Three1415

This is a good point--although aluminum seems to be Investiture-neutral in most universes, we still aren't sure exactly how it interacts with Rosharan Surgebindings. Unusually, it can be Soulcast (notably, that's the only way to produce it in-universe), so it does not seem unreasonable that it would also interact with other Cognitive-Realm based transforms (e.g, Shardblades).

Electrum is weird, for a number of reasons. For example, it allows you to see shadows of yourself in the future...but are those shadows also acting as if they are burning electrum, and seeing their shadows? Because then you are seeing your future selves react to their future selves, who are reacting to their future selves, who are reacting to their future selves... If Twinborn are allowed, I would like to see an A-Electrum/F-Zinc combination: Flare electrum while deep-tapping zinc during combat, and use the combination of improved mental speed and intuition to reconstruct future events from your electrum shadows--a kind of pseudo-atium. If not, I still want to see an Electrum savant, as it would probably still be very interesting.

I'm pretty sure that black sphere is Nergaoul's embodiment in the Physical Realm (Nergaoul is the Unmade responsible for the Thrill). It's notable that the Thrill has always been particularly potent in Alethkar, which would be consistent with Nergaoul having long resided there, as well as Alethkar's near-continuous conflict. Likewise, when in WoR Taravangian and his followers arrive in Vedenar, Adrotagia notes that the Thrill seems to have become much more powerful there, and suggests that Nergaoul is likely nearby, which could itself be a result of Szeth hiding the sphere away in the kingdom.

It should be noted that Restares appears to be a high-ranking member of the Sons of Honor (Amaram's secret society), not the Ghostbloods; the two organizations are unlikely to be on friendly terms considering the Ghostbloods tried to have Amaram assassinated. Likewise, they harbor deep misconceptions about what actually happened to the Heralds, and organizations with such limited knowledge (unless, of course, they are being manipulated somehow) are unlikely to have Worldhoppers, seeing as the latter by virtue of their nature are inclined to know far more about Cosmere-scale events than the average Shardworld denizen.

So overpowered, in fact, that they basically break the plot of TFE....(Also, F-Atium is by far the most useless Feruchemical ability without Compounding, but one of the most useful with it...Curious). Let's also take a moment to note that tin and pewter are unique in that they can be doubly Compounded, as their Allomantic benefit is very similar to their Feruchemical one (A-Pewter: Strength, durability, dexterity; F-Pewter: Strength...Roughly the same with tin), so one in theory gains the allomantic boost on top of the already massive feruchemical enhancement, making it even more ridiculous than it already is.

This seems likely, as it would also explain Lift's name for him (Darkness), and it is simply too similar to Shallan's use of Lightweaving to really believe they are different powers.

I concur on this point. He's probably using Basic Lashings to get around quickly, and he has an entire organization (I don't think Roshar has enough secret organizations at this point ) devoted to doing his work. Also, like the other Heralds, he's probably been driven completely mad after thousands of years of torture. In my mind, the Heralds are far more potent with the Honorblades than even the strongest members of their respective orders. After all, they are basically immortal god-kings charged with preparing humanity against extinction-level threats; one would naturally assume they'd be pretty powerful. Likewise, they are almost certainly physically, and presumably mentally, enhanced as well (after all, we see Taln, even in his maddened state, pluck blowdarts from the air with his bare hands in a dark room), so they should be quite strong indeed.

I've always interpreted F-Zinc as storing intelligence (i.e, more stupid when storing, more genius when tapping) rather than processing speed, because we have pretty conclusive evidence that that's not really what happens; F-Steel is what gives you bullet time. It's quite possible, of course (and indeed Brandon suggests it) that processing speed is overlapped between them, so I imagine it's a sort of middle ground (i.e, being smarter allows you to sort through possibilities faster, but being physically faster gives you more time to do it). So I imagine that when storing both you both become somewhat dumber (that's what we mean when we saw someone is 'a little slow,' after all) and see the world as sped up.

Ah, I thought you guys already knew about Rebellium and Empirium! Autonomy's and Dominion's godmetals, right?

Awesome. While that's not necessarily direct proof that Threnody was the 4th Splintered Shard, it's certainly pretty convincing evidence. Plus, shades of your relatives/the dead definitely seem like something a Sorrow/Mourning shard would be responsible for, although I imagine that since Threnody's splintering they might have been corrupted by Odium.

