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Yup, it's a Shard, or at least it has a Godmetal associated with it. It's also Shard we know about, and at the time the list was Devotion, Dominion, Preservation, Ruin, Odium, Honor, Cultivation, Endowment and Autonomy. We know specifically that it isnt Preservation or Ruin (Or Harmony), that it isnt Endowment, and that Odium is too Imprisoned during Era 2 to be doing things on Scadrial, and Cultivation is also rather occupied with the same conflict. Honor, Devotion, and Dominion are all shattered, so they are unlikely. So that leaves Autonomy or one of His/Her/Their Avatars as the most likely suspect. Unless a big enough piece of Devotion and/or Dominion's Investiture has gained sentience enough to start meddling with things away from Sel, which is unlikely but technically possible.

Best we have is this: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Cosmere#Chronological_Order Elantris, Hope of Elantris and Emperors Soul are all before Era1. Way of Kings and Allow of Law are fairly close together. Sixth of the Dusk is by far the latest story, and would fit around the time of Era 4 Mistborn. Dragonsteel will be the earliest, as it will cover the events of the Shattering itself.

I'd personally say all it really confirms is that there is no useful effect, and that he doesnt actually want to reveal anything specific about it, which to me includes the possibility that they arent even getting charged enough to make it possible, as @Calderis suggests. He's been really hesitant to canonize anything at all about the remaining Compounding combinations. But I guess only time will tell. I wouldnt really call any of the feruchemical metalmind storage "bulk" Investiture, as they all have a lot of specific functional aspects to them. They all carry Identity (they are Keyed to you unless you take steps to suppress that) as well as whatever more specific Functional/Spiritweb traits you are trying to store. Some are more specific than others, Copper is individual Memories, Tin is individual Senses, even Bendalloy requires separate metalminds for Food vs Water. To my mind that's the "How" of Compounding in general: The Metalminds stores the trait (with Investiture being the Medium they are stored in, and the metalmind being the container that holds it in the physical realm), and a compounder then plugs it into the appropriate Allomantic Energy which then takes on those traits. Saying Identity is "Made out of Investiture" isnt wrong persay, but it feels like an oversimplification, it's like saying Songs are made out of Air, or that computer programs are made out of silicon and copper. I think of it in terms of radio Waveform: Investiture is the carrier energy (ie radio waves), but there's a signal in there that is critical, and that's what the Identity is. Some feruchemical traits are more specific songs than others (Copper memories are a very complex song, whereas something like Brass is really just a single droning tone), and the Identity of the person is like the individualized Voice that the feruchemical song being sung in which is entirely recognizable as part of that song, but not functionally critical and so can be stripped away. Put another way Identity is the Timbre of the Investiture I have no strong argument for what Fortune is yet, and my best theory delves pretty deep into Realmic mechanics and platonic ideals, so Im not going to get into it here. For what it's worth We also have the example of Breaths where Identity is critical. It's why only the person who Awakens an object is able to recover the Breaths, because they are keyed to the that awakener as soon as they gain those breaths in the first time. It takes a conscious (and voluntary) act of Awakening to re-key them to a new person, which happens any time they are given away. And there's a strong argument that it's an Identity effect that makes the Breath in Lifeless unrecoverable, because the act of Awakening a Lifeless (or maybe just doing it the new way with a single breath) causes it to take on some of the identity of the host body rather than the Awakener.

Ah, OK that's fair. Could mean that you can technically try it (as in be a Twinborn) but it would be pointless because you wouldnt get any specific burst of feruchemical ability? Just spitballing here I dont think the idea was that Identity cannot be channeled or stored by Investiture persay, so much Soulbearers can channel it into the metalminds but the charge would immediately drain out and not stick long enough to create a charged metalmind (or spike) I dont think Im communicating this very well... As far as I can tell, Feruchemy is about translating some aspect of the ongoing machine that is a human being into a more pure Investiture form to be stored in the metalmind container. Sometimes that is a physical thing (as is the case when you store Hydration or Physical Weight), other times it's a Spiritweb construct that is already made of Investiture (Id put Connection, Investiture, and Identity in this category) and sometimes it's a more complex functional bit of the overall machine (like Physical Strength that adds actual Size, or mental Speed, or Senses).

