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There is a limit but it usually comes into play when it's things like spiking a whole Shard and such. Whatever is in the Godking still fits in one person's worth of organic matter, so it cant take more than that. WOB says the only upper limit on the size of a spike is the practical side, so just literally still being able to stick it into the target. If you want to see a gross example of a giant spike that could still work, Google the Titan's Prick from the Foundation TV show (it's a giant mechanical execution device akin to a guillotine).

Fortune relates to future sight and peering into the Sprirtual Realm, in that WOB confirms that Atium is a Fortune effect. We dont really know the limits of how it manifests but I believe it will always be more of a mental Sense of the future than it will be the literal reality-warping Luck effect we see so often in other things. Destiny is stealing a persons actual "destined" future, I think? I imagine this as a more wholistic version of stealing individual Connections, and the closest analogy I have is the alternate timeline "likelihood" mechanic of Forgery. So for example, Stealing the "Destiny" of royalty of the Rose Empire would open up a ton of possibly Soulstamps that wouldnt have been available to a peasant, or scadrian worldhoppper, etc. This example sort of assumes there's not some implied Forward-Only aspect of "Destiny" in this context, and it could go either way with the way that sort of opposed directionality shows up in the Metallic Arts. Edit: But maybe you could steal the destiny of a Warlord intent on ruling the vorin lands or some such.

It steals the investiture that is currently physically in the person. So with a Nicrosil spike you could, for example, Steal the Breath horde of the Godking. It might also be what you'd reach for to steal a Dawnshard, but Im less sure on that.

A lot of the WOB's arent about the Futures of the Cosmere persay, they are about it's past or it's present functionality, or they are about Brandon's thoughts and mindset behind various character or choices, etc. And a lot of it is extra details about the minor background things that will never be seen again and so will never be addressed in a future work. But, at the end of the day this is all the literary equivalent to the Creator Commentary on a DVD, and that is certainly not for everyone (regardless of how informative it might be).

Mostly the idea (and it could be entirely wrong) is that it would provide a sort of Cognitive Buffer between Sazed and the constant tidal forces of the two opposed Shards. Make a Godspren to take the brunt of that pull and then coordinate with them more consciously and/or externally, so that the individuals (or at times the group) can come together and act with initiative, unlike the current balance that doent give Sazed that freedom. It's a far more extreme version of the Sword and Shield Champion idea, one that gets into the actual mental/spiritual stress that Sazed faces.

Haha, did you use up all the periods in your username? If I get your question, you are wondering why Nicrosil medallions dont just grant any and all the powers? With the disclaimer that we do not know the actual details of medallion creation yet, we do know that Nicrosil medallions store and retrieve a discrete thing like Copper, they dont work on a sliding scale like most metals. So the implication is that to make a medallion that grants a Power would require another person to first Give Up and store that power in the medallion. We're assuming that compounding and probably Hemalurgy play a role in whatever steps get them around that and closer to mass production, but we dont know the details yet.

No, specifically in era1 and I dont think it'll change in era2. The allomantic version or tin is an overall Magic Sensory boost, and it will let you see in extreme low-light conditions or through the magic mists. But the Feruchemical version is a trade of blurriness for telescopic sight, but it cannot let you see anything (or see through anything) that you couldnt already. I dont think a change in the Shardic mix of the mists would push Feruchemy across that line to seeing through magical things.

Most people are too much of an individual convoluted wad of their own Selves that they arent significantly One shard or another, compared to a Spren that is Pure Investiture that Woke Up. You might be able to make a meaningful effect on a Scadrian, but even there it's a matter of sDNA more than literal, active Investiture.

It sounds like that WOB is saying it just needs to realmically "feel" like the spike is in a person, and that blood or meat are simply easy ways to do that. So it sounds like it needs some lingering Investiture of Life, the basic bit that resists pushing metal inside a person, etc. to prevent the leakage, and if meat does it then we are not talking about a lot of Investiture. If that's the actual realmics involved, storing the Spike in something organic that is Awakened even a little might do it too.

