Blackhoof

Hey guys, sorry about my extended absence. Real life got busy and I got a bit dejected seeing the RP with so little progress. I'm happy to contribute towards this final end though, I will be more active from now on. Corpsemaker is still on his tour of terror, but if he is attacked, by say, a horde of zombie chimera monsters that will definitely create some destruction. I like the idea that Bloody Mary becomes Night's Sorrow, and goes on a maddened rampage upon his death, destroying Portland. Perhaps Astoria gets destroyed in the coup, most of the Epics slain or fled, and Mary goes to Portland with nothing else to do? And then Nighthound dies. XD I will PM the other people involved with the coup, and get a rough battle plan ready. Doesn't have to be a good one, but hopefully it provides a fun fight. You know, knowledge of Upgrade getting out could set heaps of major Epics heading for Portland. Now that he has done something that can affect a whole city, maybe word escapes? Corvallis hears of an Epic that can make you super-powerful, and Epics begin clamouring to be let out to investigate for themselves. Chaos peaks and soon there are riots along with Insight stoking unrest and Iconoclast creating zombie hordes.

Considering their strength, muscle mass and thick hide, they are effectively armoured troops to my mind. And their weapons and mass give them reach- enough to attack the front row of enemies from the end of their spears. A phalanx requires being able to take the brunt of the enemy charge and remain standing- I'm unconvinced that humans can do that against Koloss. That said, I definiely see where you are coming from. I just don't think that humans are strong enough, even en masse, to avoid being scattered by a concerted Koloss charge. Yes Elend killed one of the smaller, least common types of Koloss, by taking it by surprise in a rush attack to the neck before it got into a berserk fury. You could take out an armoured knight the same way with a knife to his neck gap if he was surprised. Most Koloss are larger than that, but ALL are strong. They all have the spikes of human strength, after all. Lastly, I am unconvinced that the Alethi actually utilize tactics that you describe, making this an interesting, but irrelevant, tangent on the topic of Roshar vs Scadrial.

Against human soldiers perhaps, but Koloss are literally 3-4x as strong as a regular human, have hide and layers of muscle that is difficult to penetrate, and feel little pain when in a rage. Now, this might be the best available way to fight Koloss, but I don't think it would be effective. Heck, I'm not even sure it IS the best way- those soldiers all pressed together? A Koloss could disrupt the ranks easily just by grabbing and flinging away a spear. A full charge would buckle those tight ranks, soldier pushed into soldier. And the Koloss have no concern with running into the spears, and then staying impaled while the next rank knocks them out of the way and starts pulping soldiers directly with their swords. Yes, the first few ranks of Koloss will be impaled and die- but there are so many, crawling over each other and ramming each other that the sheer weight and ferocity of their charge will break spears and pikes and allow them to reach the infantry. A phalanx is not effective against an enemy that isn't scared of a wall of spears. Didn't one poster (forget who) mention that historically, phalanxes fared poorly against the Gauls, who were strong, individually-powerful fighters as opposed to the tight disciplined ranks of another phalanx? And as I posted earlier- I don't believe that the Alethi use proper phalanxes as if they were Macedonians under Alexander the Great. Personally it seems that they are much less strict than that. The spear-training that Kaladin showed belies the idea that soldiers are just trained to stay in formation and stab, like a phalanx. That is very true- and I believe that mistborn will use their powers to assassinate Proto-Radiants and other important figures in their war camps before the battle even begins- or after the first few battles.

That is very true- probably 80-90% of the FE army will be Skaa peasant levies. The Rosharans at least have bigger cores of experienced, veteran warriors, because they have far more wars than Scadrial does. You are correct- we should list everything. I think there are probably at least 20 Mistborn in the entire FE. Enough to, if they worked together, take out all the proto-radiants. Remember that not all are warriors- Jasnah can fight but she isn't a warrior, neither is Shalan. While they will be useful in their own ways, they won't be gliding around the battlefield like Kaladin. What I would do is wait between battles, and send Mistborn assassins to kill Proto-Radiants while they are unprepared. Or, for that matter, to kill generals or other importnt figures. We should also remember Kandra- they are superb spies and informants. Sure they cannot kill humans, but they can be given a dead body by a Mistborn assassin, and gain access to the highest levels of Rosharan planning and leadership.

