Deus Ex Biotica

I think it would be easy enough to give a Kandra Allomancy once it already exists - TenSoon has no trouble internalizing OreSeur's spikes, after all. Whether you can make one that way is more questionable - I would assume that you would just wind up with slightly-smarter-than-average Mistwraith which sometimes burns metals instinctively, which could be a pretty nasty surprise to spring on an enemy, but is not a real Kandra. As for whether Kandra have enough of a stomach to "burn" anything, they can create various different types of muscle, eye, etc. if they need to. I am certain they could make stomachs, too. -- Deus Ex Biotica

He was upset that they hated each other, sure. He didn't exactly seem surprised. It's pretty clear that Miles knows, on some level, he isn't all right in the head. He's just also arrogant enough to keep going, regardless.

Right, but that's the whole point. If you could store, say, 25% of your "being effected by gravity," you really would fall 25% slower. That's why I use Dark Matter. It's not well understood, but from what we do know, it might be able to explain changing mass without changing either volume or density. -- Deus Ex Biotica P.S. Though, at this point, I suppose I am just trading Brandon Sanderson's magical handwave for an equally little-explained physics one. Theoretical science can be pretty light on full explanations...

This is absolutely on the right track. What we need is _________ : Tap :: Flare : Burn, to use SAT terminology. But that's not the meaning of "tap" Feruchemy uses - that should be "tap" as you might tap a tree, or a keg. Words I recommend: Drain, Flow, Flood, Bleed, Draft, Mine, Siphon, Deplete. Of these, several seem unclear, overly negative, or just odd to me, but others might feel differently. The one I think is by far most appropriate is Flood, as in "the anvil was about to drop. Wax Flooded his weight as he Pushed up at it, sending the massive chunk of metal careening off course to collide with Wile E. Coyote." It's simple, it clearly means "a lot" of something, it fits with "fill" and "tap" being terms that evoke liquids, and it has a nice symmetry with Allomancers "Flaring." -- Deus Ex Biotica EDIT: This thread is hopping - an Ookla beat me to most of those, and more. I stand by "Flood" as my favorite, though. Bleed is good, but when one type of Ferring is called a "Bloodmaker," could get confusing.

I think it is because Koloss used to be human, so the addition of the traits of other humans makes them insane, while Kandra used to be Mistwraiths, which are non-sentient and built to absorb the traits of others. Spike placement may be a factor, as well.

This has been speculated upon, but to my knowledge, there is no confirmed answer.

Indeed so. I am always confused by how many people seem to be angry about this right now, given that it's been there since the Siege Of Luthadel, and (to me, at least) makes a fair amount of sense.

No, it does not. If it did, it would be 30 min at 200% and 20 min at 250%. As with any kind of energy transfer in real life, the more (and more quickly) you transfer, the more gets lost as waste in the process (though the description implies to me that Feruchemical aste is not heat and light, it's the extra energy being burned up by forcing other energy into your body directly). -- Deus Ex Biotica

This is hard to say - there's a lot of discussion of relative strength in Allomancy, but since Feruchemy is End-Neutral, no Feruchemist can get higher yields than any other. The only change I see as possible is that a Spiked Feruchemist might lose less energy when tapping large amounts at once.

Technically, we have no idea whether light has a Cognitive Aspect.

To be fair, though, even if you could, sometimes people tap a lot more than 100%.

Elegant and logical, Vine. I shall use that until I see something more official - thanks!

I always assumed it involved making more/less of your mass be Dark Matter.

Cool! If it's Wayne's hat, I know I'll win, it being such a lucky hat, and all.

No, I don't think the last names thing is vitally important to the plot. Just neat color if you were, say, running an RPG in the setting. Miles' last name is Dagouter.

Speaking of last names, I spent some time wondering if they are universal of not. Miles has one, and he's not a noble, but they might still be considered optional among the lower classes - we never hear one for Wayne, Lessie, Tan.

Exactly what Trellism (Alloy of Law), Tregalism (related by Sazed during the original trilogy), and Miles' own beliefs (Trell-justified, but warped by personal hardships and The Set) have to do with each other is a mystery as yet unsolved. Miles seems confident everyone will know what he means when he talks about Trell, but I guess that doesn't mean much. The only religions we know have a large "establishment" following are Survivorism and Sliverism. -- Deus Ex Biotica

That seems like a long shot, Aiken. You really think that Vin's mother was just a random crazy person who happened, by chance, to take the right metal, and then hit the right Bind Point, to steal one of her daughters' Seeker abilities, and then hit the right point to give said ability to her Mistborn daughter, by pure random chance?

I do find it interesting that Elendel does not appear to be ruled by the Lord Mistborn's descendants directly. And sure, Happyman, I am not trying to critique this society of people with magical powers who came back from a nearly extinction-level event within the past 400 years as being unrealistic. We really do not have a frame of reference for that. I am just trying to figure out as much about the society as I can. -- Deus Ex Biotica

To be fair, there's a ton of other cities in the Basin, which presumably have some manufacturing or trade that fold in to Elendel's economy.

Everything I recall seeing indicated that one of Feruchemy's greatest strengths was its lack of a hard upper limit on how much you could tap at once. You are limited by how much metal you can wear on your body, I suppose, but Rashek was nowhere close to hitting that limit.

Hard to say, what with the shapeshifting. You might be right, but even so, we know that if a Drab were to Return, it would not be a Returned as we know them. What, then, happens if a Returned is Lifeless'd? Does some semblance remain? Since it seems that nobody in T'Telir, even Vasher, has given much thought to the minds of Lifeless remaining (though we have it on good authority that they do remain), it is unlikely that anyonebody within the series could answer this question. Yet. -- Deus Ex Biotica

I suppose that makes sense, though deflection that powerful really seems like it ought to harm humans, or at least destroy guns/clothing they have at the time, if they pass through.

As far as we know, Arsteel (like Denth and Vasher) had a real Returned body. I wonder if anyone has experimented with Returned Lifeless before...

There is some discussion of how, at the climax, any Vanisher could have effortlessly picked them off. If bullets deflect going in, this should not be the case - the moment one bullet misses, Marasi could drop the bubble. Also, if object can pass out just fine, why not take very careful aim, then push the tip of your pistol through the bubble and fire? I assume this must be impossible, but cannot think of a lot of reasons why. The more I contemplate it, the more trouble that scene of Wax and Marasi falling out of the bubble (rather than Wayne dropping it a moment sooner) causes. -- Deus Ex Biotica P.S. Also, I wonder what happens if you start a bubble with someone half in and half out of where it springs up - without gravity to move them through the barrier smoothly, and with their head outside so they cannot think fast enough to respond, are they essentially at your mercy?