Hmm....Personally, I see the most value in Awakening + Forgery. While it might not seem like this is as stupendously powerful as Surgebinding+Feruchemy, Awakening is almost infinitely scalable by itself; we know how powerful Nightblood is with only 1000 Breaths. What if I used 100,000 Breaths? A million? Likewise, Forgery is highly abusable, and I can imagine a number of applications for it (Are those your Lifeless? Ha ha ha, not anymore!), particularly in conjunction with Awakening (take Lifeless, Stamp it with a Forged soul: Instant companion!). Plus, these two seem to have the highest "skill ceiling," if you will; they are both essentially scholarly in nature, and can be tailored to a wide number of applications with sufficient knowledge and intelligence.

The theory of "saving up and then unleashing all at once" seems to be supported by the dates we see in one of the Diagram epigraphs; there is a long period of regular intervals between the numbers, and then a massive gap between the next two (I can't find the dates themselves, sadly), but the book strongly implied they were somehow related to the Desolations. This delay could also have been responsible for breaking the Heralds, as they would have been continuously trapped on Braize for the entirety of the interim period.

The problem with this explanation is that it also makes no sense. The main reason for this is that, contrary to what the media likes to say, the Higgs mechanism is responsible for very little of the actual mass of particles; indeed, for protons and neutrons, the Higgs field contributes only about 1% of this quantity. The rest exists in the form of the kinetic energy of the confined quarks, which are zipping around at enormous velocities in their strong nuclear force "cages." Indeed, if one were to store this interaction, all one would accomplish is detonating oneself like a nuclear bomb by converting a considerable fraction of one's mass into energy before disintegrating into a rapidly attenuating spray of mesons. Now, devising a realistic explanation for how storing gravity would work is also difficult, but that's partially because no one really knows how gravity does anything anyway... Again, since this is a magical system designed on an "effect first, reasoning second" basis, I highly doubt anything is really going to make much sense, but at the very least we can avoid disseminating explanations that pretend to be valid but actually aren't.

Personally, I'm going to stick with the "Odium & Autonomy" theory--after all, we keep hearing about "the men in red and gold." As far as I can tell, each Shard has a characteristic color associated with it; e.g, Odium is red (think Voidspren, Voidbringers, etc., whose magic presumably derives from him), Honor is blue (Stormlight), Preservation is white (the mists), Ruin is black (referenced a lot in M:SH)... We haven't seen enough of Bavadin to know what "color" he is, but gold is definitely a possibility. We know from WoB that Rayse and Bavadin have allied before to make war on another Shardworlds, and with Odium apparently confined to Roshar for whatever reason, it would make sense he'd need some help to deal with the double-Shard Harmony. In my mind, all this points to an alliance between the two of them; Odium is providing much of the potency for the assault (the red haze around Scadrial that Sazed shows Wax), but Autonomy is generally overseeing it and working to destabilize the world as a whole (just think of Bleeder's actions, the independence movements brewing in the outer cities, etc.).

As pointed out by others, the magnitude of the buoyant force does not by itself have anything to do with one's density. However, the magnitude of one's weight does, and since this is the force buoyancy is opposing, one only floats if one's density is less than that of material one is in. Another thing: I don't know what Brandon has said about this, but the concept of altering mass while leaving density unchanged makes zero sense unless one is growing or shrinking to compensate. That's like saying I can remove thermal energy from something without cooling it down, or fill a cup without raising the water level inside. Now, as Brandon is a writer, not a physicist, I don't blame him for not really having this thoroughly or consistently laid out, but as of now the exact effects of Feruchemical Iron change more or less according to the situation Wax is in, with numerous contradictions between chapters and between books. As such, it is probably impossible to develop a coherent mechanism for iron that fits all written material, because one just doesn't exist. That being said, however, there are two possibilities for iron's operation: 1: Iron stores mass. There are a number of issues with this mechanism, because it can lead to ludicrous effects at high levels of tapping or storage, particularly the latter--e.g, one could easily get flung about at ludicrous accelerations and speeds, and at maximum storage one would jump immediately to the speed of light and basically cease to exist. Nonetheless, this is the explanation I see most often, and it does have some merit, but personally I don't particularly like it. 2: Iron stores gravity. I haven't actually seen this proposed before, but to me this makes the most sense. This would allow Wax to be lighter, and more or less float around as he does so often, but would keep his inertia the same, avoiding the problems that plague mass storage, and would prevent weirdness with Conservation of Momentum. Wax being harder to move when tapping would be explainable as an increase in friction, which more or less keeps everything where it is anyway, and so would be difficult to distinguish from actually being more massive. Of course, he would still be crushed flat when tapping heavily, but both of these systems have this problem without a commensurate increase in strength anyway, so we just have to assume that's what happens.