4.1: I am not sure if Stormform should be included- depends which time period we are dealing with. If Book 2, then Jah Keved is a mess and the world has just been ravaged by the Everstorm. If Book 1, then no Stormform. The Unmade are tricky- we don't know anything about what they can do, really. 4.2: indeed- you can't tame those things. As for axehounds and chulls, yeah they are definitely a feature of a Rosharan army, but the issue is that we don't see them used in serious combat on Roshar, and I don't see how their tactical benefits outweigh the advantages the FE has. 5: yeah Roshar should get all the known Proto-Radiants, or at least one generic for each order (which seems to be how many radiants there are so far). These would be serious threats on the battlefield- but there are more Mistborn than proto-radiants, and I suspect they would mostly be mobbed by mistborn and mistings and killed eventually.

That could kill the first row of Koloss, but the second would just knock the corpses out of the way (with your spears still embedded) and have free rein to slaughter you. As discussed earlier in the thread, a few pages back, phalanxes (although i'm not convinced the Alethi fully use phalanxes) are weak against strong, big, berserker-type warriors- they are too inflexible. They are designed to fight other phalanxes. The Koloss will just bowl you over and break your shieldwall with the sheer force of their charge. even if the foot info accurate, we can assume Brandon "translated" the numbers (like he translates ages) for us, so we don't get confused. Think about it- Demoux and Galadin, and other non-Rosharans- travel around Roshar without drawing suspicion. They aren't abnormally short. Therefore we can know that either the foot differences are tiny, or Brandon translated it for us. My interpretation is that the book tells us "X character if 6ft tall", while in the Rosharan system/measurement/language, they would say "X character is 5.5ft tall". Brandon translate it so we don't get confused. No, the Alethi army is pretty much canon 100k-150k. The entire Alethi professional military is on the Shattered Plains- about 100k men. Amaram had a tiny army, barely over 1k (Kaladin confirmed this when he first went to run bridges), and it was full of crap, barely-trained peasant levies, and it was stretched for men (Amaram made a deal about how every man was needed for the war, how low they were on soldiers). So the non-SP part of the army probably only accounts for another 50-100k men, all of them really, really poor soldiers. They wouldn't last two seconds against Koloss.\ Now, I agree that Jah Keved should have another, equal amount of soldiers- so 300-400k combined, less than half very poor soldiers. These are the two most warlike nations on Roshar, so we can imagine they comprise at least half its military forces, so Roshar has about 800k soldiers to call upon. Koloss can kill 3-4x their own number, and while there is disagreement about how many their are, I believe there are at least 100k in the FE, with the capacity to make many more. In addition, the Lord Ruler is stated as being able to call upon "millions" of soldiers. Not to mention, mistings are super useful on the battlefield, especially coinshots. I can't see Roshar winning against these forces- they can't win even a single battle if the FE uses its troops intelligently.

That sounds cool- although we have established some rules around what players can have as their first character. Either way, have you thought about which location you would like to play in?

Vin and Elend were only able to break their frenzy to a certain point- then they took control. Both Vin and Elend are much stronger than a Shardbearer, and Elend took advantage of the Koloss' exhaustion and surprise when he launched his attack. He had no chance of victory- his only hope was, with all that on his side, to merely weaken their frenzy enough to take control. Sure, a Shardbearer would weaken their frenzy, but not enough to make a big difference in the long run. If a Shardbearer gets surrounded, then they have nowhere to jump to. Every corpse they add to the pile just threatens to bury them, unless they climb or jump out of the hole, which just adds to their troubles as Koloss keep attacking them. Imagine if the Koloss get too high above him and he kills a Koloss to have the big bulk fall on him. Yeah he can push it out of the way and cut it up, but it is big, and heavy. Soon it won't be long until a few more bodies fall and he is buried and will either be crushed or rendered useless for the fight. I'd hate to see a Koloss get their hands on a shardblade XD ouch

