Weltall

The reason for all that white in that scene is that it takes place on Yolen which has two competing ecologies, one of which resembles what we have on Earth and it's what Scadrial was modeled after. The ecology seen in that sequence is the second one Yolen has, called fainlife. It predates the Shattering by an unknown length of time but we're probably talking hundreds of years if not over a thousand. Like Hoid calling himself Topaz, it predates Taln and the Stonewards by thousands of years. Using exactly the same kind of reasoning, I could demonstrate that Hoid actually has some special affinity for the Dustbringers. According to Frost, his meddling in worlds does more harm than good. Dustbringers are known to break things. What's one of Hoid's other aliases, which is even mentioned within Stormlight Archive itself? Dust. TLDR: It's an amusing coincidence but anything more than that is a massive stretch.

You do realize that literally everything in the Cosmere is made of Investiture, yes? Since it all came from Adonalsium, by definition Adonalsium 'Invested' in the entirety of the Cosmere. And you seem to have ignored my earlier example that Adonalsium created the entire Rosharan system, ergo he Invested in it. First of the Sun's another world Brandon has explicitly stated to have Investiture that originated in Adonalsium, though it got assigned to Autonomy during the Shattering in the same way that a lot of the Investiture that was already on Roshar got assigned to Honor and Cultivation. In addition, the magic systems we see aren't fully created by the Shards, they're following certain 'pathways' that existed prior to the Shattering when there was only Adonalsium. This WoB should answer a lot of your questions. Basically, the presence of one or more Shards on a world will make it easier to interact with the local magic in a more direct and powerful way, but Adonalsium's influence was quite literally everywhere.

This isn't even a question. Investiture is everywhere in the Cosmere and all Investiture came from Adonalsium. And to add to what @Elegy said, we know that Adonalsium created the entire Rosharan system so everything there was heavily influenced by Adonalsium, but it's only the most obvious example. See Frost's letter to Hoid in Words of Radiance for a sign that Roshar is not unique in bearing Adonalsium's influence, even if it's the only one we know was created from the ground up.

Brandon's been asked this and of course the official answer is RAFO. Now, this is based on a WoB that Brandon explicitly hasn't canonized yet but according to our most current information on the subject, someone at the Fifth Heightening who then went below it would experience a similar age rebound as an atium compounder. Assuming for purposes of discussion that it becomes canon, that would imply that the slowed/stopped aging you get from BioChroma doesn't stop your Spiritual aspect from knowing how old you 'really' are, it just tricks it in a more stable manner than F-Atium does. So while you don't need more Breath after hitting the threshold for the Fifth Heightening, your soul would still know that you're older than your biological age and you should run into the same issue as Rashek where the amount of Youth you'd need to store would increase if you wanted to use F-Atium to maintain any given age. Sanderson's Second Law being what it is, I'm guessing that for some Realmatic reasons this would transfer over to the attempt to store Youth in an unsealed metalmind and it would take more and more storing on the Awakener's part to get any given quantity of youthfulness regardless of who was using it. So there would be diminishing returns the longer the metalmind creator lives, even if the people using the atiummind aren't themselves subject to any of this 'old soul' effect at first.

I think it's a neat idea but yeah, the prismatic effect of Color Distortion is a visual thing that shouldn't produce any actual color 'fuel' for Awakening. I think it really just is something there to look visually impressive. It's an extension of the color-enhancing aura that everyone with Breath has, just turned up to eleven. The Perfect Invocation perk is the functional one since it lets the Awakener get more out of the same amount of pigment. That said, there might well be other awesome things someone at the Tenth Heightening could do which we aren't aware of yet but as Khriss herself puts it, this is rather difficult to test. Maybe if she manages to find Vasher and pin him down long enough to ask him a few questions... xD And welcome to the Shard, Lifeblesser!

