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Oh, damn, right: Rosharan Foot =/= Earth Foot. Side note: "Not Hoid, who's able to use magical means to change how he's perceived," So does this mean he's messing with Perception to look taller to Rosharans but not actually engaging shapeshifting Returned-Style?

Per WOB "Survival" is not it's intent and is only tangentially related. "Survival" is not it's Intent, it simply knows enough of what is going on to be worried. "Prudence" was one theory he said had a certain ring to it.

Not that this changes much, but the are described in WoK as generally being close to or at 6 feet, not seven as a standard. But they also do say more than once that the oversize lengths were historically meant to counter Thundercasts, and with shapeshifting weapons they'd only need those when Thundercasts were on the field. Most of the fighting styles that use the giant blades for other situations likely evolved later with Deadeye blades. Fwiw, There are no primary sources referenced, but the Coppermind says "Based on Vasher and Vivenna's statements, Nightblood could be around fifty-three all the way to sixty inches (135 cm - 152 cm) long overall, with a blade length somewhere between forty-three to forty-six inches." And it's worth noting that while Nightblood was made by a Returned, the Scholars we've met all go around looking normal sized (and would have needed blend in on Roshar) so they might have been aiming for some middle ground size that is practical for a normal size without being ludicrously undersized in the hands of a Returned.

Correct, most of the Strength Augmentation of a Radiant comes through the Plate rather than directly from holding Stormlight.

That makes a lot of sense, I tend to agree with everything you say. Would the lack of Body be a problem once Ascension happened? I only ask because Rashek made himself a new Fullborn body with the power of the Well, I think once Kel held a shard (long enough to know how to use the power) he could very likely just Create and Connect a new body to himself. Or even weirder, the Ascension could somehow "Inflate" the spike itself right along with the rest of the Vessel's Spritweb, making some sort of trans-realmic Super-object.

If it's Kel vs Sazed with the Shard(s) on the table, would that make Kel the ideal candidate? Would be be better, worse, or the same in terms of resisting the Shardic discord?

That makes sense. Are you thinking interaction purely at the mechanical level, or also on the Fabrial investiture flow? Or are you saying Awaken the complete fabrial itself? I was thinking more at the component level. For example, since they have faux-spiritwebs by definition, could an Awakened component substitute for the Spren&Gem? Especially if we assume it's an organic object and not some advanced Awakened mineral.

That's going past the commonality of mundane metals and right into mixing Pure Investitures of other shards. At the upper end, it could unlock a set of Ten "Ruinbinding" Surges, but it could also do nothing, or anything in between. Similar Question: What happens when part of the fabrial is Awakened?

The simplest explanation might be that mateform is so adapted for procreation the it makes it more possible.

A shardblade could work if they are really lucky/accurate, but it would first have to separate the Fullborn from his Gold Metalminds. That might be asking too much against a Speester with infinite Atium. Infinite Stormlight doesnt necessarily mean Infinite Scale (or Reach) of Surges, there are still limits to how much their Bond can channel and Spiritweb can support before Savantism damage sets in. "Infinite Stormlight" basically just a Radiant in a storm with lots of gems, or a Herald before Honor broke.

Yes, probably effects on on the general scale of Aviar, at most, thought Aviar lean toward Cognitive & Sensory effects but a lot of Rosharan spren represent more physical things (though they have cognitive fabrial expressions too, so who knows?) Now, as a tangent, what if they manage to Get a Gemheart analogue. Hemalurgy can theoretically do it, but would be distasteful to most spren per WOB. Eating a Gem has one precedent but that "spren" was powerful enough to drive a lot of physical changes with what is probably a tiny foothold (and soulcasting was likely involved at the realmic level).