Honestly, I think he should Create a pair of Scadrian Godspren, one each to embody Preservation and Ruin, providing some cogntive buffer and letting him focus his Shardic Mind on maintaining the Harmony between two slightly more External forces.

I think this might be the issue. Stamps are temporary Investiture that gets anchored to the Physical Aspect of the target, and the effect breaks if that Pphysical stamp is disrupted. You may not be able to Forge his history down any path that didnt result in him needing/getting the replacement Body.

They are not the same thing, they are just both examples of Gaseous Investiture, along with Breaths. They're all Investiture, but they all have innately different properties Kind of like the fact that Electricity and visible light and Radio are all Electromagnetic Energy, but they are still very different in many practical ways.

We've seen the one that can Store and Grant Allomantic abilities as well, so Im generally assuming they'll eventually solve whatever scientific hurdle there is on Allomancy medallions, same as I assume they'll eventually solve the Identity/Compounding issue they currently face with Medallions in era2.

Ah, you may have missed a few posts back there, I conceded that there were others options besides Allomancy a little while ago. Aethers can do it apparently but are weird, but I havent read Tress to yet so Im missing most of the data (and forgot them entirely in my first post). Lift can do it, uniquely of Rosharans, and possible never to be repeated. Sandmasters dont actually use Water or any Non-Invested material to get Investiture, they have a Magic Sun locally that charges a special Investiture Sand Storage, the sand is like gems and the Water's role is closer to the role of Color in Awakening (I think?). Surgebinding and Awakening both require the Investiture to be there already, in most cases, except that... Bondsmiths can do it but they will always be limited to single-digit numbers so that leaves rosharans huddled around a very limited set of Investiture Nodes (or Brokers, depending on the Bondsmith's personality); we'll have to see if they can produce enough to provide for an entire Space-fairing population. Elantrians can sort of Do it with Connection tricks back to the Dor if that counts, and most of the Dor systems can probably duplicate it as well, but they may or may not have access to any SR Investiture at all. So as far as future generations are concerns, I think Scadrians will always be the "Richest"(?) in terms of Investiture abundance while off-world by a wide margin since a large chunk of their population can do it naturally, and we've already seen them mechanize it with Medallions to give to the rest. At least some of the Aethers can probably match them but I dont really know their limits or capabilities to theorize. Bondsmiths can do it but there will never be very many of them, all but maybe one of them will face barriers to leaving the planet anyway, and we'll just have to wait and see if the Perpendicularity is something that Fabrial Tech can achieve with a more abundant type of Spren.

I mean, I was still enjoying the discussion of the relative capabilities of the planets, but if you're bored we can keep going without you. That's one interpretation, but since it never mentions Roshar or leaving the planetary system, it's equally possible that WOB is just saying that the Stormfather's Bondsmith doesn't have to be physically in or near the Highstorm to access all their powers where a normal radiant would need their spren close by.

Thats true Re. ondsmiths but they are Sharply limited in two ways: The main one is that there will only even be a small handful of them (3 now, I expect 6 total) compared to the entire allomantic population of Scadrial (including any migrating decendant elswhere), but also the Godspren's unique Physical natures might preven them from Ever leaving Roshar, even if the Connectio restraint is lifted for the average Spren; at least in the case of the Stormfather and Sibling they may be entirely incapable of leaving Roshar without physically taking the Tower or Highstorm itself with them.

I tend to agree. What Im not clear on is if it was something specific to the Well itself, some property of that perpendicularity that Preservation added as part of the Prison Plan, or if it was just side effect and was a normal Shardpool belonging to a Shard who's Mind happened to be actively blocked and imprisoned. In other words, was the Well special, or was it just the fact that the Shard was too Weakened & Distracted to stop it from being absorbed and used. If it's the former, then that capability ended with Era1. If it's the latter, then any Unattended Shardpool could become fair game, including Sel's. And it means you could probably try it with Cultivation's or Endowment's pool but they're likely to simply Stop You with the full weight of the Shard still in the SR.