Why is that a problem? Compounding is a hack of two systems, there's nothing saying it needs to be complete or functional for all combinations, and as far as I know there's nothing so far to indicate it can or has been done with Aluminum specifically. Nah, Identity is the cosmere/magic equivalent of personal Encryption, it's not literally the Cognitive aspect. And in the case of Soulcasting you can turn something else into Aluminum, but once it becomes aluminum it is entirely immune to soulcasting just like natural aluminum would be. And Fortune is extra weird in terms of Cosmere/realmic mechanics, Im even less clear on how that works than Aluminum, I fully admit. I fully agree that we dont know how or why Aluminum works, but we do have clues and we do have confirmed cases of what is and isnt possible to extrapolate from. But so far every time it's come up the answer has always been that it cannot be at all Invested, and by "Invested" I mean in the sense of charged with additional Investiture, not Invested in the way that anything that exists has to have some investiture (regardless of my previous facetious statement). It cannot be Forged, it cannot be soulcast (you can turn something else into aluminum but cannot affect Aluminum with Soulcasting after that) and even when Brandon wanted something to be made of Aluminum and still have active magical properties (as was the case with the Shardblade practice guards) he had continuity watchers on his team that convinced him it couldnt work. I dont think that Identity is Investiture so much as it's a property of certain Cosmere functions that rides on their Investiture, similar to how how Connection is more of a property of Investiture-based things like the Spiritweb. If you listen to a song on the radio, is that song Made of electricity? Copper and Wires? Air? Thought? All of the above?

They can use burning Aluminum to open a channel to Preservation and get an effect, in the case of Allomancy, which is pretty close, but is not resulting in an Invested Object made of Aluminum the way Hemalurgy or Feruchemy would. Anything that is being poured into a Metalmind is theoretically Investiture. And in a much broader take, Investiture is the fundamental fabric of reality: all matter and energy (and spiritwebs, etc) are made of Investiture on some fundamental Relativistic level. Sooo...Kinda?

That's fair. The idea that the Metallic Arts can actually Invest Aluminum at all is, in my opinion, the larger and more cosmere-wide discrepancy, so if "filling" aluminum doesnt actually result in an Invested chunk of metal, that would certainly fit with the larger model of things. And it would resolve the question Ive long had of how the metallic Arts appeared to be the only thing in all the cosmere that could place Investiture into Aluminum.

I never thought of Copper working that way, but I like the sound of it. I can run with that while we're stuck with Wait&See until Era3 arrives. What are you're thoughts on Tapping Aluminum? You say you have doubts that it's even possible? That too seems like a bit of a deviation from the pattern on the rest of the metals, to have Investiture that is somehow trapped permanently in the Metalmind.

Just for the sake of argument, do we know that for certain? We have at least two metals that you place individual things in whole and take them out, with Copper and Nicrosil. Given that all it's functions seem to be about filling it "completely" to blank out the Soulbearer's Identity, and if Im not mistaken there's a WOB that implied Compounding it wouldnt be very useful, it seems possible there may not be any Increased Identity side of the equation at. But then, as you say, the flip side is that it shouldnt be possible to permanently destroy an individual's Identity, which would be the logical danger of Nicrosil working like Copper. If I had to hazard a guess at what Double-Identity might do, I'd say it would increase Immunity to outside Investiture in a similar manner to being Invested, such you'd be harder to push with Zinc/Bronze, harder to Forge, perhaps even be harder to lash the way somebody wearing Plate, and possibly less susceptible to the Shardic manipulation that Hemalurgy opens you up to (though that last might be a wildly different mechanism that bypasses some things).

Yup, there are only ever three: one for the Stormfather, one for the Nightwatcher, and one for their Sibling htat we know nothing else about. They are the only ones powerful enough, however it's been theorized that there might be some Voidspren of Odium that could qualify as well (the unmade being the top candidates), which is why it was considered "seditious" to want to make more.