You realize that you're literally arguing against the author himself when he says that Khriss' 'academic' understanding is far more in-depth than Hoid's understanding as far as the magic goes, right? And that Hoid doesn't learn more than he needs in any given circumstance, whereas Khriss wants to learn all the quirks. See her interview with Wax where she wants to figure out exactly how A-Steel and F-Iron interact. She may be an observer in the sense that she doesn't personally use the magic systems she's describing but she collects firsthand observations whenever possible and interviews the people who do use the magics to understand them in more depth. She's as thorough about it as any given circumstance allows her to be (or to be more Doylist, as thorough as Brandon wants her to be in any given book) and we know that she tests her observations whenever possible. For an example of this, look at her essay on AonDor and how she's tested to her satisfaction the necessity for both precision and Intent in using that system.

There's also the fact that Brandon sometimes likes saying things like this just to keep us guessing. See 'the person who calls himself Taln' for what's probably the most infamous example. And sometimes he just gets tired and can't remember every single thing he's ever revealed to us, especially at signings that can go really late. We've got several other WoBs where he states clearly that Odium is the third Shard in that quote:

Spiritual Realm travel is possible (as was made explicit with the possibility of using it for the Ashyn-Roshar exodus, even if Brandon changes it to Cognitive travel) and you can use Perpendicularities to access it, so in theory it should be possible to travel using Perpendicularities as Spiritual teleportation hubs. Given that Oathgates, Aon Tia and the Dakhor monks' teleportation are instantaneous point-to-point, they're presumably making use of the Spiritual in a very controlled way and Perpendicularity travel would probably involve some similar mechanics. Now, as was discussed in this topic here, Spiritual travel is probably extremely dangerous due to how time and space don't mean the same things there. We already know that it's dangerous to just look into it for too long without some kind of protection or filter to prevent the observer from breaking their brain. Trying to use it for travel without a great deal of precision could theoretically result in you ending up anywhere, anywhen or for a really fun time, everywhere or everywhen. Brandon's said that time travel into the past isn't going to be something he does with the Cosmere (and nobody knows how to do it yet if it can be done) but the risk is probably there if you try transitioning through the Spiritual incorrectly.

The Dor is dangerous because all that power is unconstrained and consists of two separate Shards which aren't playing nicely with each other. I don't think we can extrapolate that any manifestation of a Shard on the Physical plane would be equally destructive. Even with Harmony being two opposing Shards, there's a Vessel to contain and direct all that power unlike the Dor. Also, we already know that Shards can 'manifest' in the Physical if they choose to.

Given that 'not held by the original Vessel' can encompass Shards that aren't being held at all, yeah, I'm going to be more cautious on this one until we get something that's explicit about another Shard being held by somebody who's not the original Vessel. But I'll concede that the wording is ambiguous enough that either reading is possible.

@Honorless Just to point out, Brandon has clarified that a Shard not being held by its original Vessel can include ones that have been Splintered, explicitly including in that category Devotion and Dominion. So the WoB about Harmony not being the only case of a Shard not being held by the original Vessel doesn't really tell us anything by itself. Brandon's fond of this kind of hair-splitting. xD We do? I've seen Brandon RAFO questions on the topic and I've seen the WoB already provided where he explicitly canonizes four but sort of stumbles over the point because he can't remember when he's speaking whether or not he's confirmed that the fourth was Ambition but I can't recall ever seeing one where he unambiguously says that more have been splintered than the four we know of.

I think that if you could make one of those ettmetal grenades work with F-Atium, it would only work on living things since the feruchemical effect doesn't store 'time' but rather 'youth' which isn't a concept that really applies to something like a vase or other inanimate objects. And it would probably work the other way around since you'd be charging it with stored youth and if it released that in an area it should make anything inside the field younger for the duration. Now, if you want to use the technology for instant antiques, charge up several of those grenades with A-Cadmium, layer them so the intended target is in a position where all the bubbles overlap and then set them off in sequence. Presto, whatever you've put in the middle of that venn diagram of speed bubbles is now older.

I agree with most of your post, including that catching a Herald at the right moment should be enough to kill one, assuming they do have a general healing factor for purposes of argument and it's not just the two with Progression who can heal. I just want to comment on this bit here. As long as you have a sufficiently powerful healing ability that's active at the right moment, you actually can survive most forms of physical trauma in the Cosmere.