Kudos for doing the research- some interesting observations. That definitely increases my estimate for the survivorability of Shardbearers when facing Koloss, but even with only 1-3 swings happening at once or in quick succession, the Shardbearer will still be taking most of those hits on his plate. Koloss are 2-4 times as strong as a normal human (they have the stolen strength of 4 people, after all) so a single good hit should be able to at least slightly crack or damage a piece of Plate. With even hundreds of Koloss facing them, the Plate won't last too long before the bearer is smashed apart. The bodies are another thing I hadn't considered- but it also makes things harder for the bearer. If the bearer kills a circle of big Koloss around him, he suddenly finds himself in the middle of a blue pit, with a bunch of angry blue berserkers climbing the edges of that pit. He has just given them the high ground. He will need to keep moving, keep mobile, and keep climbing to stay ahead of them, all of which distracts from his ability to fight the swarming beasts off. Vin and Elend can fight so many Koloss becasue they can dodge them so deftly, but Shardbearers don't have that luxury. Now a Radiant...? A decent Radiant would kill so many Koloss it isn't funny, but there aren't many of those around. But as I pointed out in my hypothetical, an army of 10'000 Alethi would only realistically have 1-2 Shardbearers, against thousands of Koloss. Just like Adolin and Dalinar slaughtering hundreds of Parshendi ultimately wouldn't have saved their armies, this lone Shardbearer won't be able to win the battle or even turn the tide alone. Indeed- the best thing for the Rosharans to do I think is to hide in their fortified cities/fortresses and let the Koloss waste their numbers. That said, it depends how quickly they learn this strategy, and the Final Empire aren't going to waste all their Koloss in a war of attrition with sieges. So I think that that strategy could help for sure, but it won't win the war for Roshar.

ah of course! I forgot shardbearers, my bad. A foolish oversight of mine. However, I don't think it makes much difference- at most an army of 10'000 Alethi would have 1 or 2 Shardbearers. Not enough to make a serious difference, although they would help morale. Earlier in this thread it was discussed how well a shardbearer would fare against koloss, and I agree with the general arguments that koloss would kill them with not too many losses in return. Koloss strength and reach means that they are essentially the equivalent of those Parshendi hammermen (a threat in numbers and if they get in a lucky hit before dying) but capable of striking from further away- meaning that more hits would be lain on the bearer. Sure dozens of Koloss would fall to this one shardbearer, especially if supported by allies, but if they try to wade in without backup (standard procedure) they will quickly find themselves buffeted by multiple massive hits at once, each able to crack their plate slightly. Sure they can swing around and kill five attacking Koloss, but then another five leap forward and hit them again. It won't take long for the shardbearer to be bashed into pieces.

