Infinight888

Irony The shard has all the powers of a god, but can only act in ironic ways. Also, people only gain powers if something really ironic happens to them. You know, neither of those are actually that bad of ideas. What about a world where anyone that would die survives for a few minutes after their heart stops in a state of limbo similar to the Elantrians, and if you kill someone in that state of half-death, you get to keep living by absorbing some of their soul. You also get some of their investiture to use for whatever magic you're allowed to do, and whatever wounds you obtain are automatically healed by that investiture. But the moment you run out of investiture, you return to the state of half-death for a few minutes again and die if you can't kill anyone. Perhaps animals could offer a bit of investiture so you don't always have to kill humans, but it take more animals to equal one human soul.

I was going to say the same thing about his boon being him forgetting his wife. I can't remember either of the books saying that forgetting was his bane. I would think if this was this case, there would be no reason to avoid mentioning it, as that's what already is being implied. Especially since he refused to tell Adolin what his boon was (implying it was something he's ashamed of). Personally, I think that she betrayed him. Perhaps a spy for one the secret organizations, or perhaps working toward her own agenda.

This really depends on the individual. For somebody like Shallan in the Stormlight Archive, who bases her entire life around secrets and lies, I could see Malatium being something much more invasive. There are several people out there that have secrets they want to keep hidden, that something like Malatium could reveal to someone who was skilled in its use. Most of these lies don't even have to go as deep as Shallan's. Take Kalladin, for example. How would he feel if someone used Malatium on him, looking at him during his darkest moment, when he was contemplating his suicide? Even Vin, I think, would be made uncomfortable with someone seeing who she was before she became a Mistborn. That's not to say that Brass and Zinc aren't invasive. They are. For those who are more open about who they are and who they were, these would be the most invasive of the options. As other have said, though, they can be prepared for and guarded against. Their influences also aren't particularly strong. The exception, of course, is when it's Duralumin-enhanced. That's just scary.