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"all Investiture was from Adonalsium, all Investiture got assigned to one of the 16 Shards when Adonalsium was Shattered" Those two things say that All Cosmere Investiture was and still is in the closed system that it started as. So if there is anything outside the Dwarf Galaxy that is the Cosmere which resembles Investiture, it doesnt interact with the Cosmere for both Doylistic and Watsonian reasons. At which point, if you prefer to think that there is another Adonalsium elsewhere with it's own allotment of Investiture, you certainly can. It will not, however, become relevant in the story of the Cosmere.

I mean, technically she's not wrong in that Vasher&co are the only ones known to have ever awakened it, and that one of those Scholars was most likely Peacegiver, being the Name that history remembered as the Returned that gave the cache of Breathes to found the god-kings. It's worth noting that all Five Scholars predate the God-Kings entirely. And while Kriss knows of Vasher and the rest because they were famous worldhoppers and pioneers, that doesnt mean she knows all the secret details of the Manywar or the fact that Kalad the Usuper, Talaxian, Peacegiver the Blessed, and Vasher the Scholar are all the same person. Especially if, by the sound of things, that all happened long before her time. Given that one person's role got split several ways, and as far as I know the details of both Nightblood and the Phantoms creation is a closely guarded secret, it entirely understandable for her to not learn the real details but make the connection between those scholars and the God-king's treasure. Frankly I it would take the trust of another scholar (ie Yesteel) for her to ahve any chance of learning that bit. Unless she's run into Vivenna by this point.

Well there you go. If emotional damage allows outside spiritual influence to bleed in, and we are all agreed that he more than qualifies, then I think all the qualification in the WOB is basically trying to say that Yes, it's the result of the Cosmere being a magical place and is an effect that would not exist on Earth, but that it's not part of a Magic System or any specific investiture, rather is a Realmic symptom of PTSD.

-Prior to the Creation of Scadrial, was there any way to Invest Aluminum? -Prior to the Creation of Scadrial, did Hemalurgy work in the Cosmere? -If the Highstorm existed prior to the Shattering was the Stormfather around back then as well?

There's also This Epigraph that indicates they believed there was some connection, or at least correlation, between research of the tower Spren (of Uritiru) and the Sibling's "Withdrawl".

Did he hear the screams before he was revived by Nale? He's imperfectly attached to his body at this point, leaving Necromonger spirit-trails as he moves (ala Chronicles of Riddick). If no, then it's another function of his Near-death experience and his current state. If yes, then Id think it indicates that all Snapping-level damage is going to open cracks in your spiritweb, which in turn make you more receptive to outside Influence on that level/Realm (regardless of whether a Shard or Spren take advantage of that foothold.

It's part of the definition, per WOB. All Investiture is/was from Adonalsium pre-Shattering, and all Investiture was assigned to one of the 16 when it happened. Also, something to remember especially when talking about those Laws of Investiture Dynamics, there exists an Unrevealed 4th Law that "relates to Adonalsium" which is likely going to inform on most if not all of these questions. Of course, it's all more or less moot, since per WOB Brandon has no intention of ever touching on or explaining things Outside the Cosmere. Much like the God Beyond or the actual Afterlife, these are things he's said he prefers to leave each reader's own headcannon intact, allowing all this wonderful yet unending debate.

For all the reasons listed above I dont see it healing at this point. I see only one reason for the plains themselves to move/change (and it's a long shot): I have a theory that all the geographic fractals we've seen, from the cities to the plains to the continent itself, are all giant slumbering Cryptics, with the Sibling being the continent itself contemporary to Stormfather, ie the Manifestation of the planetary Highstorm itself.

Medallions are going to reduce that limiter more and more as things move toward Era 3. I tend to think that wealth is going to be the barrier to the metallic arts far more than geneology, before long. Actual Ferrings and Misting are going to be more along the lines of Prodigies with natural talent, but not required. Unless we get more specific limitations on medallion use, similar to how Fabrial surges are more restricted than Radiant surges.

It does when the topic under discussion is literally "Is investiture technically Finite?" Which was the topic of the OP's 4th theory.

I stand Corrected, Thanks! I was only aware of this one that just Confirmed Frost was an example of somebody older.

Navani: Elsecaller, Willshaper, or Bondsmith. Not sure which, but Im pretty sure "Bring Order form the Chaos" is her 2nd Ideal. She kept repeating it to herself like a mantra in OB. By the sound of some WOB's I think we're going to see the Sibling in the next book, which makes it more likely to actually get another Bondsmith (I prefer Rlain for that one). Moash/Vyre - Voidbinding equivalent of a Windrunner.