that's true. Even if we lower it to a 2-1 kill/death ratio for Koloss, that is pretty darn impressive. And that is in a situation where the enemy army doesn't break and flee (so the koloss fight to the death but the enemy survive). Which is what happened with Cett's army. Imagine the amount of kills koloss can achieve if the enemy army routs? Historically most casualties came from people being run down when they flee. I imagine that most human armies facing Koloss would break and flee at some point, and then the Koloss (being faster) can run them down and greatly increase their casualty count. Lets just imagine the first battle between Roshar and the FE- a large Alethi army with Parshendi auxillaries fights an army of Skaa veterans and conscripts, supported by a sizeable force of Koloss and some mistings. Say 10'000 on each side, with 2000 Koloss. First up would be the armies approaching- arrows would be traded. The arrows of the Imperial forces strike true, inflicting light casualties amongst the Alethi. The Alethi and parshendi arrows barely reach their targets- mysterious forces knock them about, out of the sky or off target completely. The armies come close- the Alethi grow nervous at the sight of hulking blue monsters in front of their human opponents, and the FE levies look bewildered by the tight formations of the Alethi and the marbled skin of the Parshendi. The Koloss, in a frenzy by now, charge. The Alethi are terrified, but they hold, while the Parshendi sing, without fear of death. Arrows are useless, and the Alethi brace as the blue monsters come closer, sprinting in rage. The Koloss crash into the Alethi like a thousand raging bulls. The strength of the Koloss allows them to crash straight through the Alethi shieldwall, like the Parshendi were able to jump over it during the war on the Shattered Plains. Their brutal swords, more like metal clubs, cleave through human flesh like nothing, breaking shields and shattering spears. The Alethi fight back, using their spears to give them reach and impale individual Koloss through the neck and face. But the Koloss had reach too- their long arms and longer swords could reach past any spear or batter it aside, and the Alethi buckled. Suddenly, hope- the Parshendi warpairs descend, filling in the gaps between the broken Alethi formations and taking the fight to the Koloss. Warforms possessed strength and speed that humans didn't, and when working together with their axes and hammers they smashed and cut the Koloss in their path. The Koloss falter before these strange creatures that are bigger on the inside than they seem, the challenge scaring them and calming their anger. But the rage of the beast cannot so easily be undone. Parshendi fell to brutal swings like any mortal would, and the Koloss felt their rage growing once more. Despite being grossly outnumbered, the Koloss charged forward, beating down human and Parshendi alike. The Alethi buckled, their lines being torn apart, but their superior numbers soon began to tell. In the face of monsters and horrendous casualties, the Alethi and the Parshendi began to win. The Koloss never knew it, but one by one the monsters fell, fighting to the death in their rage. Finally it was over- the last Koloss slain. The Alethi and the Parshendi had been mauled badly- a mere 2000 Koloss inflicting over twice their number in casualties. The Alethi and the Parshendi rejoiced- but the battle was not over. The full human forces of their enemy, rested and fresh, began to move forward. 5000 tired, battered Rosharans were faced with 8000 enemies, and they felt their hope die. As the Final Empire's army got closer, individual allomancers leapt forward- coinshots, spraying handfuls of coins at the tattered Alethi ranks. Any groups of Alethi that reformed their tight battle formations found themselves assailed with coins from the mistings, and any arrows sent back were easily deflected. Some warriors, angered and enraged, charged towards the misting skirmishers, but they were too fast, easily steelpushing away from any attack. Then the levies of the Final Empire, organised around a core of professional warriors and supported by pewterarms, coinshots and emotional allomancers, clashed with the tired and disorganised Alethi and Parshendi. The Rosharans continued to fight for as long as they could- individually they were more skilled, more experienced, and better-trained than the troops of the Final Empire, but their formations were unformed and broken, and their morale was perilously low. It didn't take long for the Rosharan army to begin buckling, and finally to break and flee completely. The Skaa pushed forward, and inflicted grievous casualties on their enemies. Even though many escaped, many more were captured or left dead on the field. The battle was lost- and victory was granted to the Final Empire. Personally, I think this is even a little generous to the Alethi- I think most human armies would break if fighting Koloss. But it demonstrates that the Final Empire can win a fair fight with the Rosharans- and I think that even if there are only 50'000 Koloss (personally, I think there are at least double that) even a small amount can turn the tide of a battle to favour Scadrial. The war, I think, goes to Scadrial. What are your thoughts on my battle hypothetical scenario? Fair point- it certainly seems high. I do believe that it is 16% normally (so noble-blooded), and if you consider the amount of mistborn we see in the series (which are stated as being one in 10'000 aren't they?) there must be at least 20'000-50'000 noble mistings. Although this seems very high. Maybe the proportion of mistborn are higher in pure noble bloodlines. ah cool, thanks for that- so we can assume quite a few Hazekillers then. Obviously Hazekillers are common enough that you CAN, if desperate, hire hundreds of them, or train hundreds.

