Aradel

Handwavium. It has to be. It's most likely Brandon didn't think of that when he wrote it, but it can be explained that since he was holding the shards themselves that his feruchemy was powerful enough that dumping all of his memories back in his head didn't strain him. No strain, no drain. Come to think of it, this is about the only way you can measure if one feruchemist is more powerful than another. The more powerful one would be less strained while surging, and wouldn't lose as much power.

If Brandon were to make shard for logic/learning/knowledge. I vote he models it after Chaos, the expert in all things cosmere-ical. Seriously who else has his knowledge of minutiae? (Aside from Peter)

I have more fuel for the metaphorical fire. My first point is that feruchemy is end-nuetral for the user. Energy is neither gained nor lost. If ruin 'skims off the top' when a feruchemist taps deeply, that invalidates the system being end-nuetral for the user. If (by my explanation) the lost power reinforces the feruchemist's own abilities and allows them to tap at a faster rate than they stored, the energy isn't lost, it's moved from the user's stored attribute to their raw feruchemical ability. Which means that the system remains end-nuetral. My second point is that Ruin is not an active participant every time someone stores or taps a metalmind. While his power is present, it is a little ridiculous to think that he's there in person for every act of feruchemy. Investitures can work independent of a shardholder. I can think of many examples of systems running automatically when a shard is not concious of them. At length, both Ruin and Preservation were at the table when feruchemy was set up. (Alternatively, the system could have developed naturally. But that also works for my point.) They're both playing ball, shaking hands, making a truce. Preservation is not going to allow Ruin to steal power from a system that is supposed to be nuetral. Preservation won't counter entropy by adding power, as he does in his own system. Ruin won't steal power or decay it, as he does in his own system. My last point is that it might be more beneficial for Ruin if he is responsible for storing as opposed to tapping. What happens to a metalmind that goes untapped? If a feruchemist dies or abandons a metalmind like Sazed did in WOA? (He was getting rid if excess weight on the run back to luthadel.) I think the power is lost. Whatever charge remains in the metal will likely either fade with time or dissapear as the metal decays and rusts away. So for Ruin; the more power is stored, the bigger payoff for him if the feruchemist dies. If a charge is tapped, no loss for him. If it's not the scale just tips a bit more in his direction. Of course now I realize that my first two points are only against your reasoning. Ruin could still be over returning the power, he just can't be responsible for diminishing returns. Of course we could both be wrong and Chaos right if it's a mix of powers both times. My third point is still valid though.

*GASP!* Chaos himself is against me! I must make one last effort to survive! Seriously though, the only reason I disagree with windrunner is that Brandon confirmed that 'diminishing returns' in feruchemy were because when feruchemists (surged, overtapped, sapped, flooded) they were stretching the limits of their own powers and some of the attribute was consumed to compensate. When feruchemists tap at the same rate they store, there is no dimishing return. 100% of their stored attribute is returned to them. If windrunner is right and the cause of the decay is Ruin, why would he choose to decay an increasingly larger percentage of power the more power is tapped? And why is there no decay when feruchemists tap more slowly? Moreover, if preservation is over the storing of attributes, why on earth does he make them weaker? I maintain that ruin takes away, preservation returns. At least until logic and evidence say otherwise.

I think I remember arguing with you about that. I still think it's the other way around with Ruin taking away your attributes, and Preservation restoring them to you... It could work either way, but the important thing is having that "foot in both camps" like you said. I'm also considering surgebinding as a joint system at the moment, between Honor and Cultivation.

The color pink only exsists because our brains are lying to us. Anyway- I maintain that the soulcaster was found in her father's pocket after his death, and one of the chains was cut by a shardblade. Actual soulcasters exsist, and the butler said it was genuine. So I believe the soulcaster wasn't fake.

Or both. Martial arts are often about self-mastery. That has a foot in dominion. And kung-fu teaches emotional and spiritual balance, usually by learning to be selfless. That has a foot in devotion. So a martial art with the forms and motions as symbols makes a perfect 'balance' magic between the two.

So he didn't take away the pain he just made it less apparent. I know we don't normally regard hunger or pain as an emotion, but this seems to indicate that it alters many sensations we feel. I wonder if a talented and tricky soother can mess with someone's vision or touch.

Part of me thinks Odium left Scadrial alone because he foresaw their battle, and was willing to let them resolve their own conflict before sweeping in to finish off the victor. He can't have as good forsight as preservation though, or else he would have understood the prophecies and acted instead of letting Sazed take up both shards.

I know it's slightly off-topic, but what about the music? Having a good score for the film is just as important as having good actors. I was thinking of something similar to LoTR where the composer assigned small snipets of music to each character and location, and incorporated them every time they appeared on screeen. For Mistborn they could do the same for the characters and add a rhythm for each of the allomantic powers; kind of like bronze pulses. It'd go a long way towards helping the audience keep track of who's using what power, even if they aren't paying attention.

Hey! I had the spikes idea too. Even if he cuts them, they will still slow him down.

Shallan has a shardblade we assume she gained around the time she murderd her father. Her family discovered the soulcaster in his pocket after his death. The cut was clean, typical of shardblades. I'll have to hunt to find the page references.

It was cut by a secret shardblade though. If it was a working fabrial, I'm willing to bet it'd need to be entirely reforged to work properly

It makes sense that way. You have to tap more atium because your basline age keeps increasing as time passes (there's no way Ruin's going to let something like that slide), whether you're tapping atium or not. There's no steadily increasing baseline for wakefulness. I guess the best way to put is atium stores age but tapping it doesn't alleviate aging. Bronze stores wakefullness or rest and tapping it alleviates mental exhastion. I imagin you would have to tap more if you were performing a mentally exausting task as opposed to just staying lucid as you walk around.

The shardblade doesn't really sever nerve connections, it seems to me that it attacks the spiritweb of anything living. Which implies that there's something vital centered in the chest area near the spine. More vital than the heart even, if death is as instant as it shows in the book.

I secretly call them Terrisborn. They've been organized into the worldbringers and keepers in the past.

I'm pretty sure that preservation was really (and I mean really) good at seeing the future.

Most of what we find 'intuitive' is stuff that's true for allomancy. If Brandon has said that feruchemy works differently, wouldn't the same be true of hemalurgy? It may not be in quadrants at all.

My favorite theory for TLRs immortality is that he was compounding brass or some other metal, then using nicrosil to switch it for age. He might even have been skilled enough to do it with two metals at once. No atium consumpsion needed, just his bracers.

Atium stores age, which makes me think that atium and its alloys are the feruchemical temporal metals. A goldspike would steal them, but an atiumspike (which I think was confirmed as a hemalurgic wildcard) would work as well.

Is it possible that Hoid could be one of the heralds going by a different name? I forget how long it's been since they abandoned the oathpack. Was there enough time for him to be about his confirmed shenanigans?

Rothfus isn't less original. He, like Paolini, is just recycling tired old tropes without changing too much. Rothfus' whole appeal is in his narrative abilities, and his main character (who I both love and hate with equal fervor.) Although (bringing us closer to the topic) I wonder what The Name of The Wind, would be like in a modern or Sci-fi setting.

Nails or other spikes on the ceiling and walls. Other assorted traps that go off when stepped on.

The problem with calling TLR a twinborn is that he has more than two powers. That's why they're called twinborn, twin=two.

Now there's a comparison. Paolini and Rothfus. Neither of them are very original, but Rothfus has WAY better prose.