Landis963

Bands Of Mourning spoilers:

Mostly spot on. It's pretty clear that the hardships that the Southern Scadrians underwent since the Catacendre are credited for their massive technological advantage compared to the people of Elendel, and not due to any influence or lack thereof by Ruin or the Lord Ruler, for example. Also the Shards create humanity but in the grand scheme of things do not (or cannot) micromanage the civilizations as you describe. (That doesn't stop them from giving it the old college try, as seen by the numerous mentions of gods in the Cosmere which are thinly-veiled references to the Shards, e.g. Roshar's "Elithanathile" being Honor)

Short answer: No. Long answer: Traditional Terris garb is described as having a very specific pattern (the V-shapes in Sazed's outfit) that the Elantrians' clothes do not.

If you spike yourself with the intent of doing Hemalurgy, it will latch on to a power of yours (or if you have no powers, it will take some mundane quality to become half of a kandra Blessing) and become a Hemalurgic spike. Your body will therefore ignore the foreign object as though it were part of you, and your soul will become cracked. If you just stab yourself with atium without the Hemalurgic intent, you have just stabbed yourself with a metal knife, better get to a hospital. And we don't know what, exactly, happens if you burn a charged hemalurgic spike (metalmind or no) as allomantic fuel. Evidence does not suggest a pretty picture, but it has been RAFO'd before.

Make an innocuous-sounding phrase a shibboleth of sorts. For example, a time-travel RPG I found on TVTropes had its player characters identify friendlies by use of the question "What time is it?" Anyone not in the know would respond as expected, i.e. they would tell you what time it was. Other time travelers would respond in a more useful manner.

The power will be stronger than it would be if a spike of a different metal was charged with whatever the atium spike was charged with. Otherwise no additional effects.

The English templating would be something along the lines of "-X: you control target artifact with converted mana cost X." I'd suggest one small tweak - "...Converted mana cost X or less."

What answers I can provide will be in bold.

Strictly speaking, all the Shards are splinters of a Shard. It was called Adonalsium. In any event Rayse was one of the 16 original Vessels, who happened to be attuned more to Odium than to any of the other Shards.

Granted, but then how do you deal with the teleportation? (Because they can in fact teleport - flash-stepping around like a horror movie serial killer) EDIT for clarity.

I was costing Szeth's ability at 1W, as opposed to just W (or even 1, which is right out). 2 mana to exile everything blocking Szeth is still perhaps a bit broken, though. And I like Shallan. Although maybe you could make the switching a bit more difficult to pull off the really annoying swaps. Perhaps "XB, sacrifice a land or an artifact: Reveal the top X cards of your library until you reveal a permanent of the same type. Place it on the battlefield tapped. Exile the remaining cards."

Yeah, Vin needs a 5-drop or higher, especially HoA-era Vin. Not too high, though - we want her to be playable after all.

Teleporting ones that never run out? I seem to recall pewter fights turning into battles of attrition, which would almost certainly fall in favor of C&V.

Not reverse 'aging', per se, but Vasher did go through a definite downgrade between his demonstration of the god model and then the epilogue where he was the scruffy traveler model. And of course, once the Returned hit whatever they consider the ideal phenotype, they don't age any more.

Yes. 17th Shard Q&A, Sept. 2012, question 177:

It's how they feel they "should" look. Allmother looked like a kindly grandmother because she felt she should look that way. Hopefinder aged to his current state because he felt he should look that way.

Cheer up. Everyone who goes will immediately post it on here. If I can make it on that day, that's what I'll be doing.

I would argue that Assassin Szeth is still Orzhov-colored while he had the honorblade - but maybe we can communicate that with a U ability on the otherwise WB Szeth.

To be fair, if the last match were written competently with an eye for using the powers to their fullest extent, I for one would have accepted a Croup and Vandemar victory with grace and aplomb (they're essentially Pewterarms that never run out of metal and can teleport to boot). But it wasn't, and so I won't. And neither, thankfully, did the other voters. And don't get me started on the idiocy that was round two vs. the Dark Tower pair. Oi vey.

The colors look mostly right, although Shallan doesn't use soulcasting for assassination (she mainly uses Pattern for that). That ability would be perfect for Jasnah's card, once we learn enough about Elsecalling to give it a mechanic. I'm actually having difficulty picking out a B-aligned mechanic that would work for 1) soulcasting and 2) Shallan. Also, Szeth's W ability should be "If [CARDNAME] is blocked by one or more creatures, you may pay 1W. If you do, exile them." EDIT: Also, in case it isn't clear - I don't think the surgebindings should be boiled down to one mechanic. The colors, as I said, seem right (although it produces oddballs like the order of Bondsmiths - essentially spren/human ambassadors, and human/human ambassadors, come to think of it - being Red/Blue).

Yes, but it also returns it back to the shard after use, so there's no depletion involved, unlike say Nightblood's shenanigans. A better example would be hemalurgy, which involves the sublimation of power from a charged spike for as long as said spike is 1) not implanted in a recipient, or 2) not immersed in blood.

There have been two homosexual characters with lines, IIRC: Drehy of SLA, whom you're thinking of, and Ranette from WaW. (We haven't met Drehy's husband yet, and Ranette's mentioned her girlfriend's name, but I don't believe she's had screentime either)

Which one's that one, and does it happen on Earth? Also, Cosmere doesn't have alternate realities except where future sight is involved.

Don't they get connected to Earth somewhere along the line? Or is that just the movie with NPH? (I ask because the "Earth not Cosmere" rule is looking to rear its ugly head again)

Vin went into histrionics when what's-his-face from the Dark Tower series shot Elend. That's a bit of a personality. Also she took Elend sitting down to read a book rather personally during their first matchup (A lovesick mosquito and the object of her affections from the True Blood series). That's shadows of a personality at least. Not Vin's, but... eh.