JackAqua

I didn't say Cultivation favors this. I said the Greatshells stored Stormlight for the Radiants and worked together with them during the Desolations. When one died, their Gemheart was harvested to be used. But because so much changed during the Desolations, the Greatshells grew feral/docile and the people on Roshar started hunting them, etc.

I recently started asking myself why Cultivation doesn't help out. I mean, if she and Honor had worked together, two Shards against one, shouldn't they have been able to defeat Odium? Why did she let Honor die? I thought maybe it was because of her Intent. Like how Rock refuses to fight because it is beneath him, or how Shin revere those who add. But in Cultivation's case it isn't a cultural influence, she's forced to act a certain way. She can't harm, she can only add. And then I thought of the Tai-na and realized that maybe she does help out, in her own way. What if the Greatshells are not only of Cultivation, but that they work for Cultivation? They collect minerals, and with the help of their bonded Spren pressurize them into crystals capable of holding Investiture (which would fit since "Force Spren" are supposedly of Cultivation). The Greatshells cultivate Gemhearts. Because how else would Surgebinders get Stormlight? Honor provides the troops, Cultivation the supplies. The Surgebinders and the Greatshells could have worked together during the first Desolations. The Kadrix supposedly ride Greathshells, and everyone uses Chulls. Maybe Surgebinders had access to the Gemhearts without needing to kill the beasts (if the beasts let them), and they just collected the Gemhearts of those who died in battle. But over the years the Greatshells evolved into feral beasts like Chasmfiends and "devolved" into Chulls. Now people have to kill them for their Gemhearts. Maybe Cultivation doesn't like Honor's sons anymore ...

I have two theories: 1) The red haze is a Splinter of Harmony that was created by Odium to distract Harmony and weaken him until Odium can kill him. Splinters do not splinter (kill) Shards immediately after all, as Endowment splinters herself all the time (that also befits her intent). Sazed does not recognize it as part of himself because it is part Odium, too (like the Unmade) and he doesn't know what Odium is. The likely intent of the splinter is decay or corruption of some sort, which causes its spikes to rust. 2) The red haze is the eye of a gigantic, enraged shade of a Shard or Sliver. It was enraged when Ruin and Preservation died (when someone drew their blood). It could be the shade of Ati who was a Sliver, or it could be the shade of any splintered (killed) Shard, as shades behave after a set of rules and have nothing in common with their former self except their appearance (and Shards are omnipresent and often look like mists). The fact that it does look like mists makes me think it might be a shade of Leras. We all know Leras went through some serious spiritual maiming to fulfill his plans.

... but what if I store all of my luck in my Chromium and then lose my metalmind because I'm unlucky? I think Harmony should implement an insurance for Chromium Ferrings. Anything else would be unfair.

Oh ... that kind of undermines the need for compounding in my theory (,interally). Since you could just store up your identity for ages and then become a full Feruchemist for a day or so, depending on the amount needed to be "pushed over the edge".

Thanks! Oh, I'd thought both happened at the same time, which is why Miles was so ... strange (him seeing an alternative version of himself at all times). I guess this is easier to manage, too, since you won't have to push on something as a Steel Compounder every time you want to be the Flash.

Hear me out: A Trueself can store "spiritual sense of identity" which might be useful for influencing oneself (e.g. store away your sense of procrastination and get to work), but it could also be used to store away one's sense of being a Mistborn. Pulling on this normally wouldn't do much, you can't become "more Misting". But if the spiritual DNA is anything like normal DNA, it might be that Mistings have the identity of a Mistborn in them, just can't access it all. The same goes for Ferrings and Feruchemy. . So you store away your sense of being a Misting/Mistborn in one metalmind, and your sense of being a Ferring/Feruchemist in another, and then you burn them and the tenfold identity pushes you over the edge and allows you to be a Full Feruchemist for as long as you are pulling identity. Of course, you have to down a vial full of metals afterwards to be useful, as burning aluminum burns all metal reserves, but it seems like this could still be useful. I assume that things stored away while being a Full Feruchemist stay stored away and you just can't access them. This makes effectively storing things extremely difficult, but (EDIT) you can always just compound them as you have full Mistborn powers.