DrakeMarshall

Well a major part of his bracers were atium, which is why he was able to be ageless by compounding... That means if they were hemalurgic spikes they could have spiked any attribute. BoM spoiler:

Or you could just use that strand of string as a really deadly garotte... But that's more in the realm of weapons again But anyway if somebody once was able to make a bowstring from a spren, that means that the manifestation of the spren doesn't have to be inflexible. Strings are flexible.

I think that the effects of magic are not so consistent, but note that the source/focus of them always is. This sort of makes sense, because once you have released the raw investiture of a shard, it isn't bound to behave a certain way; it can do anything the user wants it to, but there are different ways to access the power in the first place (which appear to be determined by planet). All Sel powers come from symbols that correspond to geography. All Scadrial powers come from a set of metals/alloys of the correct composition. All nalthis powers appear to be centered on vocal commands. Rosharian powers... That's more difficult. Gemstones? No, those just store the power. Stormlight? Well that's the raw investiture itself, not a means of tapping it. Oaths. Rosharian powers so far as we have seen are all accessed by means of swearing oaths, and more importantly keeping the oaths. That is interesting... Because unlike the others, which seem arbitrary, swearing an oath actually seems to be related to the intent of honor.

Pretty sure Taravangian is formally part of the diagramists, his own group... I believe the sons of honor is a secret society that is at odds with the diagramists.

"I am a stick." Would you rather have a highstorm hit where you are in the world (taking into account that people on earth would not be prepared for weather like that) or have ash falls start occurring?

Just logged on and I am loving the new look.

This is mostly just a bunch of speculation about the possible ways forgery works. But basically, the question is, when forging something, what qualifies as a single object? What if you had a box with something inside of it. If you soul stamped the box, could you alter the contents? Or what if one of the heritage faction's forged vases had it's handle broken off. Would the forgery come undone? The vases state in to pieces is certainly believable since you saw it break... Or what if there were too completely different objects, but you really strongly associated them together? Could you soul stamp one and effect both? What counts as a "single object" is a bit arbitrary given that any given object is just a bunch of atoms stuck together and the unity of a given material is relative (for example a table which Shai forged was probably made out of different pieces of wood). And if you could place your soul stamp onto one thing and effect a different object... This makes soul forgery a lot more powerful. Forging two "objects" with one stamp would probably be extremely difficult, since you would have to view them as a single object... But again, what constitutes a single object is sort of a blurry line, so the potential is still significant.

Also if we take into account all the new metals we haven't actually seen a full mistborn / feruchemist use (other than one individual I won't name), feruchemy probably does have more potential in combat if you want it. I would always rather be a kandra than a koloss I think. And chances are I would probably stay around until post-catacendre anyway. Would you rather that the real world had lesser spren or that it had mists?

Yeah hemalurgy effects spiritual things, not cognitive. I bet with the right hemalurgic spikes and a forgery, you actually could effect an improbably change, yes. If somebody else has some connection that would be improbable for yourself, you might be able to spike them to gain some of their spiritual identity and then use a forgery to complete / smooth over the change you effected. If you spiked traits that were really fundamental to them, you might actually be able to temporarily forge yourself into them. Mind you, while forgery is temporary, spikes are permanent. This means that once you are done using the forgery, you still have a lot of their traits spiked into you indefinitely.

I could probably read WoR quite a few times over, but still that wouldn't really be enough, so probably the second option. Would you rather serve odium or ruin?

This is probably my favorite warbreaker quote (I might have some of the wording wrong since I am just going to write this from memory): "Is there some kind of subtext to this conversation? Because you know I don't like subtexts. They give me a headache." "You're a god. You don't get headaches." "Well I don't get subtexts either." Also, iconic Kelsier quote: "If you’re always on time, it implies that you never have anything better you should be doing."

So it is theoretically possible that chulls and cremlings and such have gemhearts that are just too small to notice? At any rate it seems like Sanderson is implying some kind of symbiosis between the gemheart and the chasmfiend to let the creature become so large and powerful. On roshar, gems can store investiture, so it is quite possible that chasmfiends actually feed off investiture as a way to augment their life force. Possibly the gem actually harvests some stormlight from a highstorm.

