Weltall

Yeah, the metal in that scene of Oathbringer is aluminum, which acts as an Investiture-sink across the Cosmere. It's the same metal that people on Sel call Ralkalest ('the unForgeable metal') and which Nightblood's sheath is made of among other examples. We do (almost certainly) see a new godmetal in Oathbringer however. Pay attention to a certain metal implement that appears near the end of the book and note the color it's described as having. And as RShara mentions, Shardblades are confirmed to be godmetal as well, presumably some mix of 'Tanavastium' (name not canonized but likely) and whatever Cultivation's godemtal is called. And by extension, the Honorblades are likely to be pure Tanavastium.

To add to what @Calderis said, we know for a certainty that Rayse doesn't want to take up any other Shards for exactly the reason that it would change him. Breath has an inherent mechanism for transfering it to other parties and while the giver must be willing, the recipient doesn't necessarily have to be. However, we don't know that such a thing is possible for a Shard and it's not a good idea to generalize from one specific magic system to a Cosmere-wide application. So, if it were possible it would be a good idea (provided you could find the right other Shard to force upon him of course) but we don't know it's actually possible.

Brandon has confirmed that Rashek knew a lot of things, including about nicrosil. So, if Rashek could refine silicon (and considering how and when the Bands of Mourning were created, it must have been possible) he could have made use of F-Nicrosil. It's possilbe that he did have some mystery metals that were never found, given that the legend of the Bands relies on the belief that he did leave behind metalminds. We know he didn't create them but in-universe there's an acceptance that he may have had some metalminds that nobody found after his death.

We know that Frost is big on non-interference and thinks that the Shards and Hoid are potentially ruining some Master Plan that Adonalsium had by running around blindly, but we don't know if he was necessarily opposed to the Shattering per se. He implies in The Traveler that he was part of some promise to not interfere (which is consistent with his writing in the letter, so it's probably canon) while Hoid apparently doesn't feel bound. However, we do have a WoB that Hoid 'kind of' though that the Shattering was necessary. Which really raises more questions than it answers, but there you go. Edgli claims that all the Vessels agreed to go their own way after the Shattering, even if many of them proceeded to immediately violate that agreement. Given that promises made by the Shards are binding, it may be that this understanding was reached before they all Ascended. Anyhow, if we're trying to group Vessels then all the ones who Invested in worlds together are violating this agreement (Leras/Ati, Aona/Skai, Tanavast/Cultivation's Vessel) but we probably shouldn't assume that that there's a correlation between keeping this promise and their reasons for participating in the Shattering. There may be a relation but it's likely not the only thing. And on the idea of factions, Rayse seems to want to be the strongest entity in the Cosmere so while he's using the idea that some Shards are violating their agreement as a pretext for going after them, it's clearly a self-serving one. Recall that he targeted Ambition first, one of the Shards that didn't violate the agreement by pairing up.

Nightblood may be one of the most heavily Invested non-Shardic entities but killing a Shard is way beyond him. He could hurt a Shard but he's not going to be killing any of them. I think that others have the best long-term solution to dealing with the threat that Odium presents and it resonates with what Frost says in his letter. Odium is God's hatred without any virtues to give that hatred context and direction. Just killing Rayse won't solve the problem, it will just push it off onto the next Vessel who may be a better person than him but would still have that Intent to deal with. So, merge Odium with a second Shard whose intent will provide a context for that hate, rather than making things worse. Ie, Odium plus Ruin would probably be a Very Bad Idea but Odium plus Honor could potentially be a very good combination. Which just leaves the minor problem of how to land a killing blow on the Shard that's already killed four others and is paranoid about not making himself any more vulnerable than he needs to be. Welcome to the Shard! The way that Shards 'inhabit' a location is sort of an imprecise thing given that the bulk of their power is in the Spiritual Realm where 'space' is meaningless, but Brandon's said that it's the best we can do. A Shard that's Invested in a world can still 'travel'. Autonomy for example is Invested in the Taldain System but is able to influence other worlds through the Spiritual Realm and creating Splinters on other planets. There's a long WoB here that talks about this sort of thing you might find interesting if you haven't seen it yet. The above aside, a Shard can leave a world that it's Invested in but they would have to either spend time withdrawing their Investiture (which would affect the world in potentially cataclysmic ways) or leave that Investiture behind, a process that would leave the Shard weaker.

