rabidhexley

If that was the case the person who drew the investiture out the bands would become a permanent fullborn, which we know isn't the case. Because it isn't an on/off scenario. All the evidence seems to point that storing investiture acts like storing weight or speed because it seems to have time-limit, which things like memories and identity don't have. And a requirement that one keeps drawing from the nicrsosil to maintain the powers, which things like memories and identity don't have. The evidence says that nicrosil doesn't store the ability to BE a fullborn, but that it simply stores the powers of a fullborn for a given time. If things were as you say one would only have to hold the Bands long enough to suck out the investiture, and would then have the powers permanently. But from the way things worked in the book it theoretically looks like if a skimmer stores a day's worth of their ability into nicrosil, another person drawing from it doesn't actually become a skimmer (which is something inherent to that person's genes/spiritweb). They just have a day's worth of a skimmer's abilities.

Do we know that the metals in a multi-mind like the Bands have to each be filled in order to be undetectable by Allomancy? In that regard the whole thing might just act like one big metalmind, even if the copper portion is empty (even though we don't know that it is), the rest might be filled enough to make the whole thing collectively undetectable. The separate metals in the bands of mourning are only there as metalminds to store and draw from Ferruchemically. All of the powers that the Bands grant would be from the nicrosil-metalmind in the bands, because that's what stores investiture (the abilities themselves). The nicrosil in question would contain investiture allowing for every Ferruchemical and Allomantic ability. That's why all the metalminds that granted powers in BoM were nicrosil-hybrids (the medallions, the bands, the coin at the end). In the nicrosil/iron medallions, the nicrosil grants the power of a Skimmer, and the iron functions as a regular iron metalmind, just one that anybody can use. I don't see any reason why that would be the case. Any investiture the holder possesses could theoretically be stored in the nicrosil. The book pretty much says exactly that.

I thought that it was that whoever was contributing to a given metalmind would just first store their identity in another aluminum-mind beforehand, making any metalmind they store to after that point identity-less. As long as you had one aluminum metalmind that anyone could use you could easily make an identity-free metalmind of at least one type. I'm *guessing* that you'd basically make a metalmind combining nicrosil and whatever other metals you're trying to use, and have a few ferrings store their identities into aluminum-minds beforehand. Then you'd start by having a nicrosil-ferring store some of their investiture in the nicrosil, pass it to the next person where then they draw upon the initial nicrosil investiture and then store whatever particular investiture they have into the nicrosil, pass it to the next person and so on. All of the ferrings would have their identities stored away from them during this process. Though for whatever reason it becomes increasingly difficult with each successive investiture you try to store from a new person.

I thought that becoming a Mistborn was actually more of a side-effect of Lerasium, but not the principle effect of it. That it actually does something, such as how atium does something, we just don't know what it is.

It actually might go beyond just being the "ghost of Kelsier". He's the cognitive representation of who Kelsier was to himself and everyone else on Scadrial. When he died he became a literal symbol, a concept, that was only reinforced by his plan. It makes sense to me that- especially since Kelsier spent so much time as a cognitive shadow -he would grow to embody the concepts that he represents in the minds of the living. While in life he was just a man, a stubborn man, but still a flesh and blood dude. In the minds of the people he was the Survivor. And this is especially strong given that he'd died centuries earlier and people in the 2nd era present day *still* believe him to survive. At this point "The Survivor" isn't just something he's pretending to be to inspire the oppressed masses anymore, it's the actual part of him that remains after his death. I just think that saying he's "just" a ghost doesn't hold up given what we know about the cognitive realm, even if he plays that role for most of the novella from a narrative standpoint.

As far as his appearance in the cognitive realm, it makes the most sense for him to appear as "The Lord Ruler" appeared, as that was who he was to himself and everyone around him. He was conceptually and for the most part literally eternal, so it wouldn't make sense for him to appear as an old man in the cognitive realm, where things appear as their conceptualized selves.

