killersquirrel59

I like the idea of it making the memories permanent, since you are directly burning those memories away when you burn your metalmind.

I've always had head canon as well that when a noble decides to kill a Skaa, he has to pay the Ministry for their value (not high, but there are a lot of random Skaa killings). It would mostly be seen as a nuisance tax, but it would add up, particularly on the plantations (and even moreso with those who like to enjoy their Skaa women like the one in the prologue of TFE).

I know this is severe thread necro'ing but there is now a firm answer to this question via the words of Brandon himself. I just returned from a book signing and directly asked the question and he answered it. Quote posted below. So there you have it. Direct from the source, Steel Pushes and Iron Pulls do cause friction. I even confirmed directly with him that if a skilled Mistborn were to push and pull on the same item with exactly the same force, the item would be suspended in mid-air, held by the two opposing forces.

I don't see any real proof that 5 is significant to Nalthis. The 5 scholars are a group of people, not relevant. The 5th Heightening is a milestone, but not really any more important than the other 9 milestones (just because Hallandren built a whole society around the Returned does not mean they are cosmically more significant than other awakeners). As for the 4 categories, we don't even know if that categorization is cosmically correct. We have that as the categories that the Scholars used, but no greater definitions. And we've seen from Mistborn how the categorizations of men can be flawed and produce inaccurate findings (High metals of Gold and Atium). There could easily be 5 or 8 or 127 categories for all we know. It just takes someone else looking at things differently. Just because the 5 Scholars divided awakened objects into 4 categories, does not mean that another couldn't use different criteria and redefine the boundaries.

Well, given that the names are chosen by "a small monkey who has been fed an exceedingly large amount of gin", I'd guess that they are unrelated except tangentially as interpreted by those who justify it afterwards...either that or Endowment is a drunk monkey. We cannot ever really deny that possibility.

I had assumed it had something to do with the eccelsiastical bureaucracy of that god and ultimately chosen by the new god's high priest. But the monkey staggering on gin is far more amusing.

The MAG may be sketchy, but it is what we have for Nicrosil at the moment since Brandon RAFOs pretty much anything related to Nicrosil. My thoughts are that Nicrosil can store a human's inherent Investiture. Not that much a Soulbearer could do with it though. They'd be about as useless as an Duralumin Gnat since the whole point of Feruchemical nicrosil is to enhance other Feruchemy.

I think you're all going down the wrong line of thinking on this. Rithmatist Battles would be a perfect tablet game. Draw with your finger or stylus, link up with an opponent either online or via direct wi-fi connection and battle. It wouldn't even be that hard to program an app to recognize the various types of lines and some chalkling dynamic programming based on form and size.

I'm by no means an expert, but as I understood it, the lack of empathy part was in particular focused on direct human empathy. A psychopath can passionately believe in an abstract ideal or a cause and show sorrow and remorse when major blows are dealt to that cause. Where they fall apart is in direct personal human empathy toward another individual. His care for Vin definitely still breaks the mold, but his passion for the Skaa and remorse for the loss of the army don't really IMHO.

So, did this announcement ever happen?

I've actually wondered for a while how anyone could use Aluminum allomantically since it forms the oxide coating so quickly. If it is like other metals, then impurities make it unusable at best and potentially lethal at first. Yet every piece of aluminum has an inherent impurity in that oxide coating.

Granted, but your computer now electrocutes you every time you log on. I wish for unfiltered access to the mind of Brandon. PS. It is pretty awesome to see this thing I started now at 34 pages.

Wait, yeah, that is a good point. I remember reading about how she felt at home with the mists swirling around her in TFE, and that was when she still had the earring in.

Most of the metals used by today's technology are fairly cheap. Aluminum was insanely expensive up until the invention of electricity allowed for a much easier refining process. Chromium is somewhat difficult to produce because it requires extremely high temperatures to refine (over 2000 degrees centigrade), but with modern furnaces that is not particularly problematic. I can't find actual costs for Nicrosil, but it is sure to be somewhat more expensive and difficult as it involves alloying with silicon (84.5% Nickel, 14% Chromium, 1.5 % Silicon) and silicon is sort of tricky to work with, but that is production costs not rarity costs and would probably be overcome with a higher demand for the metal than we have. Cadmium is fairly cheap, but Bendalloy should not be because Bismuth is reasonably expensive and not that common. I take no responsibility for the above information. It is what I managed to pull of google in the last 5 minutes, so if someone can point to better sources that contradict me they are probably right.