To add a detail, we know Hoid was present at the Shattering and was offered a Shard (exactly when in the chain of events is a RAFO) and refused. But he 'sort of' saw it as a necessary event. Brandon has largely nixed the sibling/devil/anti-Adonalsium idea. He was once asked if there was a force opposing Adonalsium and said yes, but on a later occasion he clarified that the sixteen Vessels could be construed as such an opposing force and that he explicitly did not confirm the idea of a devil analogue. And since he's also said that all Investiture in the Cosmere comes from Adonalsium, there's not much room for an entity on anything resembling that level of power, at least within the framework of the Cosmere as we currently understand it. And Brandon's implied that Adonalsium did have foresignt and may have planned for his own death, but of course a question to that effect was RAFO'd. xD

Yep, White Sand is Khriss' origin story, before she became a worldhopping Arcanist. It's also chronologically the earliest published work in the Cosmere. And as imriel452 says it's also one of the earliest works Brandon wrote. The graphic novel is actually its third incarnation, with the Prose version that Brandon gives out on request being the second. The very first version of White Sand (which he doesn't share) was literally Brandon's first complete novel.

To chime in after the fact for anyone else who may be unsure about Brandon's YA books... do it! I held off reading them for a while until I (almost) ran out of his 'adult' books to read and then got started on Reckoners and I haven't regretted it. FYI I'm 35, so definitely above the age of the primary audience and I've enjoyed all of them. Like Sandra said, the biggest difference with his YA stuff isn't tonal* so much as it is length. The best illustration of this and also the best book to start with if you're uncertain about reading a YA book as an adult is Rithmatist. It was originally conceived as a Cosmere work before Brandon pulled it (due to the setting being an alternate universe Earth) and as a result the magic system could easily have been slotted into a Cosmere world and the way characters interact with it and it informs the setting are very much like you'd see on any of his other works. We've even gotten some neat Words of Brandon on Cosmere mechanics as a result of people asking Rithmatist questions, due to how the latter started as a part of the former. Reckoners is also a neat love letter to superhero comics, with a typically Brandonish twist. So if you grew up loving Superman, Batman or [insert your favorite superhero(es) here] then it's a really fun ride. The 'magic' of Reckoners is looser than a Cosmere system would be but you'll still get some of that familiar feeling when a character exploits some aspect of the system or makes a discovery and you look and realize 'hey, that makes perfect sense!'. I think it would be awesome if this got the graphic novel treatment, or maybe better a spinoff. And then there's Alcatraz, where the only thing you need to know is the premise to have an idea what you're in for: Boy discovers that his world is secretly run by a cult of Librarians (the 'Evil' is assumed) and the world is far bigger than they want you to believe. And the primary magic system are Smedry Talents, which are horribly inconvenient powers (like 'always being late' or 'being a terrible dancer') that their users make awesome. Think Harry Potter as narrated by the title character, with the Snark knob turned up all the way. And I've already preordered Skyward because it looks like it's going to be so much fun. Dragonriders of Pern meets Top Gun? Sign me up! * Alcatraz (mostly) excepted

I'd say something about splitting hairs but, well, this is Brandon we're talking about and he's gleefully admitted to doing this sort of thing when asked sufficiently open-ended questions. Fortunately, we had the clarifying WoB that The One Who Connects just posted that makes it clear he wasn't trying to pull one over on us. This time. xD Even in the absence of that, since we've got the spren of Odium on Roshar it would have been a fairly safe assumption that he was the third Shard by default, even if he was never 'present' there in the same way that Honor and Cultivation are considered to be on Roshar. And given what we see in Oathbringer, it's even easier to say that he's definitely 'on' Roshar even if his Physical/Cognitive 'home' is Braize.