True, though it still provides him some benefits (per WoB he can get drunk but "probably not as much as he'd like). And honestly, from the WOB in it, "Suppressing" his Divine Breath seems to have more to do with forcing a less useful Self-Image onto that doesnt get all the Perks, but Investiture-wise I think it's still present and active (for instances where raw Investment matters). For normal Heightenings they hide by stuffing them in an object, but for the Returned whose shapeshifted perks seem to be an advanced version of the Royal Locks, I think he's just skilled enough to embrace a fully Non-Augmented form the way some Returned naturally make themselves Old. EDIT: Oh, not my quote. Cool, I was a little confused

They are confirmed to not have a common ancestor and predate the Shattering, which I think rules out one being the raw material for another. Personally I think the singers do fit the Rosharan ecosystem pretty well, in a sense that they are the Human equivalent for a planetary ecosystem mostly taken over by crustaceans. It may sound morbid but I tend to broadly categorize the Rosharan life by Blood Color: Red for Human Ecosystem imports, Orange for Singers, and Blue for the crustacean branch of the Tree of Life. That being said, I still want to know what color Dragons and other Fain life bleed. Recent things hint that six limbs is a hallmark of Fain-life, so the Crustaceans with so many more might be a whole third Ecosystem from the Fainlife and the human ecosystem. Waaay more legs, Bone-colored Gemhearts vs Tamu Keks, etc. All very curious. Separately, I wonder is if Gemhearts are actually native to ANY of these species, or if Developing a Gemheart is instead a standard Environmental mutation for anyone living on Roshar, a direct result of exposure to the Realmic Stormlight ecosystem?

Ooh, intriguing idea. The fundamental premise will come down whether you can forge yourself once and effect all the spikes, or if they'd need their own Stamp. I could see it going either way: either they merge Identity etc enough to be one being, or perhaps being Invested object interfacing Physical Realm Investiture with the Spiritual is enough to hold them separate. I dont think you'd be able to mimic the Kandra Blessings, specifically, because those are meant for and start with Mistwraiths rather than Humans. But you could probably stamp a Koloss into some sort of 4-spike Inquisitor, essentially leaving the spike alone and just Forging a different set of Bind Point locations. Another thing is that it might have behaved differently in Era1, when the Koloss where uniformly made from normal humans instead of being more genetically/sDNA pre-disposed to it thanks to Harmony's changes.

That could make sense. And to that point, tactically it might be more important for her to be protected from other Shards influence on her travels (assuming it does that) and could be worth cutting off constant contact with Harmony. They are specifically called out as all the the same mechanism. It's all just a matter of the cracks in the soul, just with a wide amount of variance by power level (and some nuance based on Shardic Intent). Hemalurgy scales more reliably and opens you up to control way more effectively, but simply being Insane can get you there too. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/193/#e4156 https://wob.coppermind.net/events/71/#e2797. Wax is not a hemalurgic construct, and Bleeder is not a Shard; it's qualitatively the same mechanism but quantitatively in completely different leagues. It's generally outside the reach of any single Misting to "break" a construct and achieve lasting Control, it's takes a group and/or Duralumin. Even for Harmony [TLM Spoiler] but only the two for a Kandra. And Harmony is the single most powerful entity in the cosmere (by a literal factor of two). Also, per WOB Wax's earring was specifically made for communication, so it makes sense that others could tap into it using lower power levels, since it doesnt rely on just the cracked soul to make it possible.

That's a good point about Melaan: She'd be objectly a worse scout/emissary if one of her skeletons cut off her communication with Harmony, so it probably does not extend to Shardic Comm & manipulation. And it always remains the Shards prerogative to overrule most physical laws.

In the case of Lights, they needed two separate people to provide different Intents to push each pre-existing, mostly external Light toward a common average/center. Taking up a shard is a whole different process. That is getting so Connected to one (or more) Shards that the investiture overloads reality and you Ascend to a whole other state of existence that exists in all three realms. Navani was Tuning a small sample of Physical realm Light from one wavelength to another using tools and external controls; Sazed was himself becoming so over-Invested that he broke down most of the boundaries between realms and things like that. That being said, it's not without downsides, and Sazed has said it takes constant effort to hold them together. Per WOB he also did not immediately Merge the shards into a stable middle thing (if "War" can be called "stable"); they've started to bleed into each other still fight each other.