The machine accuracy issue could be easily involved with the use of general anesthetic and muscle relaxers like they administer before complicated surgery.

Totally makes sense. I certainly buy it now.

The ones more likely to run into supply limitations are the rarer and more difficult alloys such as Bendalloy and Nicrosil, and the ones that have difficult and complex or lengthy refining processes such as Chromium. That has more to do with production infrastructure limitations though than with actual supply deficits.

Wow, I actually never made that connection either. I read The Eleventh Metal short story, but never made the leap that his mentor was spiked and under Ruin's influence. I thought he was just a grumpy, unpleasant man and took the discovery of the eleventh metal as coincidence. Is there confirmation of this or is this just theory? If it's theory it's a good one that I could certainly buy.

Sorry, I can't really buy this. Aluminum burns instantly as seen in TFE, not over time to allow for the kind of protection you suggest. All the enhancement metals burn instantly (or at least insanely fast, seconds at the most from the evidence seen with Duralumin). This would require such precise timing that it would be completely impractical. And even if the timing worked, there is just too much evidence that other metal is not counted as part of reserves. Most of that has already been mentioned earlier in the thread so I won't waste space reposting it now. I'm not sure why, but I could theorize that there is a cognitive element to a metal reserve. Maybe if you don't think of it as part of your reserve, it isn't? That could explain how Vin could burn bronze without burning away her earring at least. Besides, if all metal within you counted as part of your reserve, then Zane's trick with the coin in his mouth could have been disastrous. We don't know precisely what metals he was burning at the time, but given it was during a full Mistborn battle sequence it seems safe to assume most of them. We also are not too sure of the composition of the coin (I'm not aware of anything specifically stating what the coinage in the Final Empire was made of, other than it being obviously not silver which we know to be allomantically inert), but chances are it would be one of the metals he was burning, likely Copper as most Mistborn leave their Copper on constantly. We have seen no way to consciously dictate which part of a reserve burns away, nor any sign of orders of precedence for burning. Even worse, the composition of the coin was likely not Allomantically pure and could thus have easily killed him if it started burning randomly as part of his reserve, as could Vin's earring at any time she was burning Bronze. Even more evidence could be seen from the Lord Ruler's Atium Minds that pierced his arms. Would he take the chance that burning Atium as he needed to store more Age might accidentally burn away the big storage mind as well as whatever small bit he had used for compounding? Not to mention any other time he might need Atium such as when fighting Kelsier. There is just way too much wrong with this idea for it to really be feasible in my opinion. Also, from a medical note, even if it did work the way you suggest, most of the immediate damage of being stabbed actually comes when the blade is removed, not when it goes in. Given that the metal would already need to be piercing the Aluminum Gnat for it to be affected, the likely result would just be that he would bleed to death faster.

Raoden is just too sickeningly perfect for me. I actually think he's one of the less believable characters Brandon has created. Of the heroes of Elantris I really like Sarene. But my favourite character by leaps and bounds is Hrathen. I love the high priest who is still really trying to do the right thing as he sees it and genuinely save these people set up as the villain. Masterminds are always my favourite archetype anyway and he does it beautifully.

Granted but the power only applies to your nose hair. I wish for the ability to take back my wish and cancel my curse once I find out what my curse is.

I'm in. I'll go a different direction this time and sign up as Kelsey Skirl, a quiet and mousey girl who worked in Steelheart's accounting department and got caught up in all this craziness by accident.

Here's what I have so far. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vv-yNAdT_MfwjPouL7cz222WG3AEclfRVdqipG7Pzgw/edit?usp=sharing Any other thoughts?

When I was talking about tattoos I was assuming the Elantrian tattooed himself, drawing the Aon himself.

Doesn't a spike need to touch the blood? Cognitive Shadows have no physical presence and thus no blood.