Eki

No, they did indeed mean one of the epigraphs, not the epilogue. We've only seen one letter from Hoid though. The other letter is addressed TO him.

Ah, ok, you meant like that! I didn't even notice what the topic title was before I replied, so my answer looks really weird now. Oops! But to reply with the right context this time, I think Brandon has stated that the shard we call the Survival shard only has a mandate that's tangentially (or not at all? I don't remember) related to "Survival" in and of itself. It could be Wisdom or Solitude or something like that instead. I guess the shard could still have stealth abilities. If I was a shard that wanted to be stealthy, I wouldn't leave a Perpendicularity on a planet where I was staying though. I wouldn't want any physical evidence of my presence.

In SH,

Khriss' essay in AU says there is no shard in the system (though it was of course written long before Sixth of the Dusk takes place). There are theories that there used to be one there, which Invested to create Patji's Eye, but then left for whatever reason.

Doesn't Lift say she's never been to the Reshi Isles? I'm pretty sure Wyndle even asks her about that. She also said that things changing was fine, but she wasn't supposed to. It's one of her introspective moments in Edgedancer, but I don't remember exactly when.

One of the reasons Wyndle gives as to why the Ring chose Lift was that she had been blessed by their Mother, so I assume no bonding started until after. I guess they could have watched her before then, but...

We know atium still exists and works, because Marsh is using some of it (which we saw him steal from a kandra during HoA) to keep himself alive through compounding. Most, if not all, of the remaining atium was burned by the mistfallen at the end of HoA. We don't know if there are new Pits creating atium again after the Final Ascension. Because atium works, I assume lerasium does too, but there might not exist any at the moment.

Fairly sure he's confirmed there is no connection. Kaladin is Kalak + din. It means 'born unto eternity'.

Possibly, but unfortunately Harmonium is extremely volitile, so you probably don't want a Harmoniummind touching your skin... I doubt it. If that was the case, Hoid has had access to lerasium for a very long time, and probably wouldn't have any big reason to take an additional bead.

There is a theory that lerasium would work as a metalmind for any attribute, just like atium can be used to steal anything in Hemalurgy. The main argument against this is of course that lerasium is Preservation's metal, and not both shards'.

Well, in the case of Nightblood, the sword itself got to somewhat interpret the Command as well, since it was its own Cognitive entity. I doubt Shashara intended for Nightblood to turn out the way it did (even if she did seem pleased with the result). And I would definitely say you can interpret protecting as including illnesses, and even age to some extent.

Well, "spren" is kind of the Rosharan word for "splinter", except they behave in certain ways on Roshar. So a Rosharan native who studied Seons on Sel would probably already call them a variety of spren. Whether they would give any new Surges if they went to Roshar... It's possible. You might not even need to do any "hacking".

I don't see why there would be any contradiction... First of all, the Well was still around, and I don't think we know if Vin releasing the power also disabled that Perpendicularity (or if it did, for how long). But more importantly, Sazed reshaped the world completely. His Ascension may even have created a third shardpool (though if so, it is most likely in the South). We've had something very shardpool-like described in one of the broadsheets of SoS, and that seemed to be a much more ordinary pool than for example the Well. There are a lot of ways to explain how there could be a Perpendicularity in the post-ash world, while still having the Pit one be destroyed (temporarily or not).

I agree. I'm sure the Perpendicularity would come back (or become strong enough) over time, as the Pits recovered. And who knows what Sazed did after his Ascension. We don't even know *how* Kelsier destroyed it. Was it enough to smash the geodes, or did smashing the geodes do something that made the Cognitive Realm too dangerous to access? In the latter case, there could be a shardpool that wasn't destroyed with the geodes, but it was impossible to reach it.

Is it? If that's the case, why not just increase it to begin with? It seems much more likely to me that he saved it either for experimentation or possibly Feruchemy. Or for any of the other uses of lerasium we don't know about.