I don think it can. Unlike the more traditional fantasy Verses out there, the Cosmere if very specifically Finite. There is a limited amount of Matter, Energy, AND Investiture. This worries me somewhat because of the following observation. Nightblood consumes Breath (and other Investiture, but let's limit ourselves to Breath for a second). Every person on Nalthis is born with one Breath. Populations tend to grow. Which means that under normal rules of demographics, population of Nalthis should keep increasing. This in turn means that under normal circumstances the number of people with Breath on Nalthis should be growing. I can see the following possible explanations to this: Endowment can give Breath to many more people than are currently living on Nalthis. So, the exponential population growth has not yet reached the level at which Endowment's ability to award a Breath to each Nalthis-born human is seriously challenged. When it happens though, things will not go well. There is some built-in mechanism controlling population growth on Nalthis, making certain that the population stays within the limits. Nightblood's consumption of Breath makes these limits smaller, and overall may lead to Endowment's inability to grant Breath to Nalthis-born, but not for a while (essentially, Endowment controls population trends at she sees fit). Thoughts? Brandon Sanderson Just as a point you should understand, the amount of MATTER in the cosmere is finite too. As is the amount of energy. Worrying that Endowment will run out of Breaths to give is a little like worrying that the amount of carbon on Earth will run out because people keep being born. uchoo786 So just for clarification, once Nightblood consumes investiture, that investiture gets recycled? That's what I've always assumed. That it enters the cognitive/spiritual realm? Brandon Sanderson The investiture he consumes is not gone forever--it's not leaving the system, so to speak. source

As @Calderis showed they do not all have direct Paired opposites. That being said, I have a theory running that they can be organized/divided up among a few Axis and quadrants based on the Metallic Arts Charts. The biggest difference is that they'd have 'opposites' in terms of specific aspects, but anything they'd be an opposite of would also be something they have a lot in common with, and there are no 1-for-1 pairings. And also, a big key to the theory is the idea that the Shardic Intents are themselves more primally defined, and the specific terms and personalities we are familiar with are the result of the Vessel's Interpretation of that Intent. There's also this WOB , which I like to take as confirming/supporting the general methodology behind the Theory (been calling it the Quadrant Theory lately), as it states in creating the Allomantic Chart he wrote the 16 shards first and that the metals follow/refine that pattern. Theory of Shardic Intents (ie Quadrant Theory). https://www.reddit.com/r/Cosmere/comments/7hylwm/all_a_theory_on_shardic_intents/

Worldsingers are a group on Roshar, while Worldbringers were a sect of Terris on ancient Scadrial. Both have the same general mission statement of collecting and spreading culture where ever they went. While the worldsingers were supposedly founded by the Heralds, the similarities between the names combined with the fact that Hoid is one is a strong indication that there's a lot more worldhopping connections involved with the two.

That was my point, I think it will come down to the style of the author and the narrative needs of such a character; but I dont think there is much in realmic mechanics that would Require if to operate one way or the other.

Took me forever to find, I was searching for "Bullet" but the example used was actually a Spear. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/105-17th-shard-forum-qa/#e1150 I kinda think that would come down to what was more narrative dramatic. There was this same example recently in the Magnus Chase YA books, an einherjar with a magic clay cutter just like we're talking about, and they were slinging it around and decapitating monsters left and right. But yes, I could also see it going the other way and requiring a steady grip on both sides and similar drawing motions to the normal clay potter use. I think there has to be some amount of difference because there's an observable difference in effect. if you had an unbonded shardblade and you threw it out a window to hide an assassination (as an entirely random example), it would smoothly cut through/annihilate anything the blade touched along the way (its why you can tunnel with a shardbade without wedging it in the stone against the flat of the blade, so Ive always considered it still a realmic action rather than pure physical sharpness. Meanwhile, if you get hit with a Shardrod or ShardBoulder, it would only do normal physical damage unless you found some other way to make it interface with the Soul; in the case of a mortal target you can do so via the Blood (per Cosmere-wide Hemalurgy mechanics). But with some outside gate tot eh Soul, the Shard-rock will just do normal blunt impact damage, breaking things along the way but not blinking bits out of existence the way shardblades seem to. However, in the example of a Potter-turned Radiant who manifested a clay-cutter as their totem Cutting Tool of Choice, I could fully see that wire acting as a more permanent-acting cutting edge the way a shard-blade does, because a cutting edge is fundamental to it's cognitive definition/identity. Of course, were that to be the case it would be one of the more dangerous (to wield) forms we've seen, right up there with some sort of Whip-sword

Oooh, Sorry I misunderstood the question. That's more or less what we Think Autonomy is doing, and that the term "Avatar" being used (but not yet defined) is indication of a shard being shared more or less equally in different locations. However, what if any heirarchy that may exist between the Avatars in unknown and the topic of lots of speculation. Id also assume that Honor would go about it differently than Autonomy, by theme. Personally, I suspect that is why Autonomy and Odium get along: we know per WOB that Odium's goal is to be the most Powerful being in the Cosmere, without taking on new shards that would change him. We also know Per WOB that a Shard technically has access to the full 1/16 of ALL the infinite investiture in the Cosmere, regardless of where it is, but that the Vessels still have finite minds and would need to become aware of the other locations to tap into it; so in theory Preservation could meditate or something and become aware of the aspects of Preservation on another planet. I think Autonomy does that, but rather than going there and adding the new cache of Autonomous Investiture to their accessible store, they arrange a new Vessel to take up the Shard on the Local level. In this way the Spiritual aspect of Autonomy is being distributed among several different Cognitive Aspects scattered on different Shardworlds. Oduim would like this solution because it's splitting up the Autonomy Energy rather than Gathering it together.