Same, Im just spitballing here. On the value chart amethyst are 2nd tier along with Sapphire, one step below the Food Producing Emeralds. That actually seems odd to me, while I can understand why being able to Soulcast Metals would be in high demand (even absent Aluminum as a factor) Im less clear on why Gas and air would be considered so valuable, unless they are needed to keep the air in some of these deep stone fortresses breathable? They are definitely behind in the sciences in General thanks to Soulcasters acting as a short-cut/crutch. Though they also have had several developmental setbacks, both the Desolations that kept resetting them to the Bronze age, and more recently what sounds to me like a bit of a Vorinistic Dark Age. EDIT: On the topic of the threshold at which the Cosmere treats an alumium alloy as something other than aluminum, Im curious if it makes any difference what the other metal involved is, and whether it's already active in the Metallic Arts. As @Calderis pointed out, the Era2 guns are Scandium alloyed at less than 1%, vs the Duralumin that's at 4% but is also alloyed with Copper. Does an alloy of something that wasnt one of the Metallic Arts metals (and/or silver, that's apparently weird in its own right) change the threshold, causing less interference with Aluminum and whatever it's doing to block Investiture?

No, that's entirely true, but it brings the fight back into the realm of normal material physics. An aluminum sword wouldnt work, but thick plates would be able to potentially stop a swing or two, which is a huge improvement over the situation otherwise where even a tiny nick bypasses everything and kills you (or your limbs, etc). it would force the shardbearer to hammer against it more, or at least change Stances to something more conducive to sawing through metal, and some Shardblade shapes are going to be better tan others at that (the same way some swords are better than others depending on the style of armor they are going against). In other words it prevents glancing blows from being anywhere near as effective, even if strong and direct strikes and thrusts would still have a chance to get through (at which point the targets soul is still getting sliced) And on the other side of the arms race, I strongly suspect that an oversized aluminum Mallet (ideally with a heavier core, iron or lead maybe) would be superior against Plate than other metals, and the huge warhammer is a tactic we know they use. That's fair, I was using Duralumin's threshold specifically as the cuttoff since the metallic arts consider it a different metal, and if Im not mistaken it looses the negation effect, correct? One thing to consider in the weirdness of Nightblood, this WOB implies that the sheath's capabilities change once the blade gets exposed, and specifically mentions the fact that the sheath can kill (even by touch) as an example. Which as I type this, I think that may be the only instance outside of the Metallic arts that Aluminum can channel an Investiture effect.

Well, the Can Only Be Soulcast statement was from a merchant/criminal who was appraising it for trade, and the actual nature and mechanics of Soulcasting are a fairly guarded secret in most places, and very often tangled in their religious mystique. It's possible that the average person thinks it can only be Soulcast because it's just that rare (even if it's sometimes found in meteorites, etc) while being kept intentionally ignorant of how it limits Soulcasting. The more glaring bit of ignorance to me is that if it can be made with soulcasting AND can block the otherwise unblockable Realmic Cutting of Shardblades, that fact should be known, even if only to the upper echelons of society, your generals and kings and leading scholars (ie. the Kholins) in exactly the same way that Half-shards were a Very Big Deal and considered a state secret. I just cant figure out why there wouldnt be some corp of elite Anti-Shardbearer solders with suits of Armor that were being soulcast into aluminum. Maybe it's just a bit too impure to actually function realmically? The difference between Aluminum and Duralumin is only a 4% copper impurity in the cosmere, and up to 9% here where we still call it Aluminum (if "Aircraft" aluminum or "Hardened" aluminum or some such).

I think Nazh was talking about a rite to become a Shadow, as in Cognitive Shadow, not a Shade specifically. There are tons of different Cognitive Shadows kicking around including Kelsier, The Returned, The Heralds, and even the Stormfather himself (who was a spren that is now bonded to/Merged with the Cognitive Shadow of the former Vessel of Honor) and most are not the mindless killing machines that the Threnoly Shades are. In general terms all it really takes is a significant amount of Investiture at the time of Death to prevent them from moving Beyond, and sometimes an Anchor of sorts that holds them (which can be as simply as your classic Unfinished Business ghost trope).

