Weltall

Setting aside those places we know a Shard has directly intervened, we know there are lots of worlds that support life and there's no reason to assume that the basic principles of natural selection wouldn't operate on them. Sure, there would be additional factors in play (ie Sixth of the Dusk is more likely to pass his genes on than other trappers thanks to Sak's ability to show him his potential deaths) but all that still gets accounted for in the basic 'descent with modification' principle. You just add the factor that possessing or figuring out how to interact with local manifestations of Investiture increases your odds of reproductive success. Even in worlds with an active Shardic presence the principles would apply whenever said godlike entity isn't actively meddling. We know for example that the skaa started out less intelligent than the nobles (among a few other differences) but that this had washed away over a thousand years of interbreeding. It's not hard to see how any noble genes for better intelligence would get passed on, to say nothing of Allomantic sDNA making you more likely to survive to pass your genes on to the next generation. Rosharan genetics may be extremely wonky by our standards but they clearly operate on understandable laws and the non-sapient flora and fauna has obviously adapted to a world with highstorms, lower gravity and the presence of spren bonds in various ways.

@Andy92 The WoB says that you can use cadmium to get yourself into the future in a manner comparable to relatavistic time travel. That wouldn't work if you were actually aging at the same rate as time outside the bubble. We also have another WoB that confirms that the flow of time is actually being altered within the bubbles, not just perception of time. So if you spent twenty seconds inside a cadmium bubble and twenty minutes passed outside, your spiritual age would be twenty seconds older rather than twenty minutes. @iohn I don't think we can do the math just yet, though if we had more numbers it would totally be possible to calculate the likelihood of Marasi pulling a stunt like this off. I think this is a really neat idea so I gave it a bit of thought and we'd need to know all the following: How much time is supposed to elapse between the end of The Lost Metal and the start of Era 3. Without this we have no way of knowing how much time Marasi needs to compress. How much time one can compress for a given amount of cadmium, including any difference caused by flaring so we can figure out the most efficient way to get Marasi to the start of Era 3. How becoming a Savant would alter the above numbers and some idea when in the process of constant burning of cadmium she'd become one, in order to be as precise as possible. A reasonably accurate estimate of Marasi's remaining lifespan so we know how long she could do this before dying of old age regardless. On the assumption that Marasi can live long enough 'inside' to bridge the gap between Eras we'd need to calculate how much cadmium would be required to do it in the most efficient manner possible, then figure out whether she's capable of getting that much of the metal (both in terms of cost and supply generally). Assuming the amount isn't completely unreasonable and she's going to live long enough that she isn't right on the margin of being able to make it, this factor probably isn't as important since there's no obvious reason she couldn't stop compressing time for a while to go resupply herself. Similarly, she'd need access to however much food and water would be required for the time spent 'inside' but that could be dealt with via stopping to resupply as well.

The most I can think with Taldain is that either there's a Darkside application of Investiture that we don't know of which could produce FTL (the AU essay implies some magic system exists but it must be subtle because it's also said it was long assumed only Dayside was Invested) or given that Darkside in particular is noted to be relatively 'high tech' (being the earliest novel to date and they already had gunpowder back then) they develop a more or less mechanical form of faster-than-light travel and at most use the easy access to Investiture on Taldain as a power source. I don't know how much power you could harvest from the sand but it's a plentiful and renewable resource (which you could presumably even recharge in space as long as you can get the star's light to hit the sand) so there's probably some way to make batteries out of it if nothing else. Admittedly that's a lot of speculation on very little evidence but until we know more about Darkside I don't think we can completely rule out the possibility that Taldain eventually develops some form of interestellar travel not dependent on access to a perpendicularity.

Aluminum savants could potentially cleanse the body of other forms of Investiture Aluminum could be used to reverse the withering effect of Shades

@Figberts Very good point. Aside from Nightblood, the only thing more Cognitively secure in its self-image and thus absolutely immutable is of course Stick.

It's been theorized before. We'd need to know how long a timeskip is planned between Eras 2 and 3, what sort of time compression you get with cadmium and how much of the stuff she could get her hands on to know whether Marasi could actually do it but so far as we know there isn't any reason it isn't hypothetically possible.

I nominate the title of Sadeas Award, in keeping with the idea that one should be too dumb to live and amply demonstrate this fact by removing oneself from the gene pool through said abject stupidity.