It is quite possible that he is working on something else... But honestly these things happen. In writing, sometimes you randomly switch over to working on something that catches your mind, even when you had decided to work on something else. I suppose I would rather Brandon make progress on the next SA book when he is really feeling inspired to do so. Even if I would love to see oathbringer coming out soon. For that matter I also look forward to Rothfuss's third book.

A shardblade. The average lifeless is, while certainly better than a normal soldier, not as powerful as a shardblade, and come to think of it a lot more creepy. A shardblade on the other hand is worth fighting wars over on a planet like roshar, and capable of slicing through more or less anything. Would you rather have the third heightening or be a tin savant?

Interesting. Well thanks. Also, slightly related, though less likely to have an answer out there... I believe somewhere it has been said that people from planets other than nalthis don't possess any biochromatic breath. Does this mean that their perception of the colors around them paralells that of someone with a single breath, or that of a drab?

Maybe if you tried tapping away your hearing with tin and storing your breath in an article of clothing to diminish your senses that extra fraction you would have better luck?

This may be because the last cosmere book I have read was SH, but I am definitely going to have to say ruin. The sheer scale and design of what ruin did made for an incredible antagonist, albeit one who was not morally complicated (well, not very anyway, but we do know that once upon a time Ati was actually a very decent person).

Could a drab become returned?

Hm... Granted. You can have it. As your bane to make it a fair trade, the nightwatcher loads it with cayenne pepper. A lot of it. I wish for an instinctive knowledge of the time of day and my location.

Granted! As a bonus, I will give you the recording from my trial as well. In which I was summoned before a court of sentient raccoons for disturbing the peace with my pet chasmfiend, and subsequently incarcerated for a week or so as per being found guilty on all counts. Your bane is, the footage from my trial starts a whole slough of conspiracy theories about raccoons and aliens, and since the footage miraculously appeared to you, a lot of conspiracy types think you are an alien or something. They keep bothering you about it. I wish to destroy some evil today.

I'm not sure if all the shards have a color so to speak... Especially since with 16 shards there is bound to be overlap. But it seems that shards do have color affiliations, like ruin being associated with black, and preservation white. There are numerous instances of this, most of which you have already pointed out. It just seems to me that odium favors the color red. The voidbringers are notably dominated by a red color scheme, red lightning, a red everstorm... I'm not saying that the instances of red eyes in BoM is odium at all... I think Sanderson might want to make us think that... But it is worth noting the red eyes and their obvious affiliations. It could straight up be odium meddling.

Well we know that there is some kind of shard (or similar force?) that is hostile to Scadrial. Not only is there the glowing red-eye creature in bands of mourning, but there is also the vision Sazed shows Wax. And odium so far as we know does favor the color red. Some shards appear to have color preferences (I wonder what endowment's favorite color is, given how closely tied colors are to nalthis magic...) But it could be a totally different shard than odium, especially since odium is already rather busy I think, and because Rayse is scared of Sazed last I checked. And considering the fact that it can actually be concerning to Sazed, who holds two shards, it could be more than simply a hostile individual shard.

...and through all of this theory I seem to have forgotten about Gavilar's sphere... Which I would say is a bit important. There is some confirmation that this artifact is of another shard. http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1078#9 So chances are, Gavilar's agenda is closely tied to that of an interfering shard. Odium perhaps (it would make some sense if he was trying to restore the voidbringers), but more likely a new shard. One that isn't invested on roshar particularly, but appears to be meddling in some ways...

Hm... It was mars, and mars almost certainly does have gold deposits. And I have an empire of sentient raccoons to help me mine it. So I'll take it. As for not being able to abide eating anything that is green... Don't I already have that? So cool, I'll take it. Alright... Granted. You are an inkheart. And all that entails in the book. Your bane is... Whenever you see words you compulsively read them aloud. Good luck, friend. You will need it. Especially since right now you are reading posts on the 17th shard. I wish to own a tamed chasmfiend who is friendly to both humans and sentient raccoons...

Hm... The nightwatcher believes in fair trades. So... Granted. Your previous two banes are revoked. You no longer have to iterate letters at the beginning of each sentence, and kissing no longer makes you nauseous. Your bane is that you now have a stutter, and also you no longer have the capacity to feel empathy. I wish to be made a gold feruchemist.