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In the name. I was discussing a theory about Ishar and his experiments, which kept circling back to similarities with Hemalurgy and that made me wonder if Bind Points are at all present in the the broader ways a Bondsmith manipulates Connection (now that they are unsupervised), especially once an experienced one starts pursuing more complex effects and goals. Im not sure how much evidence we've seen for or against this so far, but especially in light of the revelation of fabrial metal effects, it could make sense for Bind Points to be a common theme in other magics that manipulate the Spiritweb directly.

A lot of this comes from the skill of the Soulcaster to be able to conceptualize and then converse with smaller pieces. I assume fluid things are more versatile than others, though, like water or air. Shallan is clearly a single entity, for example, but Jasnah was able to soulcast just her Blood that time; there was also the Soulcaster Kaza that soulcast a piece of the giant windblade stone surrounding Aimia which she said was a matter of her advanced skill. In general though, it appears that it is "easier" (but not actually easy) for a Soulcaster to target one piece of a Whole than to externally force multiple things to conceive of themselves as a single collective whole like a Building (which would probably a more long-term public/society identity). And Jasnah mentioned that the style of Negotiation can vary wildly from essence to essence, and that Air is particularly difficult. I took that to be because Air would have a less stable personal Identity so it would be hard to convince it to settle into a different one.

All Dor magics are described as programming languages for reality. But each of the different Dor magics are subject to their own nature and natural limits. In Forgery's case it's the fact that it is not a Permanent effect, but is instead something that needs to be maintained by an active kinetic effect (ie the Stamp), which has limits to how much raw energy it can channel before overloading (think tiny phone wire trying to jump-start a car). This is not any different than Hemalurgy which can also restructure the Spiritweb, but still ahs real limits to how much Investiture a spike can can Hold. But that doesnt mean it's out of reach of the Dor, just Forgery in particular. We've actually seen what's likely a Dor magic built to do more or less precisely what we're talking about: That Ire crystal in Secret History was specifically built to snatch the Connection of an unHeld Shard and scoop up the divine fumble.

Not to mention you'd be presumably attempting to Steal the shard from a current Vessel, who might object if and when it becomes a serious enough threat to notice. However... You MIGHT be able to re-write your own history to have been at the right place & time to pick up an unattended Shard and/or have been the most fitting Candidate in the moment, if said shard remains unclaimed and unConnected so there's nothing particular that needs to be Overwritten from an Investiture POV. Note that I dont think the Dor would qualify in this case because of the whole CR shoving that happened. But an unattended Shard that theoretically remains in the Spiritual Realm (Honor, Ambition, etc) might be more up for grabs. Edit: Given this, maybe maybe not. It definitely implies that Forgery is too fragile to grant/recreate some larger effects, on the other hand the theoretical Finesse mechanic to get you to the Right-Place/Right-Time might still be in effect and keep it below the cap for granted/grantable powers. In the case of Allomancy the Stamp would probably have to act as a funnel/conduit for the Allomantic investiture itself, which would limit its ability to grant most high-energy powers. By contrast a Shard worth of Power that causes Sliver inflation, etc might forge its own larger Connection once the initial contact is made, lightning rod style.

There have been a lot of debates and attempts to work it out mathematically. One barrier of that is that it's passed through "Spiritual DNA" meaning we cant be sure what patterns and ratio's it might follow generation to generation. This is the main "official" WOB that Im aware of:

I dont know if that is a semantic rabbit hole we want to go down. Nicrosil "Steal Investiture" Hemalurgically, and "Stores Investiture" Feruchemically. In the latter that means "Stores their ability to Use their Investiture". But Hemalurgically that doesnt sound any different than the various "Steals ____ Powers" metals, so it's hard to say. Plus we know from some WOB's that there is overlap in what different Spike metals can do, so they arent actually exclusive in that way. Watsonian Answer: To Trap Ruin by crystalizing his Investiture into a solid form. Doyistic Answer: To Foreshadow Fortune. Hemalurgically they are a Skeketon Key that can steal literally anything the stabber can conceive and Intend to Steal, without any restrictions, limitations, or realmic skewing from the metal. If nothing else it means they can remove a variable and experiment on finding Bind Points alone.

I mean, that's not how I read "Time spent without spikes causes a kandra's memories to deteriorate" but to argue it further would mean a rabbit hole of parsing the wording of his statement and the presence/absence of "their own" in it. And that takes the nitpicking way deeper than his Signing WOB can handle (by his own statements). I stand Corrected:

I believe this last part is incorrect. If you remove both Spikes of the Blessings and then immediately replace them with an entirely new and properly matched Pair, the Kandra can function and continue with their original personality. The memory deterioration only happens if "Time [is] spent without spikes" and if they "were left a relatively long time [they] were essentially reborn as new people." But that's a result of being reverted to a Mistwraith and left that way (unable to sustain their own minds and memory) for an extended period of time, not an immediate result of swapping Blessings.

That's a good question. Compounding is not safe so it's entirely possible there could be damage without steps taken. Perhaps it's dangerous without commensurate Zinc or maybe Electrum as a protective measure (sort of an analogy to the Lynchpin Spike needed if you overuse Hemalurgy)?

I like where you are going but I dont think it just makes his memory Perfect after a Burn. Rather I think it lets him Copy the memory, which in turn lets him recall the memory as often as he likes without the normal degradation Sazed mentioned (and without shardic interference), by always maintaining a Prefect Backup and lots of more disposable copies. There is another data point to this that I think is relevant: The Memory that Hoid gave Wax is an awfully specific and coincidentally incriminating memory for Kelsier to have chosen to store but then lost to Hoid through off-screen shenanigans. And while all that would be entirely in theme, another explanation is that compounding copper lets you copy a memory, and Kel chose that particular "Survive" memory as part of a distributed Message, recruiting tool, etc. and Hoid got his hands on a far less unique cosmere artifact than may have been implied.

