DrakeMarshall

Really? Interesting... That opens up a lot of possibilities.

This. This is literally me. I feel your pain. Unfortunately for you, the nightwatcher does not. Your wish is granted, but in return the nightwatcher gives you a horrible case of insomnia. Which makes for an interesting combo with your determination... I wish for the ability to flip water bottles flawlessly.

I was thinking along similar lines but I see I don't even need to say anything because you covered it Anyway, I also believe Hoid wants to reforge Adolnasium... But I'm not sure how he would feel about connecting himself to Odium. So... Considering that being an Elantrian wouldn't actually be that useful to Hoid, given his existing abilities (and also because I suspect being away from Sel as an Elantrian might be slightly inconvenient)... And considering the fact that I'm not sure if Hoid wants to be connected to all the shards... I must conclude that Hoid has a slightly different plan than what we think. I can really only think of two options here... I feel that Hoid is either grasping every shred of power he can in preparation for some huge plan... Or, perhaps more likely, he is studying all these magics. We see that different magics have powerful interactions (a good example is compounding). With access to the powers from all these places, you might be able to do some very unusual things. He could pretty much hack reality at some point. EDIT: Also how much do we know about Lerasium feruchemy? I saw the WoB that Hoid uses feruchemy to tell when and where important things are going on... Does this imply that Lerasium would somehow relate to predicting the future? In a way, that kind of makes a sort of sense. Atium lets you see the immediate future, which is immensely useful for combat. Lerasium would give you some kind of limited glimpse at the distant future, which wouldn't be very helpful in a fight but would potentially be quite useful in other ways. On the other hand... It seems like prescience has already been explored a fair amount in Sanderson's novels, with atium's power, the future sight of some of the shards, and of coarse Taravangian's diagram. I highly doubt that it is as simple as I am making it out to be.

Talenel was the head of the stonewards though, not the dustbringers. Anyway, I'm not sure we can conclude that a shardblade will make someone's eyes match the associated color of the order of radiants... We haven't seen enough to know this. At any rate, it would be very interesting to see what happens if we get a red-eyed dustbringer showing up. Given that now a great portion of the Alethi army has now had experience with glowing red eyes and what those mean... I suspect more than just the ghostbloods would have a problem with this.

Depends on the number of spikes, and the mental stability the spikes grant. Either way, you will definitely be hearing voices in the future. Just hope they aren't any of the more unsavory shards.

You know how Sanderson frequently puts a sentence or two from a text in his epigraphs? I am picturing what you just typed being in epigraphs for this story. Also nice writing.

They function like an honorblade would in the hands of someone who wasn't fully bonded to it like the heralds were, yes. I feel I should mention that both of these things are nearly identical to what a living shard blade does. Which is what Vasher might have partially based this design off of. So in conclusion, you are absolutely right that these do similar things.

Yes, it is exactly larkin barf I think. But I don't think you could just recall it from the larkin like you would from a lashed object. The stormlight technically isn't yours. I mean, could Kaladin just steal all of Szeth's stormlight when he was fighting him? Not really. I wonder if he could take the stormlight out of an object Szeth lashed though, instead of just lashing in the opposite direction... Interesting considerations. The radiants did occasionally fight between orders so we might see this mechanic developed a little bit.

Marsh x1 (I am pleased to see Marsh doing so well ) Lightsong x1 Taravangian x1 (TERRY!) The Lopen x1 The Stick x1

Ohh that makes a lot more sense now thanks.

...NO! DO NOT CREATE SUCH AN ABOMINATION! Can somebody explain to me what the whole ship name thing is...? I've seen a few of these and I don't get it. Also, reading through some of these I am sad I ran out of upvotes for the day.

Yes I would guess that feeding on investiture doesn't entail releasing it later. Generally eating doesn't imply that you are just holding the stormlight and can regurgitate it up into someone, but rather that you have actually used the stormlight up (well, as much as any form of energy can be used up... it dissipates and returns to the (splintered) shard of honor presumably). In fact, it actually seems like Larkins use stormlight as if... Almost like an opposite of Lift. They take investiture and metabolize as if it were food to sustain themselves. Whereas Lift can convert nutrition to stormlight. As for why Sanderson says this is "more a no than a yes" instead of just saying its a "no"... Well I imagine there might be some way to take the stormlight out of a larkin before it has "digested" it. However, this is definitely not a means of bestowing stormlight on a non-surgebinder I think. I imagine that while it might be possible... Taking stormlight from a Larkin and putting it into someone else would be equally difficult as taking stormlight from a surgebinder and putting it into someone else. It *might* be possible for one surgebinder to try this on another surgebinder (and if it is possible I suspect it would be difficult to do), but the chances that this would work for a normal person are slim to none.

This is very interesting... You see, basically what you are saying is, Brandon has confirmed there to be a way for a non-herald to use the honorblades like a herald did (and Szeth wasn't exhibiting this). So... It seems like Sanderson has deliberately left open the door for a non-herald to effectively become a herald later in the books, no? That would be exciting.

Pretty sure that's one of those weird bird things that used to live on Amia before it was cleared. Rysn got one. Let me look up... Ah! They're called larkins.