I'm suddenly reminded of how the Zhirrzh instantaneous communication works in Timothy Zahn's Conquerors trilogy. And having mentioned that I realize that their name is almost a palindrome... Conquerors is Cosmere! But more seriously, I don't have my book handy to check and I can't remember exactly but... do we know Aon Tia can create two-way portals? I seem to remember it being a one-way deal but I could be mistaken. Though even if the portals are one-way, AonDor seems flexible enough that I'm sure there are other ways to manage FTL with it.

Brandon has implied that you'd need to be a savant to gain that ability with aluminum so if a duralumin misting can do anything with their power they'd probably need to be savant-level as well. Given that there's no visible release of power with ordinary duralumin use though, I doubt that even a savant could actually do anything Realmatically-speaking unless they had some other form of Investiture for their power to act on. Brandon has mentioned that some Twinborn/compounding combinations aren't particularly useful, just as some individual abilities aren't terribly useful. A-Duralumin alone is probably one of these. That said, the existence of medallion tech is likely to make the poor Duralumin Gnats a lot more respected in the future.

The 'Survival Shard' could have Invested in a world at some point, then gotten wise to what Odium was up to and pulled off its world and hidden. The Drominad System is called out for having no Shard yet a stable perpendicularity and an extremely unusual three inhabited planets (plus one more inhabitable one) which could indicate that there was a Shard there at one point. We know that a Shard can leave a world before it's fully uninvested itself but doing so means it leaves some fraction of its power behind. I know Brandon has said that First of the Sun represents a 'low magic' planet not under the influence of a Shard but that doesn't mean it never had a Shard, especially after AU left us that teasing suggestion... As to the quesion of why they Invest in the first place, I think @Jondesu is probably right and for a number of the Shards, over time they simply need to Invest in a world in order to act on their intents. We know that there's a clash of wills that the Vessel will eventually lose so I imagine that at some point most of the Shards would feel compelled to Invest simply to do what their Intent increasingly demands of them. Preservation needs there to be something in order to preserve it, Cultivation and Endowment can't do their things without having something outside themselves to act on, Dominion can't put things in order if it's just floating in the void... Though I'm sure some Shards can hold off this drive to Invest due to a combination of less-restrictive Intents, greater willpower in their Vessels or other factors.

Khriss and Nazh in Secret History confirm that there were sixteen at the Shattering who became Vessels and Brandon has talked about the sixteen as a group so we know that at least initially every Shard was held by someone. We also know that the Shards need a mind to control them and if they don't have one the magic will start to do screwy things and eventually gain sentience. It wouldn't surprise me if we see this happen at some point (perhaps not with an entire Shard but at least with a hefty chunk of its power) but right now the only Shards we know do not have Vessels are the four that Odium specifically splintered.

On Edgli's perpendicularity, we have WoB that if there had been an essay on Nalthis in Arcanum Unbounded one of the things it would have contained would be hints to where the pool could be found which rather strongly suggests that there is one on the planet, in addition to the other reasons to suspect it. My bet for the Shard whose pool isn't on the world they currently inhabit (assuming it's one we know something about already) would be Autonomy since that fits Bavadin's isolationist practices.

You didn't need to bump a topic that's been dead for six months and create a new one, just sayin'.

We know that Nightblood is about the most heavily Invested object we've seen in the series so far, in the context of a 'What would be the hardest to Push/Pull on Allomantically?' question. Taking that and material from other works we can speculate that Nightblood probably does not rust and is probably functionally unbreakable. Rusting (Mistborn Era 2) Breakability (Stormlight Archive)

Well we know Scadrial's systems do but despite all the ink spilled (or its digital equivalent) we still haven't come to any agreement on how, new revelations in Bands of Mourning just opened up more possibilities. Not sure if proper FTL is within the bounds of Biochroma or any Selish system (if only because of the range issue).but Surgebinding has the elements to definitely make FTL work as long as you could find a way to store enough Stormlight. My guess is that since Mistborn Era 4 is the one he's presenting as the big finale and also the one that will be the biggest crossover story, we probably won't see other possible methods of FTL until then, except maybe in the offscreen sense that the Ones Above provide. As for the idea that the Scar represents something outside the Cosmere and Adonalsium having a Plan to deal with it, definitely one interesting interpretation of the chart and what we know. A picture may be worth a thousand words but in the case of the Cosmere, it seems more like a couple hundred thousand given how much time we've spent having fun picking it apart. xD