She used pieces of window i think, not too sure, but she definitely wiped out about 50 after a long period of fighting even more. That 50 number was ONE group, and she fought through several rooms full of hazekillers, with Zane killing even more. We must also consider the contexts of those battles- when Kel attacked Keep Venture, it was one of the first keeps he infiltrated I think. So those dozen HKs were the standard guard, permanently on-duty, without all keeps being on high alert for mistborn attacks. Cett had scores because he needed the defence and because he was only in the city for a short time, in the middle of a war. That is fair, but remember that mistings are 16% of the population, and all noble mistings are Snapped as children. Sure there aren't so many nobles, but we see enough mistings used in combat that it can make quite a difference. We don't have hard numbers that I know of, but even 1 in 1000 soothers/rioters can make a difference on the battlefield. And that isn't including what coinshots can do- another poster already expounded a few pages back on how useful, mobile, and powerful coinshots are when unable to be countered by other mistings. Arrows would nearly useless against Scadrial armies with coinshots and lurchers on their side. Brutal sprays of coins can decimate dozens of enemies at once. They are like mobile, fast cannons armed with scattershot. There isn't much defence if you don't have allomancers. that is true, but at the same time within the novel itself the characters (Clubs, as a seasoned veteran familiar with koloss) didn't dispute those numbers. He didn't say anything like you are, he simply agreed that Koloss are that destructive. Yeah, Parshendi are involved- I think this scenario involved all-out war between all of Roshar and all of Scadrial (mortal, non-god beings, at least).

Ah, thanks for that, I appreciate that you took the time to check when I did not. Indeed, not enough to make much difference. Besides, who is to say the Alethi or other races (such as Parshendi rock-flingers) won't try the same tactic themselves? Well we have it pretty canonically that Koloss can kill 3-4x their own number. Cett was travelling with a force of 500 alongside his army, and they went berserk and he lost 2000. So even when outnumbered, with no planning, no support, no backup, no direction, no mistings helping out, against an army which ALSO had no mistings, the Koloss killed 4x their own losses. That is phenomenal. With proper support I imagine they can increase those numbers considerably. Although I'm not sure how big the armies were. I mean that Ruin didn't have much time to get those Koloss to the final battle, from my understanding. He only just discovered the atium cache and then directed everything he had towards it. Surely not every Koloss in the FE got to the atium cache in a matter of days, or less. Very true, but that is just one soother- we know that nobles can muster hundreds of mistings in their armies. In full war, you could have one misting for every 50 troops (of yours), easily. And enough of those will be Soothers/Rioters that they can influence your own troops and the enemies troops juuuust enough to turn the tide of battle. Morale is a fickle thing- just a little push one way or the other can keep you going. Combine that with the spectacle and horror of fighting Koloss? I can see whole armies fleeing before the forces of the Lord Ruler. My take was that Hazekillers, as specialised soldiers trained to fight allomancers, existed since basically allomancers started to be used as assassins and weapons. Venture had few hazekillers because they also had plenty of mistborn and mistings to defend their holdings. Cett had so many for the opposite reason- he needed to compensate. I also think Cett had even more- Vin alone killed 50 hazekillers when she duralumin-pushed them out the windows i thought.

Well leather armour I can certainly imagine could be pierced in weaker places by a direct knife thrust. Still, I agree- Koloss skin is not as tough as any sort of armour. Harder than human for sure, but not as tough as armour. @The One Who Connects Possibly, but I still think that it would be a danger when fighting the small ones even with a spear. I disagree on that count- not for the entire Final Empire. Ruin gathered 300'000 Koloss for the final battle, but he didn't have much notice- so there could have been twice that or more scattered across the Empire. Could Ruin have realistically turned 50'000 Koloss into 600'000? or 900'000? That seems unlikely. So I think there were more liekly closer to 100'000 Koloss across the Empire. Even so- 50'000 Koloss can kill (theoretically) 150'000-200'000 human soldiers. That is the entire Alethi military. Without considering his human armies, the Lord Ruler can defeat almost the entirety of a quarter of Roshar's military capability. And in real life, things would play out a bit differently than so cleanly- because people flee, Koloss don't. True, but there are plenty of professional soldiers in his armies- think of the Luthadel garrison. Presumably every city has garrisons like that, and he must have another set of soldiers for when he hunts down rebels- think of the army Clubs fought for, he was a professional and veteran soldier, not some gangly village conscript. So while the bulk of his troops would probably be untrained conscripts (just like any medieval army- like Alethkar, the Vedens or the other Rosharan kingdoms) he has a good, strong core of professional, well-trained soldiers.