Hm... I would predict that specific memories are actually tied to the cognitive realm. But that the effect of those memories on an individual's personality and capacities is tied to the spiritual realm. So... Unless you can use spikes to steal cognitive things as well as spiritual, a memory spike would be difficult. And if you can steal cognitive things via their loose ties to the spiritual, that would open up a whole new field of study. This definitely could use some experimentation with those copper spikes, yes...

Very true. I suspect a herald was probably more powerful than a normal radiant. However, a normal person bonded to an honorblade is apparently weaker than a normal radiant (or even a radiant-in-training).

Feruchemy is myriad. Feruchemy is myopic. Feruchemy is mycenaean. And perhaps my favorite, feruchemy is mycorrhizic. Anyway, with your concert example... I feel that (assuming you aren't compounding) we are still following the laws of feruchemy which means that at most you are going to break even with that luck of yours. So... Probably if you store and expend equal amounts of luck in the time leading up to the concert, overall your chances of getting to the concert couldn't be any better. In your example, it probably wouldn't be able to cancel the concert and then move it to your house. That's a net gain of luck. I would bet that the luck you stored when the concert got cancelled would only be roughly capable of getting the concert rescheduled as if you hadn't interfered, but not giving you a net gain. This, however, assumes that during this time your chances of getting to the concert are uniform. In actuality, only a small number of moments in this span of time actually matter with regard to getting you into that concert. So... If you stored luck most of the time and expended it all in the instant where they award the tickets over the radio, maybe it would work. The point I bring up I guess is that timing is very important I think. You can't use luck feruchemy to solve any immediate problems unless you already have a reserve. This is probably a big limiting factor in luck feruchemy, assuming you can't compound. Also, another thing to consider... If the luck is indeed cosmic luck... There would be some interesting interactions between multiple chromium users. If one person wanted the concert cancelled and the other one wanted it to not be cancelled, for example (presumably nothing would happen if they expended an equal amount of luck... or would it do something like cancel it to the public but grant the person who wanted the concert some boon like it moving to their house like you earlier said?)... Also this magic would have to divine what exactly you want to happen by chance, and do that... But maybe you don't know what's best for you? This seems a little arbitrary. Actually the more I look at it, the more difficult it seems it would be to implement cosmic luck. It still sounds awesome of coarse. I'm just not sure Sanderson actually intends it to work like that because it poses some logical challenges.

Ah. That might explain why the character seemed unfamiliar Even so that pewterarm is then an underrated character I think

Hm... Could you use a spike to steal memories from someone?

So many interesting possibilities... Let me list my top three: 1. I might have to agree with Xander and go with Zinc compounder. If you had a ton of zinc (and I might mean a literal ton here) you might well be able to write your own diagram (and do it over and over again with enough zinc, and zinc isn't a very rare metal ). Infinite diagrams definitely gets first place for me. 2. Lets consider what a nicrosil compounder would be capable of. Presumably they could increase the strength of their nicrosil allomancy to extreme levels. Not only could they use compounding to become a stronger nicrosil allomancer, but they could also use compounding to become a stronger nicrosil feruchemist, which would in turn let them compound more. It's a positive feedback loop on top of compounding so they could probably break the limits of even normal compounding. This will have two effects I imagine: First of all... The only usable outlet for all this power is their nicrosil allomancy. They could probably enhance someone else's powers to extraordinarily insane levels for a short burst. Second of all... Containing all that investiture would probably give them some special awareness. I remember Wax described being more aware of investiture when he held the bands of mourning... I think someone like this would have an innate sense of investiture (probably it would feel more like a biochromatic heightening than like burning bronze), just because they themselves are so invested that they are connected to ruin and preservation. Such a person would be pretty useless on their own... But around other magic users their abilities would be incredible. Second place because the idea seems fascinating. 3. Iron compounding would be pretty awesome too. You have as much mass as you need, and you can ironpull. This gives you near limitless destructive ability. You could topple a distant building over without any visible effort. This secures third place for me because this power is just a little insane and it also happens to come from the most common metal in existence.

I hadn't really thought of them (which I suppose proves the point that they are underrated). And yet, you are correct that those two skaa should pretty much qualify as saints in the church of the survivor. Good thinking.

Perhaps yes. This might be why Sanderson placed that at the beginning of his novel. But I think you meant Alendi saying that, not Vin.

Hm... More than just not wasting stormlight keeping up the plate because of a feedback loop... I would like to suggest that wearing plate might actually let you hold stormlight more efficiently (so long as the plate isn't sustaining heavy blows and leaking a lot anyway). This is because, naturally, a radiant leaks stormlight out of their skin, so if their skin is encased in the plate, it might help them contain it all. Even if it doesn't help them contain it all, it could probably fuel itself off of this stormlight radiation from its user's skin, and in the very least not drain any stormlight from it's user during normal operation.

That is a fascinating idea. I feel like the way the Stormfather just sort of summoned a highstorm at the end of Words of Radiance doesn't seem like it's just the arm of a bigger storm, but still, it's an interesting mechanism for how highstorms act.

Either it was that fabrial or one of the many death rattles. The fabrial gives solid evidence that someone can be revived in the way Szeth was. As for death rattles... We have already associated a few of those death rattles with events in Kaladin and Shallan's lives that we have seen so far. And, obviously, a fair number of them explicitly foretell the everstorm. They are prophetic of a lot of the future events. Also... Speaking of prophecy... I know Dalinar was receiving visions of the past, but does anyone else think that the writing on the wall might not be something coming from the stormfather?