For this at least it seems pretty clear to me that Kelsier (or anyone else for that matter including the shards) really don't know what's in the Beyond. It'd be one thing if Kelsier was looking through a window and could see all of his friends waiting for him and chose not to go, but the Beyond is a mystery beyond death. He's already unhappy about the whole being dead thing, but to him it's at least *something*. He can still act, and going to the beyond would be to lie down and accept things no longer being in his hands, which is against his nature.

Being a pulser could be pretty sweet, if inconvenient. You can travel into the future. Easily live for hundreds of years if you don't mind skipping a lot of stuff, and have the metal. Or just skip a few minutes/hours if you don't feel like waiting for something for whatever reason. The uses might be limited, but traveling through time appeals to me. A thug, the physiological/health benefits alone, feel great whenever you want to, don't have to worry about being laid up from minor injuries. Enhanced strength and agility are a big bonus. A coinshot, because who doesn't want to fly? There's awesome stuff for a bunch of them, but those are the main ones to me.

This is a pretty good point. Hemalurgy is definitely making some sort of modification on the spiritual realm, since that has something to do with how inbred or other "inherent" (as in, magic that is actually part of the individual using it) is possessed. Especially since it's capabilities go far beyond just transferring magical abilities. Another important thing to consider is how Hermalurgy could potentially be used to bridge multiple forms of Investiture together between separate shards. I mean in a way beyond one person possessing magic abilities from different worlds, which are really just multiple separate Investitures being made by one person (with how I would understand that to work). What are the potential ramifications of someone making an Investiture into many or all of the Shards at once? Such as how Ferruchemy is one magic, but of multiple Shards. Could someone create a new form of magical creature using spikes from different Shardworlds? Similar to Koloss or Kandra. Someone with the sufficient knowledge of Hermalurgy and the necessary resources could potentially make a unified form of magic bridging all of the Shards. We start leaning into Adonalsium territory at this point. Considering the fact that all of these things are even *possibilities* for Hemalurgy makes its importance almost pretty apparent, I feel.

The most obvious reasons for the Shards and the Shardholders to me seems like maybe either Adonalsium was killed or shattered by whatever force opposed him, or Adonalsium was never sentient and the Shards are just pieces of it given conscious intent. Anyways, the initial Shardholders knew about the the force that opposed Adonalsium, and that is most likely reason they took up the Shards in the first place. Regardless of whether Adonalsium was a sentient being killed by the Force, or some sort of unconscious energy that the Yolenians decided to utilize as a tool for this cause. I'd also not put it out of the realm of possibility that maybe the Yolenians somehow shattered Adonalsium themselves in order to utilize its power, essentially breaking it into more manageable pieces so that the Shardholders could use its power. The way things currently are likely don't have much if anything to do with the Opposing Force, at least not directly. My running theory is that it's basically just a result of the Shardholders succumbing to their natures and eventually going off to do their own thing. Being a nigh-omnipotent godlike being (even one of the "nicer" ones like Honor or Preservation) would probably be unbearable if you were constantly in the presence of a bunch other beings of equal power, it'd really *cramp* your style so to speak. Which is probably what caused them to end up going off to do their own thing (seeding human life, destroying human life, going around shattering the other shards etc.). In this case I'd assume that the Yolenians didn't realize that the Shardholders would eventually lose themselves to the Shards, knew about it but thought they could resist it, or knew about it and assumed it was worth the risk (most likely, I think). Another potential option is that Adonalsium *was* sentient, and intentionally shattered itself to make it's power more difficult to acquire/unify. In this case it's possible that the Shardholders going to separate corners of the Cosmere was part of the plan, keeping the power of Adonalsium separated. The opposing force might not have been trying to destroy Adonalsium, but take it. But, because the Shardholders eventually ended up losing themselves to their Shardic natures, things didn't really stick to a plan and we ended up with the mess we have now.