SH spoiler:

It is though, because the planet doesn't lose any energy from the exchange. That said, since Investiture never seems to be "used up", I would say anything that adds energy to the Cosmere by using only Investiture would count as creating energy from nothing. I don't see how two Skimmers create Investiture though?

We know from a WoB that (most) non-Nalthians are less Invested than a normal Nalthian with one Breath, and that the same Nalthian without a Breath would be less so.

I think there is a WoB that lerasium works Feruchemically, but not how.

I think Awakening was "discovered" by a Returned who gave away their Breath to someone, healing them. Returned can see glimpses of the Spiritual Realm, and often "know" when it is time for them to fulfill their purpose. That, together with their Heightening, probably gave them the understanding of what they could do. Once people knew that was a thing, they would probably try it, even if they weren't Returned themselves. It would not produce the effect they wanted (healing), but it would do something. (And it wouldn't kill them, which is a plus.) Eventually they would try to use it to save a Returned (who would normally always die on the eighth day), and it would give that Returned another week to live. Eventually, enough people worshiped Returned to keep them continuously alive, which could potentially allow them to reach further Heightenings. That in turn would give them a better understanding of the power, and could lead them to discover other Commands. Once they did, the field was open.

Yeah, I'm sure the higher ups in the different places really did know about the other Empires all along, but as Khriss says, they kind of pretend the others are insignificant (at least to their subjects) because they don't really want to deal with them. And it is likely that the revival of Elantris would make Wyrn look for allies in other places. I doubt they would try attacking Elantris, especially so soon after their previous failed assault. But they would be wary. Whether or not they were involved in the assassination attempt... hard to say. It's possible.

There is a (not at all confirmed) theory that Compounding copper can be used to copy a memory in some way. So potentially he could still have it. If he doesn't, that would be very interesting, as that might mean it was something he didn't want to remember. I doubt Wax would put the memory back. But we don't know if he tapped the whole Mind (after all, the scene cuts off when Wax is shocked by Kelsier's arms or whatever - the memory may have continued. But that would also mean he continuously tapped the memory as he "experienced" it, which doesn't seem to be how pure information is stored and retrieved. So maybe he did tap the whole thing at once, but we only got to read up until the moment Wax was shocked. But it's weird, because memories tend not to be "stories" as such... I dunno).

Where is it stated that Kelsier was a savant? I can't think of anything about him that would imply that... I mean, he was really good at Steel and Iron, but not in savant-y ways, I don't think.

Finished AU a few days ago, so now I'm pretty much caught up on the Cosmere (less White Sand - I probably won't get that until all volumes are out)! I also started The Broken Kingdoms by N K Jemisin, and it's pretty good so far. On par with the first book, I feel. When I'm done with that trilogy I'll either try to finish some other series (I leave way too many of them hanging), or get The Fifth Season, which seems like a very interesting book.

Exactly. The weaker Allomantic potential of the general population of Classic Scadrial probably also contributed, in the rare cases where Terris did mix with others back then. I don't think we know if Allomancy actually weakens the Feruchemy gene or just weakens the actual manifestation of it (by turning people into Ferrings), though. Could be either, but I'm guessing the latter. We also don't know if it's a result of general weakening (like weaker Allomancers become Mistings instead of Mistborn) or if there is a specific kind of interference that turns full Feruchemists into Ferrings instead. Again, I'm guessing the latter (or a combination), since there probably would have been more Ferrings in the past if it was just a matter of lower potential, and not something else as well. But I'm pretty sure there is also a WoB that being born both a full Feruchemist and a Mistborn is literally impossible, and must be achieved through other means (such as using the Well, in Rashek's case). Can't find that WoB though. But that's one of the things people mean when they say there is a conflict in the sDNA - that the two traits that would lead to a Mistborn or a Feruchemist cannot be passed down together to a single person. (Presumably, if this "would have" happened, you'd either get a Mistborn Ferring, a Misting Feruchemist, or a Twinborn instead, but who knows.) If anyone can actually find if this WoB exists, I'd be grateful!