Only because he surprised it and stabbed it in the neck several times. Chances are, in a battle you won't get that chance. And if we assume that most Koloss are mid-sized (like a bell curve of ages that you get with humans) then it doesn't matter, because the mid-sized ones (6-8ft tall) are more resilient and stronger than the little ones. I think I c]recall that being listed as a danger when fighting them. Fair points, but these factors still mean that one koloss is far harder to kill than a human, even an armoured one. True, but Koloss are way stronger, and far more dangerous than Parshendi, individually. It seems from the books that the Alethi can kill Parshendi on a 1-for-1 basis, indicating that once you get used to fighting them they aren't more dangerous than regular human soldiers. But Koloss regularly kill 3 or 4 times their own number. Even if the Alethi develop tactics to counter the Koloss, I can easily see them making this war a definite victory for Scadrial. Picture Alethi battle lines facing a horde of charging Koloss. They would be scattered completely by the charge and lose all cohesion, not to mention the morale effects of fighting such enemies. The Alethi can field 100k troops, it seems, on a permanent basis, maybe 150k. There are at least that many Koloss in the Final Empire as a whole, able to kill 3-4x their own number. Then you count the armies of human levies that the Lord Ruler can call up- I think it was stated that he can put up at least a million men, even more. I can only see Roshar losing this war- Koloss are just too powerful as soldiers, and when you factor in Mistborn assassins, Kandra spies and the benefits of Mistings on the battlefield? Roshar is doomed.

Depends on how her powers work. Most Epics seem to be able to simply create the energy that their powers need without issue- so I think she would be safe in cloud form indefinitely. It is powered by her powers, not by her body.

no it seems fine to me

@KalaDellexe It could simply be that in the context of smaller battles between rival Alethi lords, the rules around squad composition are not really enforced by the commanders. In a serious war, with higher quality soldiers and commanders, there would certainly be a stricter adherence to organisation. Likely the sub-commanders who should direct groups of squads are also just incompetent, and so the squadleaders largely have free rein to act as they wish. All he decent commanders are at the Shattered Plains.

It doesn't seem to me that the Alethi use spears that are as long as a typical phalanxes- Kaladin swings his around easily, in a standard battle form, implying heavily that most basic infantry use a spear that is only 5-6ft long. Why would any soldier trained to fight in a phalanx be given training like Kaladin was? In a phalanx you just point and stab, and obviously Kaladin's fellow levies weren't trained to take up a phalanx formation. Heck, it seemed like individual squad leaders were given the sole choice of how to organise their soldiers. Having watched the TV show Vikings recently, it struck me that perhaps it is better to think of the Alethi combat style as a viking shieldwall- a line of warriors locking shields and presenting a united front to their enemy and jabbing in between with their short spears, much more fluid and manoeuvrable than a full phalanx armed with pikes. They only open to attack or to pull individual enemies to be killed by the back ranks.Their fighting style is a mix of group tactics- working together to form the shieldwall, covering each other, and to assassinate enemy combatants- with individual prowess, when the wall becomes more fluid and individual enemies break through and need to be slain. In Vikings as well, you have instances of warriors climbing over or breaching the shieldwalls- and it also struck me that if an enemy could simply leap over the wall, the vikings would be in trouble. It seems to me that for good Alethi soldiers (not fighting Parshendi) it seems accurate to think of their fighting style as "vikings with spears". The books obviously mention that their tactics changed when they fought Parshendi, but it didn't elaborate too much as to how, and the only human vs human fight we see is a pathetic match between armies of levies that don't fight in formation and fight as individuals or squads. The latter fits with my assessment I feel- phalanx militaries train and train and train their soldiers in this one formation, to the exclusion of all else. But a military that doesn't build their armies around a specific formation like that? You have the prospect of half your army running around like headless chickens because all they got were a few basic spear combat lessons. (not phalanx formation lessons, spear fighting lessons. As I said, spear fighting is irrelevant in a phalanx). So that is my opinion- the Alethi fighting style is not really reminiscent of a phalanx except superficially.