It's been noted already: As mentioned there, the power described is pretty much what harmonium does in Bands of Mourning in conjunction with Southerner technology, it's not confirmation of what the metal would do allomantically, assuming you can find a way to burn it without blowing yourself up in the first place.

Their own bodies, the Divine Breath is essentially stapling their Cognitive and Spiritual selves to the Physical body.

Aside from the canonical mention by Khriss in the Arcanum Unbounded essays and offhandedly in Mistborn Secret History and the Dragonsteel Prime excerpts mentioned, there used to be a publicly available draft for the first few chapters of The Liar of Partinel (including a second version of the first chapter) but the links got broken during backend work on Brandon's website and while they weren't supposed to be removed, one of the links hasn't been fixed yet. You can still find the revised single chapter here. While very much non-canonical as it exists, some material in the drafts has been confirmed to be at least roughly accurate due to Khriss' description of fainlife in Arcanum Unbounded. Brandon's mentioned that he'd completely rewrite the thing rather than try to revise what already exists, if and when he revisits it. There's another bit of Yolen-related material out there, a short piece Brandon read at a signing called The Traveler. In addition to the full manuscripts of White Sand (Prose) and Aether of Night, you can find the prologue from Mistborn Prime and couple sample chapters from Final Empire Prime (Vin and Conqueror) which were merged and rewritten into what we have as Mistborn: The Final Empire. I believe Brandon used to give the manuscripts of these out to people who asked specifically but that he doesn't do it any more. You can also read the entirety of the (never finished) Mythwalker, aka Warbreaker Prime on the website, starting here. Some early chapters from Way of Kings Prime are also available and include scenes from the characters who became Szeth, Dalinar and Kaladin, starting here. Brandon has said that he intends to eventually make the whole manuscript available, once all the material that it would currently spoil has been covered in Stormlight Archive. All the other books he wrote before being published have never been available in any form. We know that White Sand Prime and Lord Mastrell were rewritten into White Sand (Prose), we know basically nothing about Star's End, Knight Life and The Sixth Incarnation of Pandora (though the latter sounds like it could have been pretty neat) and we know a very tiny bit about his plans for other works related to Aether of Night thanks to Pagerunner's digging through TWG. I got Brandon to confirm at a signing that Syl originally came from there. EDIT: Since this has gone into a long tangent on unpublished works, might as well add that Brandon mentioned last year that he plans to eventually release the original draft of Apocalypse Guard. As he put it, if it never got revised and published he'd just like it to be available and if it does get revised and published (he and Dan Wells are continuing to work on it) he'll still release the draft so we can compare the two versions as a teaching moment for fans and/or aspiring writers. Which is a really awesome thing for him to do, like all the Warbreaker drafts or what was written of Mythwalker.

Practically unlimited Lashings for Jezrien? Setting stuff on fire without needing a constant Stormlight supply for Chana? Infinite Awesomeness for Vedel (who would also get healing from Progression if the Heralds' link to Honor doesn't provide Stormlight healing), practically unlimited Lightweaving for Ash? There's a lot that can be done with a direct feed of Investiture from Honor even if it doesn't provide a healing factor.

We don't really know enough about what Shardplate is to know if the same mechanism that lets the Blades be summoned or dismissed would work for 'dead' Plate. My instinct would be to say no, since dead Plate already forms a form of connection to the user over time (it has to conform to a new user's body) and already has the gemstones that were used to make dead Blades dismissable, so the mechanisms that we know of for Blades are already in place and don't allow dead Plate to be dismissed. I doubt that it's an issue of Intent because the whole 'Shardblades can be dismissed' thing appears to have been discovered completely by accident (ie, people didn't know you should be able to do that, it just happened) and characters who already know that Radiant Plate could be dismissed have had the opportunity to see if they could make their own dead Plate behave similarly and we haven't seen any indication that they've managed it. I can't see Adolin at least not testing it out because of how storming cool it would be to summon his armor instantly. Your idea of gemstones in specific locations might be right but we know that the gemstones in Blades don't have to be in one specific location (pommel or guard both work) and we know that some Shardbearers do ornament their Plate with gems already, so I'm not sure if specific locations and/or external placement is the answer to why nobody's figured it out. It's a good idea though and one that certainly can't be disproven at this point. The official answer to the question is, of course, RAFO.

