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I had a whole (modern fantasy) setting where mythical creatures where all spirit beings (I was calling them Djinn) that either possessed some appropriate flavor of matter to exist in the mortal world (they were native to the a Sprit Dreamworld). They all were classified by their development along three axis: Primal energies, Nature, and Abstracts. So like beings of Fire or Smoke where purely Primals, a Deer Forrest Spirit would a a Natural but an Ice Deer is more of a hybrid of the two, and like Greek gods of Art or Death or Family are abstract; Dragons would be all three. I was trying to build one of those All Myths Exist settings with a flexible framework to incorporate real world myths. Recently was noodling a fanfic Hemalurgic Vampire: A former person that become a Cognitive Shadow through plot shenanigans, it has Nicrosil Spikes for fangs and survives by draining and consuming the Feruchemical Traits of it's victims. It cannot (re)Generate those attributes naturally anymore (reason left open for plot hooks) and needs to steel the traits regularly, then ration out Tapping them to remain alive. I figure the traits get stored in either some number of Metalminds that becomes a sort of traditional Lich Phylactery, or else maybe a Nicrosil Linchpin Spike. You could also replace Nicrosil with Atium if you wanted it to become more rare and godly.

Atium sort of cheats for marksmenship, you can pretty much count on hitting exactly where you intend unless you arent physically capable of the shot (and Pewter helps there too). So assuming access to Era1 metals and all else being equal I think Kelsier or Vin would take the prize.

In all seriousness (or as much as I can muster on the Inquisibird Thread without giggling), the most likely spike in a Chicken would probably grant Aviar abilities, steal the aviar bond, or even grant aviar adjacent like A-Copper. One WOB says most Investiture in animals scales up to sapience before Powers start emerging. Another says the Inquisitor's Lynchpin Spike is a coordinating thing and several different metals can work. I suspect you'd want a Copper Spike to bring them closer to full sapience before they could take advantage of your more overt allomantic or feruchemical powers, but a Steel Compounding battle-chicken would be a force to be Feared.

Though to clarify, a Drab is a somewhat specific thing. They are Nalthians who gave up their Beath and are left with less Investiture than the cosmere Standard. All that to say the average person from some other world is not a Drab.

Maybe, in the same way enough Gold does technically make storing Breath In Cadmium moot since you can heal the O2 deprivation, though that method certainly hurts more. But Gold is supposed to take an awful lot to heal major losses, so Im willing to bet the quantitative Investiture math will show the bendalloy method is equally or more efficient than manufacturing new blood with Gold. The way Investiture seems to scale with Life toward Sapience makes me think Blood takes more than water in general, if we're lucky we'll see a comparison example from Soulcasting, since the Radiants can measure their use in gems a little more directly than most (and are thinking about it scientifically now).

Fair Point, Id assumed it was storing what is in you, where Storing is a Matter-to-Investiture conversion and Tapping it is an Investiture-to-matter restoration. So in theory you'd store the Poop itself and deflate your bowel, and Tapping might literally swell your abdomen so you'd only want to do slowing and/or it in safe locations. At least that's how I think it would work if we assume it's Bendalloy and operates the way Food and Hydration do. Im starting the think the reason Food&water work with Bendnalloy but Cadmium does Breath is that they intersect in fundamentally different ways. Bendalloy is more about a direct In&Out matter conversion as described above, so maybe Cadmium is interacting directly with the biological process to let it be maintained internally? Not sure that fits either and the whole nature of Breathing is technically a process of stripping Carbon from CO2 molecules, but Tapping still allowing you to hyper-oxygenate your bloodstream. \ Side Note: If Tin can Store the Sense of Pain, it almost certainly could store a Sense of Fullness and also by extension the Sensation part of needing to void waste. Granted that would just let you feel fine while you starved and feel confident right up to the point you messed your pants... That's my point: H20 has no specific transformative step in biology, there are no "Forms of Water" that the body creates, at least none that still count as Hydration and not just generating new tissues (fat cells, etc). At best it's location-based concentrations, organs, tissues, and/or blood stream. It's not like food where the body takes it and chemically alters it into sugars or protein or whatever. So if the magic cant access it from the gut (the way metals can for allomancy) then that implies it needs to find a deeper location before it can be used. Whether that turns out to be the Bloodstream or actual/individual Cell Absorption or maybe even a specific organ, I think it'll provide some key insight into how the magic is accomplishing it realmically.