Its difficult, because last I left Winterspell he was in the middle of an interaction with Eternity and Aoileas hasn't responded to me in months. :\ And to be honest, I'm finding it hard to get into the idea of planning this duel and invasion, because Astoria's Epics are so darn powerful. Hard to have a meaningful fight that lasts more than a minute when the Metal alone can obliterate our entire army with a thought. I worked on a strategy a while back, and it miiight be effective, but not if the slightest thing goes wrong. Is there anything we can do that will give the forces opposing Astoria a bit more of an edge? They have numbers, and quite a bit of power, but its ultimately futile if they can't win or put up an entertaining fight. The duel between them could be fun though, that would be interesting to see again.

I don't know if that was a spoiler or not, but it sounds like it.... so i'd rather you delete the post

That is a fair point, but i get the sense that assuming human form doesn't mean they form a perfect replica. Heck, Arclo even says that his disquise is pretty imperfect on most of his body, so he covers it up in the Tashikki garb. And I get the sense that they aren't as strong or as dextrous as humans are in this form- it is nothing but a disguise. Like two toddlers in a trenchcoat- they LOOK like an adult, but they can't fight or move well like an adult if necessary. That said, if they disassemble they are perfectly effective- as a cremling swarm. Just like if the toddlers jumped out of the trenchcoat, they could do a fine job swarming someone bigger... but not AS an adult, AS a swarm of smaller things. Am I conveying my meaning properly? I basically mean that while I have no HARD evidence to support this, I get the sense that a Sleepless would find it difficult/impossible to manoeuvre Shardplate, and possibly the plate wouldn't even register them as a wearer. If a bunch of crabs happened to crawl into empty Shardplate, would it seal shut and accept them as its wearer? If a bunch of crabs grabbed a Shardblade hilt, would it accept this group of 5 crabs as its owner? I figure that Shardplate doesn't consider Sleepless as a wearer, and would not react to them at all.

The eyeslit thing is a good point- I'd completely forgotten about the eyeslit weakness. That said. The cremlings still need to climb up the shardbearer to get to the face- and with an agile and powerful warrior constantly moving and easily able to sweep away cremlings from his suit, that would be hard. Shardbearers are mobile, dextrous and strong in a way no normal human is. No way you can pin one down for long as a swarm of cremlings. If he crouches low, holds the blade close to the ground parallel, and then swings, he can scythe through dozens easily. More effectively than any sword. Also, they wouldn't really be risking the shards- Sleepless don't seem like they could use them, so a retainer can just collect the shards after death if necessary. The kingdom itself wont lose them.

I'd certainly imagine shardblades (assuming the wielder is prepared and knowledgeable) combined with shardplate would be useful against Aimians of this sort. A single swipe through a body could kill dozens of cremlings, and if they come at you in a carpet you could destroy even more by crouching and swinging low to the ground. Not as easy as killing a normal human, but certainly useful. And the cremlings would be useless against a sharplate-wearer, the mass of them wouldn't even be able to weigh them down. Given enough time, a few full shardbearers could slaughter untold numbers of cremlings, and thus Aimians. Even enough normal soldiers could do it- it would be difficult, and there would be casualties, but a hundred normal soldiers to one Aimian could, in time, destroy the cremlings. Stamp on them, crush them with swords, axes or hammers. People would die- via poison, or claws, or sticky web, but that is expected in war. A concerted and vicious campaign with enough soldiers and some Shardbearer support could, indeed, wipe out hundreds of Aimians. And I expect that there were only hundreds of Aimians before the Scouring.

Shiny and Funtimes meeting!!!! Its a dream come true!