There's nothing inherently wrong about disagreeing with some of Brandon's choices but as a first post on a fansite, a long wall of text that smacks of 'I think you should write differently and here's how you should do it' isn't the best way to make a first impression. And with some of the content... I'm going to preface this response by pointing out that I am one of those readers who is both a fan of Brandon Sanderson's work and an atheist. I don't see why the two should be in any way mutually exclusive or why I should find an author whose religious views inform their work to be an inherently bad thing, especially when it's done as well as Brandon handles it. Jasnah's already been mentioned so I won't belabor the point but it was really a treat to see a character like that with a well thought-out worldview and an openness to other perspectives (which I think I am too, 'lack belief' versus 'don't believe in' and all that). Which doesn't in any way imply that I don't like any characters who do have strong religious convictions. It's all part of the Cosmere's worldbuilding and Brandon always tries to explore different facets of religion in his works. Elantris has Hrathen with his religion where everything fits into a neat and tidy order and some exploration of what it would mean in a world where anyone could become godlike, Mistborn runs the entire range of options, Warbreaker has a god who doesn't believe his own religion and the ways that different cultures have reacted to the existence of the Returned and Awakening, SA has Dalinar trying to decide how to react when a major pillar of his faith is knocked down... it's all part of what makes the characters and settings fascinating. I love reading that sort of thing even if I'm not religious myself. Fantasy is a global phenomenon. Fiction as a literary genre is a far newer thing but its antecedents are everywhere. What are the Thousand and One Nights if not fantasies within a framing story? Journey to the West may have been based (very loosely) on a historical event but it's effectively an adventure story with gods and monsters and a party of travellers on A Quest. That the European and American tradition of fantasy was heavily influenced by Renaissance literature doesn't mean that all fantasy must follow all its elements. One might also point out that the granddaddy of modern English-language fantasy literature is every bit as influenced by its authors religious views as anything Brandon has written. Dalinar and Navani spring immediately to mind. Yes, they courted in the past and both have been married to other people but they weren't married when they started up their relationship. Kaladin from the same books is implied to have had at least one offscreen relationship. Wayne and MeLaan certainly weren't married when they got 'distracted' during a gunfight in Bands of Mourning... yes, I know you mention this one later, I just want to point out that it contradicts your above absolute statement. I for one am perfectly content to see 'Kiss, fade to the aftermath' rather than Brandon try to write a sex scene just because some readers wanted to see it. That would feel awkward and gratuitious and it's extremely unlikely it would add anything to the characters or the setting that we can't get from the before and after aspects.. Does the name Calmseer ring any bells? You know that Brandon has been up-front about his plans for Mistborn since practically the beginning of his published career, yes? Just because you don't like Fantasy that shades into other genres (never mind that it's all part of the greater speculative fiction umbrella) doesn't mean the concept isn't worth writing about. Brandon specifically wanted to show a dynamic world that changes over the course of the series and Scadrial just happens to be that world. It being the closest analogue to Earth, it's not a surprising pick either. Basically what I'm getting is that you want Brandon to write how you want him to (trodding well-worn paths) instead of experimenting with the genre and finding new things to do, or new ways to explore old ideas. You may like one take on the fantasy genre more than others but that doesn't mean that you can demand an author only write stories in that particular mold. I'll take the dynamic Brandon Sanderson who can write things as diverse as Reckoners or the planned Era 4 Mistborn as well as something more traditional in feel (relatively speaking) like Stormlight Archive. I'll end this with a single word that I think sums up the tone of your letter: Errorgant.

@Oversleep A point so obvious I feel dumber for not having recognized it.

While bendalloy medallions make perfect sense and probably do exist (even if we didn't see them) for the reasons you suggest, I do want to point out that even with the weight-reduction medallions a factor the airships we've seen are capable of carrying passengers (ie, complete deadweight from an operational perspective) and bombs which presumably weigh a decent amount. It's only the skimmer that seems to be right on the edge of a Cold Equations scenario and that's meant as an emergency escape pod more than a full-fledged vessel. So there's probably enough tolerance built into the larger ships to carry at least some consumables.