Here you go. The "Not Yet" makes me think it'll be possible in future era's but is not with their current methods and/or understanding. But it would be such a critical piece of any spaceship life support (just like Air or Food or Water) that I suspect it's included in the long-term design for that purpose. That feels off but I think it might lead us somewhere: Unlike food, Water doesnt get Metabolized in any meaningful way (other than when it's produced by breaking down fat, etc), it just gets Absorbed from tissues to blood to organs, etc. If you are thirsty enough you can absorb water through the mouth or even skin and not need to swallow anything. So a delay before being able to acces the hydration (which seems supported by the scenes you mention) implies the water needs to reach either a minimum overall threshold or else it needs to reach a specific place in the body. In other magic systems we've seen Skin Contact, Eating/Internalization, and Blood Contact all be separate thresholds to access a magic; so a Delay after swallowing might imply it needs to reach the bloodstream specifically. That in turn might imply the Luhel mechanism requires a more specific Spiritweb or Spiritual Realm interaction like Hemalurgy does. OR, and this is more a devils advocate statement, both those instances might have been them trying to let their bodies and tissues recover and spend time properly Hydrated before health issues arise, the same way Lift really needs to stop using her Awesome so much that he stays perpetually malnourished.

Here's a shot I managed to grab on my cell phone of the April eclipse. Also one of a Dipper (not sure which one) over the Rocky's in Colorado.

Im not sure Im following the Electrolyte argument, unless you are just saying it'll be a non-typical consequence of Aether-based dehydration since the water isnt carrying anything else out of the body as it would with normal processes? A skilled enough Bendalloy Ferrying can store Food, Hydration, and even (eventually) Waste, so Electrolytes both Coming and Going should theoretically be within their power to store/regulate. By the time the space age rolls around I would not be suprised to see specific vitamins, drugs, and maybe things like plasma or platelets stored in Bendalloy metalminds. Fwiw, WOB does say what Lift does is metabolizing Sugars into Investiture, which I think implies it's at least a little reliant on the Some Digestive process but not necessarily the actual mundane one.

Szeth is a Cognitive Shadow, per the text (Vasher, specifically, in RoW) and per WOB, it's just that "Cognitive shadow" is a whole spectrum of states and not all of them have the same problems or requirements. What Nale did was heal his body before his soul passed to the Beyond so it was able to reattach with it's natural support mechanism;and doesnt need the extra's that the Divine Breath (specifically) needs to sustain the attachment but also doesnt provide immortality or any other such Perk (which is likely what requires sustained Investiture fuel for Heralds and Returned, not sure about Shades). Or at least that's one theory, on the flip side Vasher says he firmly believes that he, Sezth, and the Heralds are all just sentient Investiture in the shape of a person that has passed on.

A ketek-esk song that starts with Death, Weakness, and Ending themes only to be turned back by Syl's entrance to become about Life, Strength and continued journeys.

Literally any scene from Singer POV, with consistent musical themes for each Rhythm. An opening number of The Assassination Night. Introductions of most major characters and the Parshendi, Szeth as a major movement, then probably flowing into a montage explanation of the Vengeance Pact as a transition while the setting is shifted to the Shattered Plains.

Can we circle back to this actually, I missed that detail: Was Dents Spiking more rioting ability into himself or Spiking the bear to make them more susceptible to what he already had, or Both? And if he was spiking the bear, what might the have the spikes been Charged with?

I think Nomal thought he say a Ghost, and not a nice logical Cognitive Shadow. He wasnt sure if he was just going mad and/or seeing things. So I dont think his rational mind has any actual knowledge or belief that Kaladin is still alive.

It depends on the planet in question, but it can go both ways case by case, and it'll depend on that era and planet's (edit:) magic, cultures, and shard. Scadrial has a heavy focus on metallurgy to it might progress faster than some there, but then Harmony claims his meddling made them less innovative than they would have otherwise been technologically. Roshar is behind in a lot of basic things thanks to Soulcasting solving a lot of problems that Science would have to wrestle with, but it looks like they could skip over Semiconductor development entirely and still reach fabrial-based Computers; they already have gem-based "Read Only" information storage so they probably wont mess with the magnetic-based storage we used to rely on so much. But our history suggests that sort of development will happen in unpredictable bursts, often motivated by Wars. For instance: Earth would not have Computers today if not for the nazi Enigma Machine encryption motivating Alan Turing to develop the concept into a working model, and then the Cold War and Space Race motivating two Superpower nations to continue developing things like computing machines, semiconductors, and Nuclear Power. Without the pissing match between the USSR and USA driving the space race, we most likely wouldnt have any orbital presence at all, and thus we wouldnt have any satellite telecommunication.