Pretty sure there would be no weird consequences to doing this because creating more lerasium is theoretically within Harmony's powers.

Yeah, you can't get lerasium and atium from harmonium mechanically but it might be possible to distill it from the mists.

How do you kill a Herald? Nuke the entire site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure... Not necessarily. We know that some Cognitive Shadows who are inhabiting Physical bodies can heal and we know that the Heralds aren't possessing bodies like the Fused do, they're being created for them each time they're reborn. Cognitively speaking, they're their bodies and we know they look the same across rebirths (Hoid being able to draw all of them from memory, Ash recognizing Taln instantly) so there's no reason they should be incapable of healing them under the usual Cosmere principles. That said, you bring up a good point that I can't recall any instance where we're explicitly told that the Heralds have healing powers (aside from Pali and Vedel who have access to Progression) and if the Heralds drew Investiture straight from Honor that might not have included some of the effects of Stormlight, like healing.

There's no reason to posit that Harmony had to do anything. Consider the circumstances following the Catacendre: Ruin did every bit as thorough a job eliminating any living feruchemists from the gene pool as Rashek did while using the Well. That means fewer people with feruchemist sDNA strong enough that it's actually expressed in the next generation. Then a significant degree of interbreeding between Terris and non-Terris people happened with the result that the sDNA for allomancy and for feruchemy mixed. We know this led to the dilution of both 'bloodlines' with the result that allomancy and feruchemy are both weaker now than they were in the past. Basically, there's no reason to assume that Harmony did anything, it's simple genetics. The Terris keep much better genealogical records and are trying to reconstruct a more pure feruchemical bloodline in the hopes of reproducing full feruchemists. This isn't to say there can't be some other way to gain feruchemy (as the first WoB I liinked does state) but there's no reason to assume that Harmony actively interfered in the process, especially since we know he didn't interfere with allomancy.

Brandon has said that Feruchemy originally came from Preservation and there are other ways to get it aside from genetics or hemalurgy, but we don't know what they are yet. You're reading too much into this. The sDNA for feruchemy is in the entire Terris population and Rashek only went after all the people who currently expressed that sDNA in being feruchemists, but he didn't completely eliminate the possibility of future feruchemists being born among the Terris people; really the only way to have done that would be to kill everyone of Terris descent and that was too far for him. He tried to wipe out feruchemy with his slightly less brutal methods but it didn't ultimately work, due to a combination of genetics (enough people are going to be born with the trait and it presumably works similar to allomancy in that it can hide out for a few generations before reappearing), feruchemists getting better at hiding themselves/the general difficulty of finding them with A-Bronze and the Synod working around the breeding program or even manipulating it in an attempt to increase the number of people with feruchemical sDNA. There's no reason to posit that the Terris people had some secret way to reintroduce feruchemy into the population when we already know that Rashek's plans were insufficient to guarantee the complete removal of feruchemical sDNA. Harmonium isn't explosive because of 'too much power', it's explosive because the Investiture that makes it up comes from Sazed's two opposing Shards and they don't play well together.

I'm imagining a Cinderella-esque tale now, with the put-upon Mraizerella having to flee the ball and leaving one of his precious Shardslippers behind. Of course they can only fit him because they're made for him and so Princess Radiant goes around the land searching for the one person that the Shardslipper fits...

Another thing that makes it clear that Nale's Honorblade is his own is that when Szeth sees it, he immediately recognizes it as the ninth Blade that the Shin had once possessed before it vanished, having seen depictions of it and recognizing the design. We also have this WoB that made it crystal-clear even before Oathbringer came out: The asterisk in question here is presumably in reference to Nale having also bonded a highspren, so the correct answer to that question would really have been 'both' but Brandon didn't want to reveal that just yet.