Bremen

This was my thought as well. Given the way Jasnah was surprised by Shallan's reaction to an engagement to a 'man'; I think Jasnah assumed that since Shallan used the same powers as her that Shallan was like her in other ways as well.

Cultivation is most often used to refer to living organisms, but one can also cultivate artistic abilities... I doubt there is a Creation shard as Adonalasium often mentioned as the power of creation.

I would argue that the opposite of Cultivation is Ruin. Cultivation seeks to grow and evolve while Ruin seeks to degrade and wear down. Preservation actually sits in between these two neither growing or degrading. In fact I would say a better opposite for Preservation would be Revolution. Something that seeks to upset the current order and is never satisfied with the result. (Chaos would be a good shard, but its too close in connotation to Ruin, and Preservation would seeks to preserve a chaotic environment. Alteration is another thought)

Association implies a two way relationship. The answer as given instead implies that Odium influences the Ghostbloods but they are probably not aware of it. The same holds true for many other groups as well. Perhaps Odium somehow manipulated the KR to give up their honor and he is probably behind the failures of Old Vorinism as well.

Changing the topic slightly... We learned the Parshendi can change forms. Warform, Nimbleform, Workform, Matingform... and the form that Parshmen are in, Slaveform. So Parshmen are not just related to Parshendi, they are the same species. It seems rather unlikely that Parshmen change forms (humans would have noticed that). If they don't take on Matingform, how do they procreate?

From the Brandonology I'm too lazy to look up other quotes, but we also know the Pits are Ruin's pool, and most people believe the beads of Lerasium came from the Well of Ascension so liquid -> solid is almost certain. I would like to think reversing the process should not be so simple as applying heat to Atium, but in order to alloy it with another metal one would have to melt (liquefy) the atium...

Well, we've gotten a bit away from the mechanical properties of atium mists and pools are different physical forms of the power in atium, if we want to understand exactly how atium works we probably need to understand whats going on with the other forms of power as well

Any theory should probably account for mists and pools as well. With mists I like the idea that it is a spiritual shadow. The mists do not act like normal physical objects, at the start of the series they appear from nowhere at night and disappear in the morning. They actively avoided Vin when she had the earing in. They also acted on autopilot without a cognitive entity to direct them. This would make the pools a cognitive shadow. Leras sacrificed his cognitive mind to trap Ruin, that Ruin was trapped by the pool seems to indicate there is a cognitive element to it. This would mean Atium/Lerasium are pure physical objects.

oops, I didn't realize an element in an alloy could be chemically inert, but wikipedia confirms it!

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. The point was noble gases do not react with other elements, not even to join a metal lattice (nitrogen can be used in alloys, so being a gas is not a dealbreaker).

It also alloys with metals. If it were chemically inert, like noble gasses, this seems unlikely. Why would Ruin be searching for a physical shadow of a spiritual object? Seems if it existed in the spiritual realm he would look there.

Of course. Its just more elegant if power is fungible There are theoretical particles called tetraquarks which have four quarks. Using my proposed ascendent and plunge quarks this allows sixteen discrete charge states so that each shard could be individually identified that way. I went with something close to what we already know, standard atoms with protons and electrons. Going the tetraquark route could be interesting, as you'd have a particle with fractional charge. Although for simplicity you'd probably stipulate that there is only one stable nucleus for each spiritual charge state (and that stable nucleus conveniently has a round electrical charge) so that all Atium atoms are chemically identical. Sazedium would then be a nucleus with a mixture of leras/ati tetraquarks in it.

For this to work power would have to be fungible. IE all shards draw from the power of creation and in physical form the intent is stripped out. This would mean the physical form of Ruin is not itself Ruin. This does make some sense as it explains why Ruin would have to find the Atium and reabsorb it. This also implies that Ruin could absorb Lerasium to grow stronger as well, although perhaps Ruin's own intent would prevent this as what Lerasium does is counter to Ruin's intent.

Making Atium "normal" just doesn't appeal to me. While I do like Eric's theory, the idea that Atium, Lerasium et al. are just normal elements that normally aren't stable does not seem "right". Normal allomantic metals do not have any intrinsic power, rather they are the focus that allows the allomancer to channel power from an outside source. In contrast we know the God Metals are actually concentrated power and are not a focus. However we also know Atium reacts chemically, which requires charge and electrons, it also has mass. Thus I propose two new fundamental particles. The ascendant and plunge quarks, these would function like regular up/down quarks except they have a spiritual charge. Since a proton is made of two up quarks and one down quark we can drop these quarks in and have a new particle called a spiriton. The spiriton would act just like a proton forming elements and reacting chemically to form different compounds, however it also carries a charge of the energy of creation. The number of spiritons in the nucleus would identify the shard. This also allows hybrids such as Sazedium, and potential nuclear reactions that turn Atium into Lerasium.

What exactly is evil? Vasher murdered Shashara, his own wife, yet he seems to be safe from Nightblood. Denth too seemed to be able to resist the sword, and prevented it from swaying others who picked it up. Maybe they possess some knowledge that lets them handle the sword without being possessed. Anyway, I'm not so sure evil/good determines the sword's effects on you. As Vasher alluded to, Nightblood doesn't seem to understand the difference between good/evil, which makes his quest to destroy it rather problematic to begin with.

I do not think Brandon meant that Vasher would draw Nightblood and use it on her. After all it still requires physical contact and even if Vin is unaware of Nightblood's properties she isn't likely to let it touch her (she has nothing to block with). I assumed he meant that Vasher would throw Nightblood at her and let her own temptations lead to her death.

It is not certain that the Returned are always successful in fulfilling their reason for returning. Also I do not believe their reason for returning necessarily involves giving up their divine breath to heal someone.

Reading this something just struck me: In order to burn Atium (the body of ruin) one needs to have a connection to Preservation (ie be an allomancer) This seems kindof nuts to me. It also strongly implies to me that an allomancer should be able to burn the physical manifestation of any shard. If the Tears are the body of Endowment than I believe an allomancer can burn them (I don't believe they're the body of Endowment). For symmetry we know, or it is at least strongly implied, that Hermalurgy can steal the magic system of any shard.

For the amount of matter we're talking about Shallan should have felt a shock wave (I know others have done calculations, but offhand, converting a full human into a perfect mixture of Oxygen/Hydrogen should cause a quite large explosion) I think either Brandon didn't consider exactly what soulcasting someone into "fire" would cause, or there is something going on we're not aware of.

The byproducts of combustion would still need to diffuse.

Of course he can.... but it just feels rather cheap (and it isn't good story telling imo) I'm of the opinion his longevity is probably not a product of the metalic arts

Kaladin's name was originally Merin. Ostensibly this was changed in the final draft as Merin was too close to Perin.

So Ralan is koloss Ala Breeze. How does he eat? Such a big dead was made over vvenna's specific dietary needs. Is Ralan perhaps part eruntu, or are the dietary restrictions pure lies from the priesthood (doubtful). I like the idea that lower Sept koloss are interbreeding with eruntu similar to mistborn.

Also I very much agree with Sarn's thoughts wrt Devin's skill. I find Brandon's explanation very unsatisfactory.

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