Others are churning on what the magic could potentially Do, so I want to talk a it about the OP's first Question: How do these users Access the Magic? At minimum they'll need a method for Acquiring the Investiture and one for Shaping the Investiture (which your Base&branch system is addressing). If we are assuming a Cosmere world with a resident shard, but not one of the known ones, that leaves fewer shards but few actual restrictions. For access: the easiest way is to make it sDNA genetic the way Allomancy, Feruchemy, and being born with a Breath are. The other most common method is the Shardworld having a naturally available Source of Investiture that is usually paired with some Storage method (Highstorm with Gems, a Magic Sun with White Sand, The Dor surrounding the planet in the Cognitive Realm, etc). The Genetic option will imply that the Shard created the population in question though, as is implied to have happened on Nalthis and Scadrial. Or it could always be entirely random if we are talking about Whimsy. For shaping it: Genetic predisposition is an option, like with Allomancy or Feruchemy. Nahel or Luhel Bonds are options. Anything that can be interpreted as Imposing Intent on the process would probably work, really. Id say the Gender dichotomy lends itself to sDNA genetic, or maybe to a Bond (Nahel or Luhel) to something that is gender-picky. For example, a Nahel Bond with a Splinter spren could lend itself to a progression of Base and Branch Powers based on some narrative Milestones akin to the Radiant Oaths. Or maybe you have to grow some new physical feature (like a literal plant bud or seed or evolving tattoo) to unlock the abilities through chronic use, and you say the progression is from a Savant-esk Warping of your spiritweb. But the method of Shaping will entirely depend on the form of Investiture in question. Just as a potential plot hook, it could be interesting for the male and Female mages to come in Pairs, perhaps going so far as to say their shared Bond is what unlocks their powers. That would give a lot of potential for interpersonal conflict, as well as potential for overpowered collaboration Spells, and even a nonbinary Chosen One character that breaks the standard rules. Also, if the Female half focuses on Biological process, Healing, and physical effects, are you thinking that would cast the Male as less Biological and more Energy magic (fire & lightning & based energy types, etc) or would they be more Mental Effects over Physical, so like Memory Storage, Emotional detection and/or manipulation, maybe precognitive powers? Agreed, there sure seem to be several different effects that are known to change the physical Properties or a substance/object without requiring a mundane physical process to explain it (Biochroma color change seems to be the exception rather than the rule in that regard). The example that comes to mind for me (aside from the Obvious Tension Surge) is the weird way Feruchemcy will protect a Ferring from the effects of carrying unnatural Weight without actually changing their Strength, Durability, or their biological makeup.

Yes, theoretically, per WOB. Granted there are some qualitative differences between Spren/Seons and Cognitive Shadows, so there are likely to be complications.

Inquisitors die if they loose the lynchpin, but that was a specific weakness built into them and exists because they have too many spikes. Theoretically anyone under that threshold should just revert to their former form, and if the spikes can drive the dramatic physical change then removal should be able to do it in reverse (and it appears to be quick enough to survive). So depending on era they'd either go back to human or to Half-Koloss.

"Cult" is in the eye of the Beholder. The only difference between a Cult and a Social Group or even a Clan is the level of Fervor they have for the topic. Normally it becomes a Cult when the fervor gets too high. But we are geeks: there is no such thing as too much fervor.

I think it's a slow-burn equivalent to Duralumin/nicrobursts, where it takes a Kinetic Investiture effect and amplifies it with a secondary source of Investiture, but it simply maintains the trickle Connection rather than blasting it open. Whether thats a Sibling Fabrial spren effect or some more general property of Towerlight, it's hard to say at this stage.

The closest comparison for how long it actually takes Investiture to gain sentience simply by leaving it alone is to remind us that Matter will technically gain sentience if left alone long enough. So literally astronomic timescales. Separately, Godmetals are the least versatile and the most settled of the States of Pure Investiture, so they're likely to be the last form to do so, compared to the Shardpools or even the Mists. And also, those Godmetals were still very much Connected to an active Shard/Shardic Vessel, so they probably dont qualify as being Left Alone, as compared to things like the Dor (even Honor's Investiture is being more actively managed via the Stormfather, other spren, and possibly the bondsmiths).

Mists and Rosharan Lights (and Nalthian Breaths) are all Investiture but are still very distinct forms of it. In the same way Heat and Electricity and Radio are all forms of Energy but behave in wildly distinct ways. Another example is how (it appears) Breaths cant be forcibly manipulated via Sound, even though so many on that world have Perfect Pitch and should have had very strong odds of discovering such a phenomena.

Waveform - This form is granted by Bonding a Logicspren, they gain an innate perception of rhythm and timing, granting them Perfect Color Recognition and Perfect Pitch (as typically seen from Heightenings). GemForm - This form generates a series of Gemheart Carapace pieces that each provide significant Light Storage that leaks far less than a typical gem (though not quite as permanent as a Perfect Gem).

Alternatively, a gem skeleton might let them Bond a spren. It would be a massive skeleton to craft, too bad Soulcasting can't help.

Now you're thinking with portals!