Wow, TV series and an insane number of tie-ins, that sounds like it could be epic.

Welcome to the Shard! You can ask a mod to do it (using the Report Post option and asking for a move in the comment section will get their attention) but there's a pretty good chance one of them will move it to the Rithmatist board on their own, as usually happens with posts in this board that are better suited to a discussion board. For the question, I think that it would be tricky to levitate anything using a Line of Forbiddance but it might not be impossible. You have to first draw the line in order to create its barrier, which means you can't have anything on top of the line that would get in the way of the initial drawing and putting something atop the line after it's been drawn but before the barrier goes up (which must be possible or the Mark's Cross with crossing Lines of Forbiddance couldn't exist) might smudge the line and weaken it. The barrier's height (ie 'how far it stretches') is determined by the thickness of the chalk line but it's still a plane so even if you could stick something on top of a Line while the barrier was going up, the object would probably just roll off. Maybe if you had two perpendicular Lines forming a corner and the object placed on top was arranged just so you could get it to balance on that surface. Brandon has indicated that there are more practical applications of Rithmatics that people aren't using, so there's definitely room for exploration. We know that a properly drawn Line can project a horizontal barrier if the surface it's drawn on is perpendicular to the ground. However, there's also limits to what can be done, especially with Lines of Forbiddance So yeah, there's definitely material there which Brandon plans to look at in the sequel. PS. If you don't know about Arcanum yet, it's an awesome resource for things Brandon has said outside the books.

One thing to bear in mind is that the Seventeenth Shard has at least one member who was definitely around long before Kelsier and who has made a conscious choice to prolong his life for all that time: Baon. He must have had a reason to leave Taldain and hang around long past his normal lifespan in the first place (contrast Galladon who's also older than Kelsier but naturally immortal) and it's clearly not just watching out for Khriss because they're not working directly together in the 'present'. Doesn't necessarily mean the Seventeenth Shard has existed for that long (Brandon of course RAFO'd a question on how old it is) but it's worth considering.

To add to this, in addition to the excerpts from Dragonsteel Prime and Liar of Partinel which are interesting but not canonical, we have Words of Brandon which confirm that the pre-Shattering Yolenese believed in multiiple gods and believed that they werre dead. We don't know how Adonalsium relates to them, though given that Brandon has said that all Investiture comes from Adonalsium it's a safe assumption that he is not something like the 'last surviving god of Yolen' but was always something above or apart from them, whatever the reality of these gods was. Hoid is probably refering to these gods (whatever they were) rather than the Shards. Also, (tiny) Oathbringer spoiler. Here's some WoBs for reference on the gods of Yolen:

Yeah, we don't currently have anything like that. We know that the AU map was drawn from a particular perspective within the Cosmere (not from Silverlight or its equivalent Physical location) and that not all the stars seen in the depiction are actually part of the Cosmere. We'll apparently get more Star Trek-y maps at some point in the future when that becomes relevant, ie around Mistborn Era 4. But it sounds like a Star Trek ship could get from one end of the Cosmere to the other in a week or two and a ship in Star Wars could get across it in hours, to use those examples.

You've left out at least one possibility, a metal that is fantastically rare and would thus be extremely expensive: Dragonsteel. We know about it thanks to the excerpts that Brandon has released (the bits he cannibalized for the Shattered Plains and Bridge Four) and it's described as silvery in appearance. Brandon was recently asked about this and you can probably guess the answer. xD