Yep, sorry, my pre-caffeinated brain skipped over that line completely. It still leaves me wanting to know more about the relative Investiture yield of Lift vs a Ferring. Im guessing Lift gets a little more direct Mass-Investiture conversion right in her digestive tract (given how fast it works), while Ferrings might be more about storing the energy after their body has converted it into Sugars in their bloodstream, with a lot of efficiency loss (or some other biological rate restriction).

Soooo, that first WOB seems to contradict itself. It's Either converting the food mass directly into Investiture OR it's acting like a Gate to the SR the way Metals do in Allomancy.

The Lifeless bit may be a different problem, there's also WOB that they barely have enough Investiture to qualify as a target for hemalurgy (since they have a counterfeit Spiritweb made of a single Breath) they may simply not have enough Investiture to sustain the Connection required. Per WOB both Returning and being born with a Breath are tied to being Born on Nalthis, while Allomancy is sDNA genetic. So in theory a family of Scadrians could immigrate to Nalthis and after a few generations there should be some native Nalthians with both a natural Breath and the potential for Snapping and Allomancy (or Feruchemy). That could easily be interesting enough for endowment to Return one of them, or it could equally be distasteful enough that she would refrain; it depends on how far her isolationism drifts into xenophobia, I guess. Warning, some Stormlight spoilers in these WOB's:

Yeah, I just meant "Jacked" as in plugged directly into a Spiritual Realm Power Source. This is limited to Allomancers, Aetherbound (full disclosure I have not ready tress yet), and Lift. These are the only forms of Investiture that I can think of where the user can pull Investiture directly from the Spiritual realm instead of needing a pre-imported form like Stormlight or Breaths or White Sand, or even Dor in it's own way. I was sort of discounting Lift and the Aetherbound because they (I assume?) need to ingest significant volumes of food or water to get their Investiture, enough to be mechanically limited when compared to the metal-to-Investiture density of allomancy. Side note because this uncovered an assumption I was making: I always assumed Lift = F-Bendalloy from an Investiture Conversion stand-point, since they are both described as converting Calories to Investiture. For that reason I assumed Lift's conversion capability was in the low-power Feruchemical scale, far below the level of Investiture that Allomancy/Compounding could produce. But I dont think that fits with what we know of the relative power levels of Feruchemy vs Allomancy Vs Surges. This leads to the question Does Lift create/import more, less or equivalent Investiture per calorie compared to a Subsumer?

Sandmasters still require that someone or something Else brings the Investiture to the Physical World, they then just store it in the Sand. Some of the other Aethers might be able to produce a direct form of Investiture to power other things, rather than purely trading water for Aether-mass as we've mostly seen so far. But even they are unlikely to be able to just jack themselves into the Spiritual Realm until savantism sets in.

Each of the main worlds/Magics has something none of the others can match very easily. Allomancy is the only one with a direct and theoretically unlimited Connection to Spiritual Realm Investiture; all the others need to get obtain the Power source externally (Breath stockpiles, Stormlight, Dor, etc). Feruchemists have some of the best personal Augmentation (if they get the whole set), and the keys to Mechanizing the all the Powers (not just Scadrials) via Medallions. Roshar has Investiture that can talk to you, Bond with your very soul, or power technological Magic through Fabrials; but they are reliant on the Storm or some equivalently abundant Investiture, and currently too Connected to leave their home system. Sel and it's Magics are the High Arcane of the setting, with several schools of magic and few upper limits, but they are all very academic and slow in their adaptation and development. Breaths and Awakening, leading to Robot-spren like Nightblood and siblings, will be the AI skynet wildcards of the world capable of making new Sapient things, and the fact that they can be powered by any investiture makes their potential incredibly unpredictable. I mean, I think you could still try, but you'd have to first go Through the Horneaters (as in All of them), then have a face-to-face with a Dragon. Unless that only worked on Scadrial because of the P vs R fighting, in which case it's theoretically off the table moving forward.

ReSealing too, as a very Intense subspecialty of Forger, one that requires years and years of medical study.

I cant think of a Soulstamp more powerful than one that had her Parents move to Arelon so she could be taken by the Reod. Just as an entirely random, hypothetical example. Maybe one that had her move to Silverlight early in her life so she was still a Forger but far more Realmically aware.