If you also have access to Soulcasting, sure. At that point the question becomes Who is the better "shaper", the Spren transforming their physical form, or the radiant using their Soulcasting. If it's the latter you could skip the shardblade step entirely. EDIT: Slightly off topic, but personally I think the biggest potential synergy between soulcasting and Forgery is the other direction: I think Soulcasting could be used to make an active forgery permanent. Forgery leverages a complex symbols system to make very detailed and subtle changes to the target, but it's temporary and requires active investiture to maintain the effects. Soulcasting is permanent through a direct Change of Cognitive self-image, but it requires the Soulcaster to provide all the details the hard way with pure Intent. Based on the scenes we've had with first person soulcasting, I strongly suspect that if you already had an active Soulstamp on a person or object would make the conversation far simpler by letting the Forgery provide all the details and the Soulcasting "conversation" with the object is just "Be This Now."

True, though that would limit you to cast-able soulstamp materials. The material makes a big difference, but the only (known) materials are wood, crystal, bone, and Soulstone. I have to think they'd have tried and presumably rejected metals as viable. Given that the ink has to be organic, it's possible that metals are equally bad at it. That would mirror Awakening, for example.

Interesting thought. The spren-form might be too invested to operate as a Soulstamp, for the same reasons that they cant work for a Hemalurgic spike (ie already Invested). But a skilled user of Soulcasting or Cohesion should be able to do it magically. As far as who would be best at it: Lightweavers have some mysterious perception going on, but I suspect traditional Truthwathers will prove better at that specific part of Illumination (assuming that's what it is) from a purely thematic standpoint, and the "Enlightened" Truthwatchers like Renarin could do even more on the logic that their precognition might help them trace down "What-If scenarios" much like WOB confirmed gold allomancy could be useful. Willshapers have the right thematic tone on the surface, but forgery might be a little too Literal for their oaths?

Oh, Gotcha. Yes, that's true. They are matched pairs, to the point that a single "blessing" is defined in one WOB as the two pieces of metal. Technically a single spike is a Half-Blessing, I suppose.

When you remove the spikes it restores the realmic blockage that created the Mistwraiths. Their memory loss has more to do with than than with their memories being tied to and/or stored in those specific spikes in general (the Blessing of Presence not-withstanding). If the blessings arent restored quickly enough the orignial memores fade entirely and an effectively "new" personailty would be born. My understanding was that was more of a cultural stigma than an actual attempted and failed experiment.

This isnt really final until it's in a novel, but it's worth noting that he's likely to backpedal the bubble so it is skill rather than savantism. He wants to keep savantism as always having a downside, and feels like Wax is drifting that original intent:

Fair point. This is making a bit of a philosophic assumption, but I think he (and anything "Living") that is a native PR creature would manifest a flame rather than a bead, same as a human, singer, larkin, Ryshadium, etc). But I dont believe we have any WOB's on it, and I suspect that would be one of those philosophic questions (like the nature of the Beyond) that will get more of a permanent RAFO to allow for the fandom to chew over it on their own.

Working on the assumption that Azure's blade is the same general type of object/creature as Nightblood, he'd look like a sword even in the CR, as opposed to manifesting some "native" CR form the way spren do. Unlike spren he was born/made as a fully independent Physical Being that doesnt need to be Pulled into the PCR to manifest a form the way Spren do.

The downside is that feruchemy has innate limits that compounding bypasses, sometimes for the worse. For example, over-tapping F-Pewter can bulk you up tot he point that you can no longer move. So forcing somebody to overtap it that explosively could start to resemble the 3rd act of Akira.

Skybreakers, and presumably their Spren, are VERY pragmatic. And the use of Shardblades is entirely Legal (if sometimes regulated) in most Lands. They might not use one themselves due to all the screaming, but they'd probably let allies use them.

I dont really know how you'd go about it. I suspect it would require some trick pulled with Nicrosil, but he's RAFO'd the specifics of the spiritual metals until it becomes plot relevant in Era3. The real practical issue is that there is a large difference in the amount of Power that Feruchemy can bring to bear, because Feruchemy is Powered by your own life/soul (essentially) while Allomancy is powered by a direct Connection to a Shard. So you'd have to find a way to get a store of investiture out of Feruchemy, then somehow convert/Tune it to provide the Allomantic effect. Why you would want to do that is beyond me, unless you dont have the A-metal itself and are trying to pull shenanigans with medallions or some such (Im assuming you need metal to "prime the pump" in some similar fashoin to the normal compounding). On the other hand, if you an figure out how to tune your own Feruchemy to produce Allomantic Effects without needing the actual allomantic ability and/or Connection to Preservation as the power source it would make you a back-door Mistborn.

This exactly.

It's the last sentence of the "Resonances" section of the Order of Lightweavers. As a resonance it's specific to them so I dont think it would show up on the Lighweaving Surge page

Came to say this. While there's nothing universal stopping it (there are tons of examples of Magic bypassing normal Physics limits like Conservation), the presence of a known efficiency loss suggests it might have it's own similar limitations, especially since it's literally partially powered by the Universal Embodiment of Entropy... That alone makes me think Feruchemy and Hemalurgy are both going to end up being harder than most to make such a machine. Allomancy might be able to pull it off easier, but then you would be providing metal "fuel" and using it to connect to an outside power source, so at that point it's less Perpetual Motion and more just an Engine.

Definitely contributed. I really need to slot in a re-read of Era1, it's been way too long and all the details are blurring.