Neat Idea, I support this. For one glorious day I was the Torturer of Heralds, to be feared by gods and men

Wow, the implications of that would be immense. I wouldnt want to be one of the folks that has to deal with it, but it would be all kinds of interesting from a narrative perspective. And I think it would fitin line with the theme that people should rush to judge or be too committed to what they think are the sides in this war. We've already seen that it's not as clear cut as Human Vs Singer, and all kinds of old traditional boundaries are being challenged. The emergence and/or actual Acceptance of a 4th Bondsmith spren, which was previously taboo, would be a hell of a can of worms, and Im guessing it would not be one the current spren cultures (most of them, anyway) would easily accept.

The idea of a sort of Half-Radiant could be really interesting. If that were to happen, Im curious how the Surges would manifest. Would they be able to use the full spectrum, or be more restricted, more like the way Fabrails are? Would it be possible for any Deadeye, or only for those Orders that gave access to Regrowth? Would the Oaths be entirely unnecessary, or still required but simply offer less practical rewards in return?

Cryptics are fascinating to me conceptually, but also how they are a much more visually original sort of Spirit Creatures than say Honospren, which bear a lot of resemblance to you classic fairy/pixie sort of characters. It's one of the reasons Im really (almost irrationally) hopeful that the third Bondsmith spren is going to be something akin to a Cryptic in the same way the Stormfather and Nightwatcher seem to have a close connection/similarity to Honorspren and Cultivationspren. The Nightwatcher in particular is really cool, an interesting twist on the Faustian Bargain trope, and Im hopeful that we'll see more of her in action (Im hoping we get to see a full compliment of Bondsmiths before it's all over). I dont think they could just Whip up a Nahel Bond out of nothing, that seems both too overpowering and like it would be almost worse that slavery (forcibly mending souls of two individuals). But Strengthening an existing bond, even a relatively weak one like what Adoline has with Maya could be in the cards. So far the Higher spren of the Orders have all been more conceptual so I doubt it would be Stonespren, though that could easily be the "Lesser" spren associated (similar to Windspren for Windrunners, or Creationspren for Lightweavers, and possibly Gloryspren for Bondsmiths). Maybe something like EnduranceSpren or StoicSpren? ResolveSpren?

One theory (that I subscribe to) is that Dalinar has the potential to become the new Vessel of the Honor Shard, but will be reinterpreting it slightly different that the previous (Who's name was Tanavast). The thought is that the Shard itself is all about Spiritual Connections and the sort of Bonds that can form between people, but where Tanavast was very focused on Oaths and the bonds between Individuals, Dalinar is taking a broader Community view of it, such that the same underlying concept is going to instead manifest as "Unity".

For what it's worth, there does exist a "Lesser" bond with Shardplate: Also, the gems were added later, just like with Blades:

And to add to what @Weltall said, in tapping the Gold you would be Growing a new piece of Soul, it won't be the original soul. The implication (I think) is that it would potentially have major changes, because gold would get you back to "whole soul" but it wouldnt have a complete Spiritweb template to work from, so the new piece would be different than the old, and may or may not be as functional. Which I think actually opens up some very strange possibilities, like maybe if they took your Misting ability you could become a different kind of Misting.

Per WOB yhe person that spiked him was being manipulated by Ruin directly, and the Intent was there:

Nope, it cant happen by accident. Hemalurgy only works if you know what you are doing and have the actual Intent to make a spike, so even if you manage to hit a correct Bind Point with the correct Alloy, it's just a normal stabbing.

That constant churning of Questions, Speculation, and Theory that drives this place. I consider it our own special brand of useful crazy.

Yup, you posted it over in the General Cosmere Discussion yesterday. Glad to see you have Cosmere on the brain