that Color has specific but unrevealed Realmic significance (to be addresses in the warbreaker sequel), that supposedly will explain why Perfect Awakening doesnt let you bounce between White and Grey to provide infinite Color. I think this is indicative of additional Investment in a given object, perhaps natural occurrence or perhaps Psychometry-style "Investment via Perceived Significance" that is Endowed into an object by people. Along those lines, I think we'll see something more like Scadrial that's a basic ghost-mirror land, but with a boat-load of supercharged Color everywhere, bleed-over from Endowment's Investment, that will ripple as Heightened people in the PR move about.

@Weltall is correct, though if your question was whether the Type of gem only matters with a Fabrial Soulcaster, that is correct. The Gem Type doesnt matter to any Radiant uses of Surges including Soulcasting, it seems to be a quirk of Fabrials, specifically. Narratively, it was going to matter more. Brandon has said the original draft had every Order able to use Soulcasting, but restricted to just their associated Essence (kind of like how every order can heal, but self-only). This was eventually scrapped when he felt it made the Orders to similar in power set, and wanted their individual power to be more significant.

Never thought of that, but it would make sense.

That's how I picture at least some of Autonomy's Avatars, specifically the place where there's supposed to be a whole pantheon of "gods" that are all Autonomy. Based on Nothing that sort of pantheon sounds like it would get very Greek in their meddling (which is to say it will be loud, often, and typically selfish)