That's not unreasonable (and there's some other material in Bands of Mourning that seems Odium-ish) but Shadows of Self points very strongly to Trell being Autonomy, as do some recent Words of Brandon about Autonomy's holder Bavadin. Which doesn't preclude the (quite likely) possibility that both Shards are currently interfering on Scadrial, but with Autonomy being the more 'public' of the two.

Fainlife is something that appeared in the sample chapters of Liar of Partinel (thus predating the Shattering) and while we know not to treat that as canon and we can't be certain what will be kept in the final version, the idea of fainlife itself has been confirmed as canon due to its mention in Arcanum Unbounded. I gotta admit, this would be awesome. Maybe even awesomer than Lift.

One counter to the Ones Above being from Taldain is that Brandon told us they're from a planet we'd already seen or heard of by that point. By a sufficient degree of hair-splitting you could argue that Taldain and Silverlight (insofar as it can be grouped with 'planets') are included in that list since by the time Sixth of the Dusk came out we had already seen Baon and Iyatil and we also had out of universe knowledge of those places; similarly you could include Yolen via the WoR Ars Arcanum and Hoid. But in terms of what's firmly established in the books, the only planets we really 'knew' of at that time are Sel, Scadrial, Roshar, Nalthis and Threnody. And of those, Scadrial is by far the most obvious. I wouldn't put it past Brandon to have turned that into a red herring but at the same time it really does fit so well that I think that's where he's going with it. Not everything in the Cosmere has to be an obtuse mystery.

Brandon has indicated that Feruchemy isn't 100% efficient under specific circumstances, though the wording in the WoB's I've found are a bit obtuse. Here he confirms that there are diminishing returns when you tap at a higher rate than you stored and here he says that Feruchemy granted by Hemalurgy is naturally 'leaky' so you get slightly less back than you put in, effort-wise.

@Darkness That would be one way to solve a voidspren infestation. I'm not sure how practical it would be as we can count on one hand the number of people known to pass the 'Nightblood test' (everyone else suicides) and it drains Investiture at an increasing rate and then drains the life of the user once there's no Investiture to feed on so you'd have to let go of the thing really quickly. We know that the Listeners bonds require some level of acceptance on the part of the person undergoing the bond (even if they didn't intend the specific result) and we have Word of Brandon that even a Parshman could resist being forcibly bonded to a voidspren if they really resisted it from the start. We don't yet have any indication that it's possible to 'kill' a voidspren bond in the way that the Radiants did during the Recreance (though if Eshonai is still alive and bonded to hers in Oathbringer, she'd be the best candidate to demonstrate if and how it could be done) but as long as they operate on a similar principle to Radiant-spren, it's hypothetically possible that you could get something similar to the Recreance with them. We just have no clue how that might be done yet. Though I've seen some really interesting speculation that the Bondsmith abilities might have something to do with the creation of the Parshmen and their inability to bond with spren. Also, welcome to the Shard!

I won't be surprised if Hoid and Frost have a running conversation back and forth throughout Stormlight Archive or at least up until Book 5, then transitioning to something else in the back half. In the absence of that, my best guess would be that we would get other cosmere-aware parties. Say, someone in the Seventeenth Shard on Roshar writing to Frost or to another member in Silverlight, or even Nazh and Khriss exchanging letters. But right now I'll bet my spheres on at least three more letters in the Hoid/Frost exchange. I don't have any textual basis for it, just a gut feeling that they aren't done trying to persuade the other to their point of view.

Technically, Yolish Lightweaving predates the Shattering (confirmed for whatever it's worth in the Liar of Partinel sample chapters and implicit in the Words of Radiance Ars Arcanum) so it's probably not drawing on any specific Shard. The Aethers are in a grey area where as an alternative to being related to an unknown Shard they could be pre-Shattering due to the Liar sample (though Brandon and Peter have indicated this is now extremely unlikely) or they could be associated with Preservation and Ruin somehow due to specific elements from Aether being cannibalized into Mistborn's Ruin (Word of Peter here) and some mentions in newer works that could be interpreted as supporting that. But it's all speculative at this point so they certainly could have a Shard of their own and we won't know until Brandon rewrites it.