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Right, and what Im saying is that I dont think that either Power gives one or the other a definitive advantage. It will come down to the individual strengths of the People involved (not just an overwhelming magic power) or it will stalemate. Or some other wild card (like aluminum) will need to come into the equation (as we saw with Miles Hundredlives).

And the Gold Compounder would yawn and heal. All the insight in the world wont grant the Seer an actual means of making damage stick to the gold compounder, who can fill, swallow, and even surgically implant enough Gold throughout their body that they can even regenerate lost limbs or their head. On the other hand, either could be taken down with an aluminum bullet or throwing knife, no actual powers required.

But Atium doesnt improve stamina either, so that's cant be used as a deciding factor. At the end of the day, Atium itself doesnt offer any actual advantage that would be helpful in taking a Gold Compounder down. On the other hand, Gold doesnt offer anything specific to take down the Seer (while burning), either. So with everything but the powers being equal (assuming equal physical capabilities, infinite metal supplies, etc), I think it's a stalemate broken only by blind luck. On average, the Atium keeps the Compounder from getting a lucky shot in, and the Compounding Health prevents all the combat benefit of Atium from actually mattering in any given encounter. And either of them can be taken down by a large enough bomb. Or Aluminum.

I read "Advancing Seons" and thought this was going to be a whole other conversation. Yes, I am very excited by the concept of AonDor (and in their own ways all the Selish Magics) advancing to their full "Programming Languages of the Universe" potential. Each of the four(?) main Shardworlds seem to have a lot of specific and diverse potential for more modern/scientific approaches. There are lots of WOB's saying this was intentional, and will culminate in the full Distant Future Space-Age crossover series at the end of things.

Doesnt look like it, though there is some wriggle room in what he said. They are not qualitatively different metals and will not have noticeably different effects, but in-world scholars would be able to detect (if not quantify) a difference in the Honor<->Cultivation Ratio.

Yes, I think it could! It's something that would need to be maintained (ie Restamped every week or so) but it could repair the damage to their Spiritweb. Gold Healing or Stormlight might be a better alterative since they are permanent effects, but the Stamp should be able return them to their Un-Spiked state. I could see it as possible to even /Change/ the nature of the Spikes they have, though then you get into the whole Affecting Investiture with more Investiture. I dont think that will be an issue. The nature of making a Stamp is too slow to use on anything but a willing (or incapacitated) target, so you might as well just yank the spikes first (which can be done without danger even from the eyes). Then at most you have to overcome the Lynchpin spike, or stamp them fast enough to put in down before their spiritweb unravels. And WOB says that Spikes have a relatively minor amount of Investiture in them compared to many other things (mid-range). As far as the Alternative Timeline, for the most part you'd just have to tip events away from the moment they were kidnapped (or inducted) into the secret society which shouldnt be hard given the paranoid nature of the Final Empire.

It wouldnt surprise me to learn that their Physical Realm forms have more subtle colors, layers and/or variation than the average person can perceive (Im picturing some sort of swirl or maybe a fractal pattern, personally). And there is definitely some objective Color associations with the Essences and the Orders both, but I couldnt say whether they are "perfect" colors, and since one of them is White (which has distinct behavior in Awakening) and two different Reds (Garnet and Ruby) I doubt they are all innately the "perfect" shades. I also doubt (but couldnt prove) that what they'd perceive would be "different" so much as just "more detail". That being said the Heightening could certainly aid and assist in some specific surges, Lightweaving and [RoW Spoiler] come to mind. That seems to have more to do with seeing more of their "full form" from the Physical, like what Rock sees or what they see in Shadesmar. Heightenings grant a lot more perception and detail of the Physical Realm (arguably more than even metallic arts can do) but given how focused they are on that, I dont think they will provide trans-realmic perception, at least not without effort and a Command. Otherwise I think the Heightenings would be known to start seeing into Shadesmar at one of the levels, as another level like Perfect Pitch & Perfect Color.

I get the sense that it probably wasnt 100% Evil or even "Deeply Wrong" (few things in the Cosmere seem that cut & dry) so much as it was something that those involved thought was At the Time, but perhaps were being either short-sighted in their estimation of he Consequences, or perhaps were a bit overly-hopeful that Shardic rule would be an improvement over Adonalsium. So not 100% Good, Bad or even pure Neutral, just people doing the "best" they can from their own flawed perspectives.

Agreed in general, though I think it's equally likely that the horse shoe dips downward into the Physical (more along the lines of Ferchemy), given the fact that the Tamu Keks work as objects independent from their original owner. So the Tamu Keks act as the bridge between the Cognitive and Physical, implying that the actual Investiture "circuit" is through the Physicals Realm (and by extension should be sharply limited by distance).