You see, the reason why most of you think Compounding in general in not horribly broken is because you are trying to apply it via the "Compounder = normal human + awesome power" philosophy, when in reality it would be more like "Compounder = GOD LEVEL POWER + [barest trace of human limitations]." If I were a Gold Compounder in combat, I wouldn't use guns, or swords, or any real weapons. I would get several bandoliers filled with a few dozen sticks of dynamite and toss them indiscriminately at whoever got within thirty feet of me. Guy with net? Boom! Pulser? Boom! Any suspicious-looking human? Boom! No non-Compounder should be able to get close enough to disable you, because you can do things so ludicrously destructive and suicidal that no-one without Gold Compounder powers should be able to withstand even a second or two near you. The reason Miles was defeated so easily is because he was an idiot as a plot requirement, and because even Brandon rarely considers how exploitable his magical systems are. Likewise for Steel Compounders--sleep somewhere else. And by "somewhere else" I mean "run several hundred miles in a random direction and pitch camp." No one will be able to follow or find you, and you don't have to be physically present to assert your power if everyone knows any opposition towards you will be mercilessly slaughtered a few minutes after news reaches you or you return the following morning. The above god-levels of power are accorded to any of the following Compounders: Steel, Gold, Duralumin, Nicrosil, Pewter, and Zinc. And saying that they are "rare" is ludicrous; Elendel is stated to have a population of above a million, which is only a fraction of that of the rest of Scadrial, so even incredibly unlikely occurrences are bound to happen at least once or twice--and here, once or twice is enough to break pretty much everything.

From an objective, in-world standpoint, I really hate Compounding. I think it makes all logic fly out the window; it utterly annihilates any semblance of realism in the Mistborn world. Any Compounder that works with any of the more useful Feruchemical abilities is so much more vastly powerful than even a Twinborn that they could easily install themselves as another Lord Ruler; a Gold Compounder is already at ludicrous strength, and a Steel Compounder is so laughably overpowered that they could do anything they wanted, whenever they wanted, without any concern for anything ever again. Combining this with the fact that we know people in the previous books (e.g, the Lord Ruler, Steel Inquisitors) should have been able to Compound, it also raises the question how any of the protagonists managed to do anything at all, ever, and why a Steel Compounder does not currently rule Scadrial. Personally, I think Brandon has dug himself into a pretty deep hole here, as Compounding has been mentioned too often to simply be retconned, but is too powerful to simply conveniently pretend that no-one else has figured out how to abuse it yet (Miles did, after all)...I really don't see a way he can fix his magical system anymore, and indeed I would much rather have preferred Compounding had never been introduced at all.

Depending on how Brandon interprets how Feruchemical Brass works, that may or may not be a valid point. If F-Brass allows you to absorb ambient heat (which I consider most likely), then from a thermodynamics perspective there is no difference between being on fire and standing in a warm room other than the rate of heat transfer, and because there is no "tax" on rapidly filling a metalmind (no external cost), this should in theory allow one to do as I said. Of course, even if Brandon decides to go this route (if we ever see a Firesoul Ferring, anyway), he might decide that the above is too overpowered and limit it somehow ( I consider this most likely). Beyond this is the possibility that F-Brass only allows you to absorb internally produced heat, which admittedly is completely useless; the human body generates only about 100 Watts in heat, and you would only be able to fill with a small fraction of this without your body temperature dropping rapidly (not to mention that this would do basically nothing even if tapped quickly)...I simply cannot see any power in Scadrial's magical system being this useless...