Here's a list of all the books (including major planned but unwritten works) and their rough timeline, for some details. As far as time travel goes, we've seen multiple characters make use of time dilation whereby they don't actually experience all of the years they've been alive in absolute terms and so live longer than they should be able to. We know from Word of Brandon that Marasi (or any Pulser) with a sufficient supply of cadmium could also push themselves a good way into the future with just their powers. However, it and all other methods of 'time travel' we've seen are a stricly one-way process moving foward, not backwards. Brandon has conflicting WoBs on this (which may be the result of paraphrasing more than any inconsistency on his part) but he's answered pretty definitively on occasion that travel into the past is not happening and we shouldn't expect to see any serious time travel shenanigans in the Cosmere. Other WoBs are more open ended and have said that nobody has figured out how to do it, but that one is pretty definitive and it's verbatim. Now, time 'travel' via the Spiritual Realm is something else entirely and is definitely possible without violating anything Brandon has said. We see a form of it in Mistborn with A-Gold and A-Malatium showing you the past and in Warbreaker Lightsong had a vision of a key event from the Manywar centuries before. Someone able to peek into the Spiritual might be able to 'see' the past but they couldn't bodily travel there and affect things. We also see some screwy things with Syl and Kaladin's bond manifesting before the relevant Physical events happened. Kaladin's spear proficiency and Syl taking the form of Shallan at the beach (well before the latter first met the former two) are illustrative of how the Spiritual Realm can be brain-breaking. For the worldhoppers, there's a method that most of the Seventeenth Shard uses (Demoux included) which greatly slows the aging process but doesn't stop it. Brandon has said that there are many methods, this just happens to be one of them. Other ways we know it can be done include attaining the Fifth Heightening (stops aging completely). compounded atium (which has an upper limit and is noted to be inefficient) and becoming Invested enough that you become a Cognitive Shadow upon death, then figure out a way to reconnect to the Physical Realm ('The Sovereign'). And then there's naturally immortal (or at least very long-lived) peoples like the Siah and Dysian Aimians, the kandra and dragons.

My guess is that the dagger didn't take Jezrien's entire soul, just the bit of it that relates to the Oathpact, his connection to the other Heralds and being a resurrecting Cognitive Shadow. Despite seeming less than fully lucid, he was able to recognize that there was something different about this death as it was happening to him, suggesting that he could feel an important part of his soul being taken from him before he actually died. Anyhow, he himself seemed convinced that he was about to actually die, Ash clearly felt that something was wrong and Jezrien pretty much has to have been permanently killed or otherwise rendered irrelevant to the Oathpact given the elaborate method chosen for his death (the metal of the dagger is likely to be Odiuim's godmetal and then there's the sapphire doing whatever it did) as opposed to giving Moash an ordinary knife. Actually, per Jasnah's suggestion for Team Roshar's long-term strategy, simply killing any given Herald 'normally' would probably be a good thing for the Oathpact (or at least, wouldn't make anything worse) so Odium must have done something different to justify not only the setup itself but taking that action in the first place. EDIT: Ninja'd (Szeth'd?) by the usual suspects while typing. Storms! xD

Don't worry about it, hope you feel better! PS. Amusingly it's also working out the other way now, as Brandon has said he needs to write the Elantris sequels before he can do Mistborn Era 3.

The Bartimaeus Trilogy, yep. We know Jak could potentially meet the Era 2 crew since Wax mentions him and comments that even if he's a blowhard he actually has been out in the Roughs. I doubt we'd get an Allomancer Jak novella (not counting possible 'excerpts' in the inevitable Lost Metal broadsheet) but Isaac mentioned recently that he's working on an outline for a Nicki Savage story that may be written at some point. My guess is that unless there's another MAG suppliment that will close out Era 2 and Brandon writes a story for it (neither of which is guaranteed) he's probably going to close the door on more Era 2 projects once TLM is out. Well, aside from potentially setting another Secret History book during the time period, like he did with the first book and Era 1. But Brandon did say in the postscript in Arcanum Unbounded that Handerwym's annotations were one of his favorite things he's done, so maybe we'll see something similar again when the stars are right, whether in Mistborn or somewhere else.