Fair point. Though as a counter-point the difference between very fast through the Cognitive (like summoning a shardblade) and true instant communication might only become evident between planets.

Sorry, hit post on a half-finished thought. Singer gemhearts are innately a trans-realmic phenomena, they are formed from direct leakage in Investiture from the Spiritual Realm. I suspect that Tamu Keks have a similar trans-realmic thing going on. I dont think they are literally functional geamhearts that can store investiture and Cognitive Entities, etc. but I could see the reason they would have narratively worked instead of the Seon in RoW being because they naturally pierce realms to some extent. But where Gemhearts leak from the Spiritual, perhaps Tamu Keks naturally pierce into the Cognitive (which is what lets them communicate mind-to-mind via "the Cognitive", in theory).

Sounds suspiciously like a Sho Del equivalent of a Singer's Gemheart.

As an update path, could we just change the current "Nahel Bond" page to be "Radiant Bond" with a basic Find&Replace term change, and then create a whole new page for the updated Nahel Bond definition above, along with a bulleted list of known examples (to start, at least)? I may be over-simplifying, but that seems like a less labor-intensive path than a complete rewrite that captures everything.

Makes sense to me, the rest of that WOB seems to draw a specific distinction between the more general Nahel Bond and the more specific and powerful Radiant Bond that is specifically the oath-based, surge-granting bond with a Sapient spren that we know of.

It outed his identity (and current status) to the modern population (or at least Wax, whom Harmony has taken a personal interest).

Without getting into Rhythm of war Spoilers, it's not that he was previously "stopping" them from coming back indefinitely, he didnt have the capability before now because the Everstorm didnt exist and it's the mechanism that allows it. Back in the day, Odium was the gateway that returned the Fused back to Roshar, just like he was the only one that could grant Voidlight and/or Forms of Power. Somewhere along the line the UnMade Ba-Ado-Mishram became able to Connect with the Singer and grant them Voidlight as well as those Forms of Power, sort of automating and/or delegating the process. Similarly, it seems that the Everstorm was only recently (ie. this desolation) created to similarly Automate those processes. Now the Fused can come through the Everstorm instead of needing direct intervention of Odium (which was, I assume, previously limited by the Oathpact). A popular but unconfirmed theory is that what we witnessed with the Everstorm was the birth of a new UnMade, a voidspren equivalent to the Stormfather.

1) We dont know. There are lots of theories, and we keep getting new tidbits of the timeline. Turns out (in RoW) that We still dont know the details of how Taln fits into these events, how/when he got back, or what the deal with his honorblade and the other shardblade he was carrying. 2) Before the Everstorm, each fused was resurrected once per Desolation (they still/always used Singer bodies to do it), and was returned and trapped on Braize when killed. Coming back was entirely managed and mediated by Odium in those days. The desolation changed that, and now it's a more "natural" process that happens without Odium's intervention or control. 3)It's weakened, but not as broken as the Heralds think it is. It's not fine, but the Heralds did not escape it as much as they thought, and the obviously active Connection between them we saw at the end of Oathbringer is a part of that. The implication/theory is that the Oathpact itself it what is keeping them alive, so at least some bit of it is still active so long as they are around.

Im not sure what you were trying to say, sorry. Are you agreeing with me or are you saying you think she's dead?

You might be able to tap into the old Dragonstar (d20) fanbase. That was a similar mix of space and DnD, with the gods being more like Architypes across different planets, and a strange mix of magic and steampunk-y technology. Official support died around 2007, but the Living campaign had a dedicated following once upon a time, and supposedly the website and forum are still active.

I dont think there was any direct indication, though unless she dies in SA5 I think we can assume she's there somewhere. Given we're talking about an illusionist, decent odds that she's running around in disguise.

Random suggestions (more to come): Nightblood dripping black smoke Adolin summoning and unsummoning Maya Twinkling infused gems

This might be overly naïve and hopeful, but given their relatively recent cultural memory of the Ashmounts, I think they will be more conscientious about Air Quality than we were on earth. And as far as we've been able to tell they do not have any significant fossil fuel use (so far) which will impose some practical limits on their potential damage. I entirely agree, but I think it will be an evolved Mist that has gained more Ruin.

That doesnt sound right for Lerasium to me, just because it's not acting on the burner's Spiriweb the way Lerasium is otherwise supposed to. I could very much see that being how Endowment's Godmetal worked (ie Entirely reformatting the other Shard's investiture into her's, as an Endowment of power).

Depending on the relative Investiture content (and Lerasium beads are rare enough to be pretty dense), you might become something like a Returned. Lerasium is confirmed to permanently rewrite your spiritweb, perhaps mixing it with enough Endowment would model you into one of her Chosen.

Ah, excellent point, I entirely missed the "reduced power" bit..