So, obviously, at the end of WoR, Szeth is invited by Nin/Nalan to join the Skybreakers. However, instead of bonding a spren, he gives him what appears to be Nightblood from Warbreaker. This is fairly terrifying in its own right, but as far as we know Szeth has not bonded a spren. Does that mean Nightblood can by himself grant Skybreaker abilities? Or is Szeth going to have both another spren and Nightblood? This has probably already been discussed, but I couldn't find any readily available information about it, so I was curious. I am inclined to think that Nightblood will work as an Honorblade, because his behavior is quite similar--he will feed on Stormlight instead of Breaths, I imagine, and is in that way the same; if that is true, however, how does Nalan ensure Szeth gets Radiant abilities? ....Also, Nightblood+Division Surge+Lashings (I assume)...Szeth is going to be so overpowered...

Hmmm, wait a minute. Just realized something--in Words of Radiance, Wit/Hoid is tuning his guitar-thing before playing to the imprisoned Kaladin, and mutters, "Now, perfect pitch makes this all so much easier than it once was..." That could imply he has achieved the 5th Heightening, or is himself Returned (or, according to my personal interpretation, he has Hemalurgically Spiked a bunch of people, probably including a Returned, and has just combined their powers). That would definitely explain the whole "immortality" thing he has... As for me, the whole "Returned on Roshar" thing is obviously the easiest, but being full Elantrian would be fairly cool as well (same with being a kandra).

Well, let's just reflect for a moment that A-Steel + F-Brass makes you the Human Torch. Brass is another Feruchemical power that is useful both ways--in my opinion, if it can be abused as heavily as reason tells me it can, it may be the second-most powerful Feruchemical ability (behind Steel, of course), and then only just. Feruchemy has a way of providing you "required secondary powers" when burst-tapping a metalmind--for example, tapping iron gives you enough additional strength to avoid flattening yourself, Steelrunners get a boost to cognitive speed (like F-zinc, I suppose) so that they can take coordinated action while in "super-speed" mode, etc. So it follows that tapping Brass can allow you to superheat your body (i.e, to red-hot levels, if you tap it fast enough) without negative side effects (such as...well, death). Because it also allows you to store ambient heat, you can in theory do something like light yourself on fire, then store that heat and use it to burn even hotter, so that you can just throw molten metal at things. Or melt through steel doors. Or just become a human lightsaber. Brass is so abusive (at least, it suggests that it is) because it is basically a self-Compounder. Combine this with Coinshot abilities, and not only can you fling superheated globs of molten metal at your opponents at enormous speeds, you can do so while flying through the sky with impunity. So, other than A-Bendalloy + F-Steel, this may be the single most overpowered combination in the Mistborn universe (besides the Compounders, of course. Steel in particular would just be so ludicrously overpowered that such a Compounder would just be able to take over the world, as he or she is essentially Quicksilver...Or Nicrosil...Or maybe even Zinc...Anyway, how in the Cosmere did Vin actually kill TLR? Alas, Brandon, you've broken your magic system! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh) Anyway. Yes, A-Steel, F-Brass. (Although I would prefer Zinc Compounder, if possible.)

Well, Wax did, while chasing Paalm around, fill his Ironmind to gain increased bursts of speed. Brandon has been really inconsistent with the exact effects of Skimming (Iron Feruchemy), with several contradictory comments throughout each Mistborn series, but it makes sense that this would be a subtle but important effect that could likely be the result of such "perks"--doubtless it could be further expanded upon, and would yield a more major result if Wax thought to experiment more.

I am new here (as you can probably see), so I have no idea whether or not this has already been proposed, but could this be what Hoid/Wit is trying to do by worldhopping so much? I can completely see him spiking random people and acquiring powers from around the Cosmere, and I remember him saying in WoR that he "will let the world burn to get what [he] need"--I could see that as inducing Desolations in order to get Surges to manifest so that he could steal them. He also appears quite nonchalant about things like being impaled by a Shardblade, and he can world-hop in the first place, so perhaps he has already acquired some of the other Shardworld's powers... This would also fit with the WoB; if Wit were trying to do something like "reforging Adonalsium" by acquiring all the powers from around the Cosmere, Hemalurgy would indeed be of great importance to its future, not to mention explaining why the 17th Shard (I mean the actual in-Cosmere organization, of course, not the forums ) is trying to track him down.