For your first idea, have you read the excerpts Brandon's made available from Way of Kings Prime? Those show his first attempt at writing Kaladin (then called Merin) when he did accept the Shards. Well, sort of, the circumstances weren't identical. But anyways, if you haven't it would be something you might want to take a look at for ideas, especially since it does show how Kaladin relates to Adolin and Renarin under those circumstances. Brandon mentions why he abandoned that in favor of what we got in the published WoK but it could definitely make for an interesting AU story. Lighteyed politics and Kaladin becoming a symbol do seem like they'd be the most likely way for things to go, whether he embraces his status or has it forced on him. I could see multiple parties trying to manipulate him, kind of like how Moash was targeted by the Diagrammists... and wouldn't that be an interesting parallel? Also, given the changes to Kaladin's story I imagine it would affect how Shallan views him, if/when she discovers that Kaladin got his Shards by killing Helaran. Last thought here, what were you thinking about Kaladin's proto-Radiancy? Because by having a dead Shardblade, he's automatically going to turn off Syl who doesn't like anyone who carries one. And of course, their bond really only started to grow after Amaram stole the Shards in canon, though it was beginning to form previously. Dunno if you were planning on having that remain a factor or not, just tossing the idea out there as another possible plot hook. For your second idea, not really my sort of fic and I'm not terrible clued in about that fandom so I can't add anything constructive I'm afraid.

The implication is that it must be someone who survived the Catacendre (otherwise Tindwyl would be a perfect fit) and for my money I think Beldre is the more likely, with 'Lady Truth' having a nice resonance with 'Lord Mistborn' and following right after it during that passage. And as you said, Alrianne is mentioned by name but not title, while most of the surviving crew are thought of by Era 2 Scadrians by their titles first and their names second. Found at least one other topic discussing this by the way.

The broadsheet stories are clearly sensationalized accounts (which is entirely in keeping with the way things were in the real world at the equivalent time period) and how much truth is contained within them is a matter of debate. However, they're presented as fact and the characters within them actually exist. Wax mentions Jak as a real person for example, not just a story in the papers. So Nicelle Sauvage/Nicki Savage from the SoS and BoM broadsheets is real and at least claims that the stories she tells are true. And we have Word of Isaac that yes, the bit about her meeting Nazh is factual.

On the first point specifically, it would be rather hard for anyone to be a reincarnation of Tanavast since his Cognitive Shadow (which as the soul is what would be reincarnated if such a tihng were possible) is merged with the Stormfather. Other historical individuals could be possible, but see below. On the second, we don't have any specific WoBs on the topic but we've got some general ideas. For the vast majority of people in the Cosmere, when you die you hang around the Cognitive Realm for a span of time measured in minutes, then you pass Beyond, nobody knows what happens next and not even the Shards can reach there. So, once you've passed Beyond reincarnation is certainly impossible. There are Realmatic mechanisms for reincarnation in the Cosmere provided that you're able to become a Cognitive Shadow and we've seen several in SA. The Heralds create new bodies for themselves whenever they reincarnate, which match themselves to their Spiritual ideal, hence they always look like themselves. The Fused are another type which take over another body to regain Physical form, then the body begins changing to match the new soul. However, given the whole 'Physical body gets shaped by the Spiritual ideal' thing, it would be tricky to imagine a Cognitive Shadow being reborn in a new body and going through the whole developmental cycle without some Shardic meddling. We don't have any currently known mechanisms on Roshar for someone to alter the relevant aspects of their spiritweb (like Scadrial has with F-Atium) short of Cultivation or Odium intervening.

Exactly. We have evidence from the Gem Archive that the Truthwatchers of the past did not see the future, because the one who made the recording who did see the future says that the others can't know that he/she foresaw whatever event they were speaking of. And Ivory makes it very clear that he expects Truthwatchers to only have the power to see the present ('what is') and what Renarin does is wrong.

FYI, double-posting is frowned upon, unless you're bumping an old topic for a good reason. Next time just edit your previous post to add new material. With duralumin, the metal burns independently so how much of it you have shouldn't affect the power of the burst so much as how long it lasts/how much of your metal reserve it will actually consume. If you have a huge amount of some Metal A you're burning and only a tiny bit of duralumin, you'll probably consume some of Metal A and get all that power in one burst, but you'll have some left over. We've just never seen (IIRC) any situation where someone is trying to do this or has a sufficiently lopsided ratio of duralumin/other metal for this to be a factor.