Correct me if Im wrong, but I dont think that's actually stated. It says he is not the oldest, and confirmed that Frost is Older, but that doesnt confirm that there are no other immortals and/or Dragons running around that beat them both. Hell, the Highstorm predates the Shattering, so there's a reasonable possibility that the Stormfather does as well.

Nightblood is weird, it completely Annihalates it's target in All Three Realms, and then if Im not mistaken absorbes all the converted Investiture. By comparison shardblades damage the Soul, but there is enough left that it can still be healed by F-Gold, Regrowth surge etc, so presumably Odium can consciously restore them. Nightblood prevents that because it Eats ALL the pieces. As I understand it (though it is debated) all planets are going to have fairly unique Cognitive Realms, influenced largely by the population's collective expectation/image of it. Thus Roshar has a Gem theme, while Metals glow and act as a window/gate to the Spiritual Realm on Scadrial. Strongly debated, no resolution. Based on Harmony, it seems unlikely to me that you'd be able to maintain any sort of balance with that many competing Intents, especially at ten. There are arguments that certain combinations might work better together than others and make it possible. On the other hand, once you have several already, adding another is going to cause less and less upset. So if you could get to 10, Id think the next 6 would be easier that the last, but I wouldnt bet on anyone in particular being able to pull it off (other than that obvious dude).

Couple things: First: Yup, Per WOB there is a reasonable argument to be made that even Feruchemy is End Positive, since there is still a small amount of Investiture needed to facilitate moving the Investiture into and out of the metalminds. But I think that is similar to how most people are not considered Invested like a radiant or somebody with heightenings, even though all living things have some Investiture flowing to them in the form of a Spark of Life that powers their living body day to day. He says that generally the terms are only useful in comparing Metallic arts but less for the other systems. For example, there are various arguments to be made that Breaths could be End-Positive or End-negative depending on whose perspective you were talking about. Second: In a feruchemist as I understand it is not that they Bounce Back, rather there is a constant flow of Investiture between their bodies and their spiritwebs accomplishing all the normal things it takes to make a sentient being functional (eating, aging, sensing the world around it, etc), and Feruchemy allows you to fiddle with the Rates at which those flows are happening by either diverting some of the flow into a metalmind storage, or adding what is stored back into the normal Flow as an added supplement. So to use the money analogy, what you are doing is taking your daily wages of $100 per day and saving $10 each day for a week in metal-mind piggy-bank. During that week you have to live on $90 each day, but next week you have enough saved to live as if you were making $110 per day for the whole week. Or you can blow it all at once on one crazy purchase.

My thought on this is that Intent and self-definition always matter, even with inanimate objects (which is why a bullet is always either 100% inside or outside a speed bubble depending on where IT thinks it is). Basically, a Garrote is a Strangulation tool that happens to sometimes cut things, but by contrast a wire Clay Cutter is fundamentally a Cutting tool. So while Id think in most cases a Shard-wire would act blunt like a shard-Rock unless the physical forces broke the skin and force the spiritual interaction, but I could easily see a former potter tunred Radiant looking at a giant stone Thundercast and saying "I Got This". And more, I think it likely would be able to effortlessly cut Inanimate Objects the way a shardblade can but a a Shardrock would not (by the sound of @Calderis's WOB). We know per Hemalurgy mechanics that touching the blood is one way to access the Spiritual Aspect, so by the sound of it any shard-weapon can do spiritual damage if it meets blood. The distinction on a spren in a Wire for that fundamentally believes it to be a cutting tool, such a thing might well be able to cut stone and dead things as easy as a shardblade.

Best we can tell they can only turn into a single-piece metal object (comes up regularly on the Shardbow What-If). We've seen one that turns into a blunt instrument because it doesn't like hurting people, so there's no actual Edge Requirement, and since he's actively against the idea I dont think he'd do spiritual damage even if he were shoved through a person via superstrength, etc. So I think it would really depend on how "Sharp" the radiant and/or spren in question Think of wire as being in general. Wire only becomes sharp when it's pulled against something with reasonable force, but at rest it's flexible and dull and non-threatening. Basically I think you'd need a Radiant or Spren that was familiar enough with piano wire as a Weapon, enough to believe deep down in their base definitions of things, that it's a dangerous cutting weapon.

There was a theory (I cant claim credit) and a recent confirming(?) WOB that Lersium will Connect you to the Shard of whatever Godmetal it is alloyed with (allowing you to hack yourself into otherworldly magic systems) and that the reason creating Misting/Mistborn is a Side effect is that when lacking another Godmetal alloy to provide a target shard for that permanent Connection, it will simply default to Connecting you back to Preservation.

Hmm, you know, , I wonder if any sort of Polygamy took hold on Roshar, under the influence of Honor who colored things so heavily toward individual Oaths. It wouldnt actually be incompatible in any particular way (Wheel of Time did in what Id call a reasonable, Lawful alignment sort of way), but it would be the sort of subversion of earth-bound expectation that Ive come to love the Cosmere.