Sure thing, here is is. Context is certainly important here since the WOB is specifically referencing it's effects on emotional allomancy, which may limit the possibilities. Other examples, like healing around pewter, make it sounds like it might be Contact in that case. So it's likely to vary depending on the effect it's disrupting, but at minimun the aluminum True Body should definitely shield the kandra-brain from emotional allomancy so long as it's located in a reasonably surrounded place (skull, ribcage, maybe the pelvic bone). Next question is whether that would extend all the way to preventing Shardic manipulation, since WOB states those are the same mechanism.

They can move Hemalurgic Spikes to new Bind Points. They can use a Gem Truebody as a Gemheart. This may allow them to hear Rhythms, or possibly even form rudimentary spren bonds, letting them impersonate a Rhyshadium or something with a biologically necessary spren-bond? They can use Invested items as True Bodies, up to and including shardplate. Who knows the benefits, but it would be one intimidating looking enemy. Melaan has an Aluminum Truebody, and WOB states it's protective capabilities are more field-effect than Line of Sight, so having an aluminum skeleton might offer generalized Investiture protection.

In the context of feruchemical Attributes everything is a SR thing, it all flows out from there and either does it's normal job or gets diverted into a Metalmind. Its the same reason Hemalurgy can Double your "strength" and your body will mutate the bones and muscles to adjust, I think Stealing body heat could make easily make you "run Hot" on a permanent basis, or at least replace the genetic Body Heat flaw in South Scadrians with a normal thermal system. Ok, I think I understand you. I disagree with you, I think Attributes as a Cosmere term is consistently the same thing regardless of the magic system that is affecting them. But I see what you are trying to say.

Nah. While some are certainly less useful than others, I really dont think they are going to just disperse. Because unlike Ferucemy they arent taking the actual Investiture, they are ripping off the Spiritweb chunk that drives and/or provides it. Stealing Heat hemlurgically would be fantastic for all the Southern Scadrians that have a deficiency in that sector, because it wouldnt steal the Heat energy, it will steal the Higher/proper base level of body heat. Same with Stealing a Memory with a Copper Spike, I dont know all it's function and limits but Im confident it will not be identical to the tap&store of a Coppermind; I strongly suspect it just gets added to your brain as a constant memory, rather than being stored & returned to the metal. It's not dissimilar to how Nicrosil doesnt purely "Store Investiture", it stores the ability to use that investiture. But looking back at your post, Im confused because it seems like you agree with my impression at the end of your post but not at the beginning, so Im not sure Im getting the distinction you are trying to draw.

White Sand gets charged in the presence of Kinetic Investiture, per WOB, so it has a little more to do with being in the presence of active Surges (or Stormlight effects like Healing) more than just being near a Radiant. I dont think your average radiant would be able to natively breath in Investiture from the sand without taking additional steps (though a Larkin sure could). But even if they could, all evidence suggest it would be a tiny amount by Radiant standards, it's getting charges on very low-level, ambient inefficiency leakage. White sand gets charged by the Investiture equivalent of radiation, whereas surges are on the high end of the Investiture spectrum. So by comparison, you can do a lot with the heat given off of big motors and machines, but you cant generally run those same motors from the amount of power they shed. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/324/#e9288 https://wob.coppermind.net/events/475/#e15002

This is not far from my theory on a actual Breath farm: If they are kept ignorant enough of what Breaths actually are, and are immediately healed with some other Investiture while they still feel all crappy from the Drabbyness (an equivalent amount of Regrowth, F-Gold, etc) it's possible that they would be able regenerate their native Breath. Or at least that's my theory for immoral breaking of the Investiture economy, no clue if it would actually work.

Not more powerful per say, but the Radiant does become more efficient with their use of Stormlight, which logically should make them capable of more dramatic top-end effects. That being said, with all the odd color things happening there, other factors where affecting Kaladin in that act, so it might not have been pure Radiant progression on display.

Im open to suggestion of what sort of variation might be possible.